After two days of struggling, I got my laptop back up and running. I acquired a harddrive and a copy of vista. I went through the trouble of finding the drivers of my laptop since vista didn't have them, only to find that my laptop was mislabeled and i was downloading the wrong ones. Then I found that my g, h, and backspace keys were not working at all, and after some disassembling, I cleaned and "fixed" the keyboard. Now all the keys work. Everything on my computer is working great, but I think I accidentally unplugged a cable in the little speaker/quicktouch button console and now my computer makes no sound whatsoever. It recognizes sound being made and all the volume controls work. Just nothing is coming out. Tomorrow I will check when i have the tools and time. Even if i have to just use headphones, it is still a small victory. Also, a rogue screw that had been rattling around in the laptop fell out.