After waiting for almost an hour for an operator, one finally came. I described my issue (quite a messy situation it seems), the operator proceeded to delete the contents of my %temp%, checked my page file settings, toggled a few things on msconfig, but them overall he seems to have gotten stuck. The issue that made me seek assistance involves random crashes (can’t trigger predictably) but none happened while we were in session, i inquired about investigating the system log for clues on what was going on, but he couldn’t understand the error messages (it’s a Brazilian Portuguese install of WinXP), he asked me to change the language of the OS, i tried doing so, but it remained in Portuguese, i asked him if he was sure it was possible to change the language without installing the OS over using a install disk made for a different language and he told me yes. But after a quick trip to google.com i found out only English WinXP can have it’s language changed, WinXP made for other languages are stuck.
So after a set of procedures any neighbor’s kids would know, i’m left with the task of procuring an English WinXP install disk and reinstalling over the OS (which i don’t doubt will involve hours wasted reinstalling drivers and updates and changing settings back to my preference again) in order to be able to get any further assistance; needless to say i’m a bit disappointed…