300W is fairly basic and this brand sounds Chinese (only guessing). I suppose it depends what you want to do with it.
Occasionaly, a computer locking up due to heat (from dust) will leave a corrupted file system and you'll be unable to restart it. Your mother has done well.
CMOS battery?
I googled the company, it is Chinese. I'm not sure if it'll be decent enough to get a good video card. (I'll probably be able to replace my HDD at least. I can get a new PSU once I get the money.) The site says something about being a leading manufacturer, but I'm pretty sure all companies say that.
My hard drive hasn't been chattering since I cleaned it. I only notice it's there when I open a folder with about a thousand files in it.
I'm not sure. It said somethign about booting up the BIOS in safe mode and the CPU. And said F1 if you want to continue anyways, and mom said "press it, it always gives that error when it's unplugged."
There is a variety of card available with cut down specs that uses less power than the best ones. These are easy to find as they have passive (no fan) coolers or are smaller than you'd expect but still use good chipsets. In some places these are the most commonly available types. They may be underclocked and offer 20% less than the original spec for example, but 20% in the scheme of things is negligible (unless you're dealing with a specific borderline performance issue). I choose these cards often. They are usually good performers when compared with integrated graphics, are quiet, consume relatively little power and are relatively inexpensive (under $100).
Excellent.
If you like to go into your BIOS setup and optimise things, you'll appreciate having the battery working. Furthermore, given some time the old battery may corrode.
Games often list chip recommendations on the box (or Google for same).
Most have a simple spring clip. Pull it back with a pen or your fingernail. Wipe your prints off the new battery, put it in at an angle and press the edge down.
That's not the relevant info.
Power cables probably.p.s. No wonder my fan was noisy - it was choked with dust!!!! and the "little black cooling box" was actually another fan.
EDIT: Back on my own puter -- I noticed when I first powered up, it nagged me to reset the CMOS. My mom said to hit F1, since it does that every time the computer's unplugged. Why would that happen? As far as I know, it only happens if it's unplugged.
ANOTHER EDIT: Noobiest question ever -- Inside my PC, I noticed these "ribbons" running from one hardware to another. What are the names of this? I spent the last half-hour trying to search it. I think it might be an IDC ribbon but googling it only brings up pictures of the connectors or are too small to tell.
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