I'm trying to diagnose a misbehaving computer. It restarts randomly.  Can
anyone point me to a good but free diagnostics program and/or burn-in
program?  Specifically, I want to test the hard-disk, RAM, CPU, video memory,
registers, and any other item that doesn't require input.  ...

I was here a few weeks ago and determined that the RAM I bought will
not work for my computer. The person who sold it to me advertised it as
desktop RAM, which I learned here to be incorrect.
I asked him what desktop he used it in, and he ignored me for 10 days

Does XP have any built in timer?  I don't need anything fancy.  Just a
reminder to quit surfing and go get the burning stuff out of the stove.

I recently did a clean XP SP2 install on my 2nd PC. It had 2 hard disks and
I partitioned them as follows when installing the XP.
1. SATA 160GB partitioned into 4x40GB drives.
2. IDE Master 160GB as a single disk.

I just added a second hard drive to my Dell computer, its a :
SAMSUNG 250GB 7200RPM 8MB IDE
I'm not sure what the existing drive (c:) is but the pc is only 1.5
years old so I imagine its similar in spec. Anyway the new second drive

Details of my system:
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
Motherboard:

I've lost the use of my hard drive on my Dell Dimension 8400. During a
shutdown, the power flipped off. When I tried to boot back up I got the
following message:
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:"

My neighbor's drive failed but before he sent in I said I'd try to get the
spreadsheet off it so he wouldn't loose it when they replaced the drive
under warrenty.  I have a usb2 external interface and power supply, but it
doesn't mate to the drive.

One of my pcs is crashing to blue screen after only a couple of seconds of
use. STOP errors 0x00000F4 and 0x000007A are being displayed. I have replaced
the RAM (4GB) three times. The last time the RAM came from a different source
(the computer maker, rather than the memory ...

much slower?
How you would compare it's speed to a hard drive?
I know that most flash memory has a USB interface.  How much faster

My 85 year-old mother-in-law has a Toshiba laptop and has done something
that suddenly makes letter keys on the keyboard type numbers instead. She is
400 miles away! Can anyone suggest what on earth she might have done?

About three weeks ago my power supply went out on my Asus mobo (p4s533 or
something like that). The asus mobo had a 4-pin cpu power connector from the
psu going to it. Well I had a spare psu that had no such 4 pin cpu connector
but I put it in anyway and the computer ran just ...

I have a LG T1 series notebook.
I've recently had a problem and installed OS again (XP) but as I don't found
the drivers cd, I downloaded from LG webpage the drivers for the notebook
hardware.

My USB to Serial Converter reports that COM3, COM5, COM6 and COM7 are in use.
I can account for one com port for my laptop's in built modem, but how do I
discover what is using the other com ports?

My windows xp-pro is recently unable to find cd/dvd rom, started the
system few tims, no result.
bios, cables & Mothebord(ports) are okay.
Please advise, Thanks, AC