Hey guys, I need some advice. About three years ago, I built a PC, and it's been great for my purposes. I'm not running the latest games on it, and I don't have a great budget for building a new one until next year. Thus, I've kinda been adding on to it and repairing it as necessary.

I'd noticed for the past year now that if it stayed off for a while, it had a hard time booting into Windows, unless I went and chose "use last known good configuration" in the boot menu. That told me I was probably having some kind of driver issues, or maybe even hardware problems. I'd put it down to some "value" Kingston memory I'd thrown in it a while back.

Now though, things got a lot worse. The onboard gigabit ethernet stopped working. It lit up, and it knew that there was a working connection, but it wouldn't send or receive any packets. Trying to mess around with it in the device manager caused Windows to lock up, so I finally said "fuck it", wiped, and installed Windows 7 instead of XP. Bad move, because whatever stability it had is now gone. 3/4 of the time, it won't even POST now. when it does POST, it'll drop me off at a boot menu (it won't recognize the hard drives!), or, if it finally gets throuh and loads windows, the gigabit ethernet still won't work. (I got it to stabilize and have everything function exactly once.)

It's looking more and more like my motherboard is giving up the ghost, but I was hoping to get additional troubleshooting tips from everybody here. It may end up being the power supply - could I be overloading it? It's only 450W.

Here's the current configuration:

• Case: Antec Sonata 2 Quiet Case - 450W Antec Power Supply
  
• Processor: AMD Athlon64 3700+ (Socket 939)
  
• Motherboard: DFI NF4 Ultra4: Onboard Gigabit ethernet, 6.1 sound, RAID controller
  
• RAM 1: 1 GB (2 x 512MB) OCZ Performance DDR PC-3200 sticks, copper heatsinks
  
• RAM 2: 2 GB (2 x 1GB) Patriot Signature DDR PC-3200 sticks, no heatsink
  
• Hard Drive 1: Western Digital 74 GB Raptor, 10,000RPM
  
• Hard Drive 2: Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Blue, 7,200RPM
  
• Video Card: MSI-7800 GTX PCI-X, 256 Mb DDR3
  
• Optical Drive: Pioneer 110BK DVD +/- RW

Things I've already tried:

• Taking out one set of my mismatched RAM sticks and booting solely with the other, and the reverse
• Booting with just one of the hard drives connected, then just the other
• Removing all peripherals for booting, in case of a short

Help, please?

batyatoon is having a celebration-of-birth-time-period!

It's Toonsday on Friday today! Here's hopin' it's filkin' awesome!

Hey, an ElJay! On my way to the Greater Bostonish area as we speak. Hope to see some of you there!

Alright, re-trying ping.fm Please excuse any multiple updates!

I'm trying out Ping.fm !

On the twentieth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...A lifty jack...


...A LEGO Gordon Freeman...
...A smarmy criminal...
...AN INTERROGATION SCEEEEEEENE! (WAS: CHAIR AND...UM...THING!)

...A surly radarphotographer cop...

...A robot submarine...

...Some diving accessories...

...A police diver...

...A kickass pizza oven...

...Modern Art Pizzas...

...A chef with a paddle...

...A climby ladder...

...A kitty in a tree...

...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...

...The bottom of an ice cream cart...

...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!

...A lady with snowballsice cream...

...A picinick table...

...A nifty grill...

...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the nineteenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:



...A LEGO Gordon Freeman...


...A smarmy criminal...
...AN INTERROGATION SCEEEEEEENE! (WAS: CHAIR AND...UM...THING!)

...A surly radarphotographer cop...

...A robot submarine...

...Some diving accessories...

...A police diver...

...A kickass pizza oven...

...Modern Art Pizzas...

...A chef with a paddle...

...A climby ladder...

...A kitty in a tree...

...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...

...The bottom of an ice cream cart...

...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!

...A lady with snowballsice cream...

...A picinick table...

...A nifty grill...

...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the eighteenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:



...A smarmy criminal...


...AN INTERROGATION SCEEEEEEENE! (WAS: CHAIR AND...UM...THING!)

...A surly radarphotographer cop...

...A robot submarine...

...Some diving accessories...

...A police diver...

...A kickass pizza oven...

...Modern Art Pizzas...

...A chef with a paddle...

...A climby ladder...

...A kitty in a tree...

...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...

...The bottom of an ice cream cart...

...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!

...A lady with snowballsice cream...

...A picinick table...

...A nifty grill...

...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the seventeenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


..A...CHAIR AND...UM...THING!


...A surly radar cop...
...A robot submarine...
...Some diving accessories...
...A police diver...
...A kickass pizza oven...
...Modern Art Pizzas...
...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!


(no seriously what the hell is that thing?)

On the sixteenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...A surly radar cop...


...A robot submarine...
...Some diving accessories...
...A police diver...
...A kickass pizza oven...
...Modern Art Pizzas...
...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the fifteenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...a robot submarine...


...Some diving accessories...
...A police diver...
...A kickass pizza oven...
...Modern Art Pizzas...
...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

I am a bad Adventer over the past two days - I've been too tired and falling asleepy and lazy to put up the LEGO posts. So today, you'll have a double-shot (and by tonight, TRIPLE-shot) of awesome, and a promise of regular updates from here on in!.

On the fourteenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...Some diving accessories...


...A police diver...
...A kickass pizza oven...
...Modern Art Pizzas...
...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the thirteenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...A police diver...


...A kickass pizza oven...
...Modern Art Pizzas...
...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

Advent calendar will be late tonight due to Office Christmas party. I haven't forgotten you guys!

On the twelfth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...A kickass pizza oven...


...Modern Art Pizzas...
...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the eleventh day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...Modern Art Pizzas...


...A chef with a paddle...
...A climby ladder...
...A kitty in a tree...
...A cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

On the tenth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...a chef with a paddle...


...a climby ladder...
...a kitty in a tree...
...a cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!

SEE?


SEEEEE??!?!?!?!?!?!?!

On the ninth day of Lego Christmas, my Advent Calendar gave to me:


...a climby ladder...


...a kitty in a tree...
...a cool firefighter.../...a LEGO Biller...
...The bottom of an ice cream cart...
...AN ICE CREAM CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!
...A lady with snowballsice cream...
...A picinick table...
...A nifty grill...
...And a dude with a turkey leg!