Well, I went to run more diagnostics and now the computer actually won't even boot up. I'm thinking this is an issue with either the MOBO or the memory. I'm gonna swap the memory out first. Then I'll switch the hard disk. Then maybe both simultaneously. We'll see where I get with that. I might have to get a new MOBO.
Noone makes an off the shelf computer that I like. I just build my own and I like the one I've got in terms of asthetics. At most this will require about $200 worth of parts.
HIGH probability the problem is software... suggest you do what's necessary to eliminate that possibility before swapping parts.
I have the parts to swap so it is no cost to throw them in just to check. What do you think is the best course of action in terms of a software fix now that the comp won't boot up?
Swapped out the RAM.... no change. Reinstalled old RAM and swapped out the hard-drive... booted up just fine. Needed a new HDD anyway so I bought a new one. Everything really important I already had backed up, but it is still a pain in the neck to re-install all the programs. Guess I don't have to worry abou this one being infected with spyware/adware/viruses/etc. Now I just have to make sure this one doesn't get infected.
I had a Toshiba laptop machine that did this once. Eventually, I found an article that described the fact that they were overclocking the CPU and it caused overheating. A new BIOS that did not overclock it solved the problem (although the CPU obviously ran slower afterwards). The same thing can result from bad memory, incompatible components ( not likely a problem unless you built it yourself ), and/or viruses malware.