Seriously, at the end of my rope
So, my computer. My dad got it for me for my birthday, it used to be a server at his work.
Mid-august it started occasionally shutting down suddenly. Not a blue screen, not a restart, but the drives would spin suddenly, the screen would go blank and sound would go off, and input did nothing. It didn't happen often at first, but it got steadily more common. I updated drivers, checked for bad sectors, ran virus and spyware checkers, and the problem began growing steadily worse; I started getting Blue Screens of every type, getting errors in my chkdsk runs, and so on. Eventually Carmel recommended I replace my RAM, which I did.
That fixed the problem for about a week, when it started happening again. Again, at first it was tolerable. It happened once a day, or every few days, but the problem got progressively worse, to the state its in now. I resolved to fix it once and for all.
Let me list what I've tried:
Left the computer off overnight (it's not overheating, in fact, it tends to be *worse* after I let it rest).
Running 2 different spyware checkers.
Running 3 different virus scanners.
Replacing my power supply.
Repairing my original windows installation.
Reformatting my primary drive and reinstalling windows.
Creating a secondary installation of windows on another hard drive.
Unplugging my hard drives. (It's happened when any given drive isn't active, I have 3.)
The only things I haven't tried replacing are the motherboard and my video card.
Any ideas for things that won't be in the hundreds of dollars to replace would be greatly appreciated.
*bigsigh*
Mid-august it started occasionally shutting down suddenly. Not a blue screen, not a restart, but the drives would spin suddenly, the screen would go blank and sound would go off, and input did nothing. It didn't happen often at first, but it got steadily more common. I updated drivers, checked for bad sectors, ran virus and spyware checkers, and the problem began growing steadily worse; I started getting Blue Screens of every type, getting errors in my chkdsk runs, and so on. Eventually Carmel recommended I replace my RAM, which I did.
That fixed the problem for about a week, when it started happening again. Again, at first it was tolerable. It happened once a day, or every few days, but the problem got progressively worse, to the state its in now. I resolved to fix it once and for all.
Let me list what I've tried:
Left the computer off overnight (it's not overheating, in fact, it tends to be *worse* after I let it rest).
Running 2 different spyware checkers.
Running 3 different virus scanners.
Replacing my power supply.
Repairing my original windows installation.
Reformatting my primary drive and reinstalling windows.
Creating a secondary installation of windows on another hard drive.
Unplugging my hard drives. (It's happened when any given drive isn't active, I have 3.)
The only things I haven't tried replacing are the motherboard and my video card.
Any ideas for things that won't be in the hundreds of dollars to replace would be greatly appreciated.
*bigsigh*