I’ve been writing about the difficulties we’ve been having with our computer here at home since July (here, here, here, here). When things were running OK at home, or when I could at work, I would research possible causes. I thought it could be a memory issue since I had installed a new stick some time ago. In fact, when I removed one of the two memory sticks things appeared to get better, just no right.

But the problem hadn’t gone away. The stupid thing would still restart on it’s own. Last week it got even worse. Sometimes it would restart before I could even get on the internet.

And then it happened. Late last week, while I was at work, the folks at home tried to get on the computer. It threw an error and the dreaded blue screen of death. When I was called I suggested they leave it alone until I could take a look when I got home. My advice wasn’t followed.

The link that said “restore” was just too tempting. So they clicked it.

Everything gone. Five or more years of files and pictures (several purchased from a graphics service) and programs gone. Gone forever. ‘-(

XP reloaded, and I was able to download Firefox and Tweetdeck, but the restarting problem was, if anything, worse. The things I can’t replace (other than a bunch of files and pictures) without spending some cash I don’t have, are Paint Shop Pro and MS Office. I can make do with Open Office, but I need to get a graphics program. And I still needed to make the computer stop restarting!

Yesterday I thought I might have found a solution. Maybe it was the CPU overheating. I went out and bought some thermal grease thinking that the old layer had degraded and should be replaced after I had removed the heat sync to clean it. Good idea, but not the answer, so I did some more research.

Could it be the video card I had installed nearly a year ago? Not much left to do but to remove it and go back to the built in video.

And it worked. After taking out the video card, and some minor tweaks, it’s been stable. It hasn’t restarted on it’s own once. I have even re-installed the memory I thought was the problem. I can’t play Pirates Online until I get a new, upgraded video card, but I can do everything else!

I’m sickened by the loss of all the files, but thrilled to be able to get on and not have to worry about a restart while I’m in the middle of something important, like cooking something on Cafe World, checking out the babe of the day at SYLG, or reading comments at AoSHQ.

Things could be better, but compared to how they were, I am thrilled!