I want to see the steam.
Get a Mac.
Because Macs don’t crash?
OP: Download and install “Whocrashed” and see if that helps you pinpoint the problem.
Which is likely either a hardware issue or a driver problem.
Ditto on the power supply. I was having constant problems with a computer refusing to boot. I replaced the motherboard, and I replaced the CPU. Both things seemed to fix it for a while, then it went right back to it’s old ways.
A new power supply seems to have fixed the problem. I think the old one was frying the other components.
Also, have you asked father for help?
I’ve been in computers that long, and I’ve been involved with computer design for 30 years. Knowing my way around a PDP-11 back in grad school helps not at all with problems today.
Dell loads software onto all the PCs it makes and runs an extensive system test, since they build millions of configurations and there is no way anyone can certify all of them. This is an expensive thing to do, and you know they’d stop it if they could. They also certify their components, which is something I bet your father didn’t do.
Macs have a lot fewer configurations, so are more stable. And more expensive.
The reason I have no interest in building my own PC is that I know quite a bit about how things fail, and, not having lots of test equipment in my garage, prefer to leave that part of the assembly process to those who do have test equipment.
Hey OP- can you tone down the language a little? I mean, sheesh.
As for the homemade computer, I can see if you’re a real power user or gamer or something that it might be worth it, but what was your motivation for having your dad build one over buying one from a company with some accountability and warranties and such? What did you save, maybe $100?
I nearly got the vapors when I read the word (can I say it?) “frick” faints
Thirding the suggestion of checking the power supply. Last time mine was recovering from crashes like that, the exhaust fan in the power supply had died.
You know what is causing these crashes? Excessive exclamation point usage.
Seriously.
The CPU, when confronted with too many !! or ? in a row, blows a floating exclamation point exception error.
Additionally those blue screen error messages, that so many people only look at long enough to get pissed instead of actually reading, have valuable information. If you actually read the damned thing it will give you info on the cause of the problem. My bet is a ‘driver_IRQL_Not_Less_Or_Equal’ error.
Slee
You know, maybe I shouldn’t go posting things in the Pit. I find my angry posts tend to look a bit histronic the day after, not to mention excessive in exclamation marks and other upper-keyboard symbols.