Your monitor swivels 360 degrees on its own and starts cursing at you. Your keyboard is typing "all work and no play makes Dell a dull boy," over and over.

There's no doubt your PC is possessed by demons. But when you try to exorcise them, you run into something even scarier: technical support. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Getting help with your PC problems can be a regular horror show. Operating system manufacturers slough off product support to hardware makers, who offer the bare minimum of help or point the finger at third-party products. Software vendors try scaring you off by charging more for support calls than they do for their products. Call-center lackeys offer monstrously bad advice--that is, when you can understand what they're saying.

Each day this week, we'll focus on a different tech-support nightmare and tell you what you can do about it. With a little help, you can save the day--and your computer--from the forces of evil.

	Monday's monster: Hold times from hell
	Tuesday's terror: The case of the techie who spoke no English
	Wednesday's witch: Warranty woes
	Thursday's thriller: Attack of the data-eating support zombies
	Friday's fiend: The user who fixed his own computer (and lived to tell the tale)