Computer woes... again

[Dr. Boogie]

Recently, my computer started freezing up for no apparent reason. First, the active window would lock up, and a few seconds later, the rest would lock up as well, and I knew when all this was about to take place because it would all be proceeded by a soft "clack" that I normally associated with the regular workings of the harddrive.

Anyway, I thought it might be overheating for some reason, so I took it apart, cleaned out the inside, cleaned up the fans, and everything seemed to be fine again. Then, it all began again a few hours later, and the lockups were closer together, to the point where the PC would restart before even loading windows.

I managed to get into Safe Mode, and everything seemed fine there, so I did a virus scan and an adaware scan (just for fun), and found nothing. So, I assumed that perhaps my new video drivers were to blame. I uninstalled the new ones and reinstalled the old ones that came with the card, restarted the computer, and assumed everything was AOK. Well, no: I went to get a soda and when I came back, the blue screen of death was showing (the modern one, with all sorts of tiny text on it) and it restarted itself. Now, I can get to the prompt where you choose between normal startup, safe mode, et al, but when I choose one, it just locks up.

Does anyone know what is causing this problem/what I can do about it?



Also, I'm a little alarmed about the fact that this sort of thing only seems to be happening to me 2 weeks before the end of a semester, when I have a number of papers/projects to finish, but that's for another thread...