This computer is broken

[Parkerluland]

Hello guys I am new to this forum, but I had built a computer last year and it worked flawlessly for about four months then it started to turn itself off. So I simply switched power supplies and it worked again. Then about a month later while doin a paper for school it froze so I restarted it and it would go for about 5 mins then freeze again. Thinking it was a virus I redid my operating system and it worked for a while till the same thing happened again. Finally I redid the computer again last weekend and even without Internet hooked up it started to do it again and now when I try to start it, it will go the black windows symbol and stay there for about 5 mins then I will get the blue screen of death. So guys could u help me out on what's going on? I am pretty sure it's a hardware failure but I can't figure what would cause it.

Thank you
Parker luland

 

[setishock]

Next time you get blue screened jot down the error number and post it. That's a major clue to what the problem is.

 

[chaslinux]

Bad PSU and bad RAM could cause this problem. You might want to try testing the RAM with Memtest86+. Most Linux "live" distributions have an option to boot Memtest86+ from the CD to test your RAM without having to install Linux.

 

[lhuser]

Check for updates, make sure the drivers are at the latest.

I would suspect bad RAM or a bad hard drive even. Grab yourself a copy of UBCD:
Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

It's got all diagnostics you want, including much of the HDD diagnostics and Memtest86/Memtest86+