Carol's post (Clipped):---

<<<< My current computer doesn't seem to have cheap parts, such as
hard drive etc., but I have to wonder about other components, because it's
been unstable from the beginning >>>>

 <<<< I have a 19 gig hard drive at the moment
and am only using 4 gigs of it, so I really don't need a bigger hard drive.

I do, however, have a newish 400w power source on my current computer,>>>>

You must also be having a floppy and, cd-rom drives which I assume are fine and a monitor which also should be fine since you have not budgetted for it in any case and also your current computer case. IMO these can not be the cause for " instability" per se.

What else is there? mother board, processor, cooling fan and a lot of cables and your operating system. here I have to assume your mother board has the standard " on board video & sound ".

To be brief, what I am driving at is " why not think in terms of a little troubleshooting and identifying ( easily said than done) the destabilisng component and replacing it and building your own system so to speak" ?

If you are so inclined, as a first step, I would suggest you download a freeware utility called EVEREST AT HOME which will sort of give a snapshot of your system components. if you post to this forum this snapshot of your motherboard, processor,along with some details of the nature of " instability" then I am sure you will get a lot of help on the subject.

EVEREST AT HOME can be downloaded from the following URL

 http://www.lavalys.hu/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en

FWIW and good luck----Venkat Viswanathan

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