My beloved computer is apparently dying.  My techno geek hubby is tearing out what is left of his hair trying to fix it, but at this point it's looking terminal.

HOW CAN I SURVIVE WITHOUT BRYCE?!?!?  I haven't done without my beloved Bryce 'fix' for several years now and I don't know how I'm gonna do it!!!!

(Once HIS monitor is back from the shop I can MAYBE use his computer but ONLY when he isn't home or playing one of his shoot-em-up, protect/takeover the world games!)

Dee/a very sad cherokeeheart

Save that Hard drive if you can. Hope you make it through, I know it would drive me crazy.

Good Luck Dee

If the hard drive is the only thing going bad.. you can buy a new hard drive and simply clone the old one to the new one.

is it the motherboard?  hard drive?    or software?

I know how much I would miss it, so if I had the spare bucks i'd send it to you toward a new computer.

Maybe you can find a second hand computer for now though, there are usually decent enough PCs around to be had at a small cost.

Hope you get what you need.

We don't KNOW what is going bad.  He's swapped out hard drives with no luck, then put the old one back WITH the new one, ran I don't know how many spyware/adware/fix-it programs and he still doesn't know what the problem is.  It freezes - randomly, with no apparent pattern to the freeze at all.  Then it's a b*tch to reboot.

He's good with computers, hardware and software, has built most of ours except this one (it's an hp off the shelf we bought after Katrina).  He wiped things clean to the point I almost had a virginal computer, to which I reinstalled Bryce and PSP 7 from the original discs.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I will pass them on to see if it's something he HASN'T tried yet.

sigh  I don't like his computer, it doesn't have Bryce on it!

Dee/cherokeeheart

Funny you should mention Katrina- at this point I'm not sure if I named my cat after the hurricane or the 'cane was named after her (I tend to think the latter but I've been wrong before. )

yep i got one doing the same thing: in my case I'm convinced it's the hard drive but I haven't swaped out the hd to confirm it. If you added a higher level video card for example and then it exibited problems you might be looking at upgrading your power supply (if you are drawing more than it is rated to supply that could create the problems you describe)... for a few bucks you can replace the cmos battery too. and heavens to betsy; it could be a virus donchaknow?  

you might also scan your disk for problems; goto:
MyComputer:select the drive you wanna check:Files:properties:errorchecking:check now:scan

best of luck ! !

Thimgs you might try.... if you have not already.

Open the case and vacumn all the dust out.

Take out the memory card(s). clean and reseat, following careful static and handling guidlines.

Use a Registry cleaner/drefragger, most problems start here.

Generally problems arise over time, so defrag the harddrive The use of a wonderful utility like Tune Up Utlilities, and if it comes to it, complete format of the drive and reinstal (after backing up important files first.

Bets of luck.

Bikermouse has a good suggestion....  there might be something wrong with the power supply..   These things can become faulty and can start emitting electrical pulses that can cause problems in the timing circuits...  

One cheap fix is to find a dis guarded comparable computer and swapping power supplies..   make sure the power supply has the same or better power...  In NYC you can find them on the streets in the side walks along with the garbage...  Maybe your town has them too...

This does not sound like a hard drive problem... 

just things to try... if you already tried these skip the suggestion.. 

1)  See if the computer is clean inside...  vacuum carefully...  use clean brush...
2)  take the graphics card out and see if the computer runs more smoothly....

1. check the power cables... for splits touching the metal of other parts like the casings..  replace if in dough...
2. check the hard drive cables...  Make sure they are seated correctly.. clean them..  
   replace if needed...
3. check the hard drive sockets... 
4. check sound card pins, cables and sockets..  replace if need be
5. check mother boards pins sockets.. and power cables...  replace when applicable

When my battery was going bad a few years ago, the computer reported that the hard drive was going bad.

To me, this sounds like RAM that has gone bad.

Dnload an run memtest from  www.memtest.org/ Tests 5 and 8  if it errors it is the memory..Reseat try again.
Unplug all powered devices but the basics hd ,video card ,1stick of ram, cpu etc...
This includes usb devices.
Sounds like the powersupply is about to give up the ghost.Try a known good and compatable one.
Take battery out overnight ,next day ,boot get into bios and select the default setup reboot.
Try a plugging into an outlet in another spot in the house.That outlet may be browningout or undervolting  the powersupply ,a good PS can overcome this but a weak PS will fail intermitantly .

A tool I've found useful is Everest (Home Edition) a google 'll get you there. It pretty much tells you what you've got - an advanced sort of Sysedit utility but not so diagnostic - except for benchmarking your memory.

If it does give up the ghost, relax - if it's meant to be a new computer will come your way; have faith!! 

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Hubby has pretty much narowed my computer woes to malware.  A file he keeps deleting when he runs a variety of virus/adware/spyware/malware scans keeps showing back up on my computer.  He's now using bleepingcomputer.com to see if he can get rid of this, well, bleeping problem!

sigh  Of course, that means I am still computerless, but not so hopeless!

Dee/cherokeeheart

"heavens to betsy"   O.K. ... run your antivirus program in safe mode - Dr Webb seems to work on these worms ! I caught one once on one of my other computers - it had me rebooting every 10 minutes or so until I figured out it was affecting one of the (graphic I think)services I had to change the settings so that it would keep restarting the service rather than causing it to bluescreen after the third start so I'd have time to run my AV on the affected folder(finally figured out that it would last longer in safe mode); it had xp home you understand so I can't look up the file as this one has pro and apparently they did away with that particular file. This was also in the beforetimes when I had no router - amazing how much fewer viri I get since the syslink.

Oh well, don't listen to me too close - your problem might be ENTIRELY different . 
Best of luck again ! !