Roight, further testing revealed the only way to fix my pc would be to toss it out of a window and hope the impact of the fall shocks the pieces into working again. *nods*
Luckily one of my mates had a "backup" pc I could use which happens to be almost twice as good a machine as the one that said Kablowey! So I'm back into action!
P4 2400mhz, 1024mb, total of 240gig hdd (means plenty of porn storage!) and a 512mb g4 pro vidcard. Goodie! Means no more CPU lag in UO as well so I should be back in the pvp scene as well (and actually be able to chase people!).
Downside of all that is that now I am able to play a few games I always wanted to play, so less time for UO. Heh