Just a short update on the first situation mentioned below. Surprisingly enough a few days after the incident happened the computer was tested in the tech shop and found to be in perfect working order. Even the monitor was fine. One of the lab technicians checked the process again to make sure there were no more screws loose; he found quite a few were rather loose.
In either case the computer is fine, hard drive and all.
Now if I could just convince one of my friends to switch out of Windows ME.