OS: WinXP SP2
Board: ABIT Duramax AA8 w/ intel 3.0ghz prescott LGA775 (oc'd to ~3.225ghz before cmos clear)
HD: Seagate SATA 7200 120GB (main), " " " 80GB (secondary), 250gb external
RAM: 2x512 DDR2-4200 Corsair ValueRam
Video Card: 6600gt
Most components purchased over 1.5 years ago, so most warranties expired.
***
Let's rewind to the beginning - last wednesday, I came home with my lovely computer. It was pretty filthy and smelled of cigar smoke, so I figured I'd give it a good cleaning. I did a pretty swell job of cleaning it up too. I hook it up and boot it up - no dice! No video, no nothing. I do some basic troubleshooting and eventually get it to reboot upon reseating the RAM. There's a good chance I knocked it loose cleaning it, I suppose.
So for the rest of wednesday AND THROUGH thursday we're happy as a clam. Runs like a charm. Early friday afternoon I wake up to find that it's booting, but not loading Windows. I've had this happen occasionally, so I just reboot it - still nothing! This problem is different from wednesday's because it boots, it just hangs randomly at some point in the Windows load.
I figure maybe I pwned my hard drives, so I decided to pop in my DUBCD disk with MiniPE XT on it. That doesn't boot either. I even go as far as disconnecting the hard drives to isolate the problem for sure - MiniPE still won't boot. So I give a very defeated sigh and whip out the XP disk, preparing to run (shield your eyes if you're weak) - system recovery. Of course, the XP installer just stops before I even get to select a thing.
This is the point where I become very worried
I'm pretty adept at solving such problems, but I've ran myself into a corner. I tried a few things over a course of a few hours involving CCMOS, RAM reseats, and video card reseats and I finally get it to boot. It's a tad sluggish, but it works through the night. I turn it off and go to sleep after a night out
Saturday comes, and it's back to the same situation as Friday afternoon - no windows boot. I try the same steps over and over as I did on Friday and still no luck at all. In fact, the situation worsens as I apparently fried my own video card and no longer get any signal. To make matters worse, I'm watching the yankees lose on TV.
I pop in a crummy video card and find for sure that the other video card was definately toasted. As with friday, I am occasionally able to boot into safe mode - my data is fine.
Eventually I decide to give it a rest at sometime on Saturday and figure I can just use my server to work out of while I think of some things. In the meantime, I cobble together enough spare parts to convert a 64mb/600mhz/10GB Presario into a dandy Ubuntu machine. I had a lot of fun playing with it for the rest of saturday and some of sunday.
I wake up today and decide to give the shit a try - no dice yet again. Time to order some new parts. The problem is, I can't really tell if it's the RAM or the Motherboard or what? I know I need a new video card for sure, but the other part of the problem is what's worrying me the most. I was able to get Memtestx86 to load and the RAM appears to be okay, but I'd like some more heads to think on this one.
****
Timeline:
Wednesday: No boot at all, reseat RAM =>> boots, works great
Thursday: Works great all day.
Friday: No Windows load, no bootable CDs load right, occasional safe mode, works somewhat great after several RAM/Card reseats and CMOS resets
Saturday: Same as friday, video card now fried, still nothing
Sunday: Gave it a rest
Monday: Same as Friday, still occasional safe mode
****
ATM it looks like my best option is to at least start with replacing the video card and then the RAM - if that doesn't work, then get a new motherboard. Money isn't a huge issue (as in like, $300 is chill) - and time isn't that much of a factor either. I'm pretty patient
Thanks in advance for your help
Memtestx86 = Nothing
System Restore = Nothing
I've been told maybe I just had a crummy mobo all along (windows not loading properly was reported by someone else I know; mobo was the fix) and maybe the card isn't toasted just yet.
I can definately get into safe mode almost every time. That would most nearly indicate a software issue in my mind, yet as I said - sysrestore did nothing. Also, whenever I restart via safe mode, it just hangs on the logout screen.