and the fear continues

Well, that didn't fix it. I was starting up in safe mode to uninstall and reinstall my video driver when my cousin called. I mentioned I'd noticed on the worst occasions that I had extra beeps when the computer turned on. She told me to do a search on the beeps. They mean something - mainly hardware wise. Fancy that.

Ok, one search later when the computer chose to turn on and one long beep followed by three short beeps means I either have a problem with my video ram or I don't have a video card.

So, Is my Nvidia 8800GT card frying after 15months? Its working intermittantly. Does this mean its a connection problem? You'd think a hardware problem would happen the same every time. Though every problem I've ever had with computers has been intermittant. Except when my battery leaked all over my motherboard that time. That was pretty terminal.

I also found the forums for my motherboard - ASUS has a forum just for P5K-SE motherboards, Well, well, I learn so much when my computer plays up. Their first suggestion is always to clear the CMOS. They suggest this EVERY time you install ANY hardware. Including those people who had exactly the same video card as me. So, I looked this up. I need to open the case for this and move some pins (or take the battery out for 1/2 an hour). The computer apparently then resets all the hardware so your BIOS and CMOS match - I think. One site had a bunch of "manually reset all your hardware settings after this" instructions - but the others seemed to just say reset, turn back on.

Oh, they also said that ASUS motherboards don't always have the best relationship with NVidia cards, and an ATI card might be better if you want to change.

So, here's my plan.
1. Open up the box, look at it dubiously for a while, prod the video card, looking for physical - jarred out of place issues
2. Turn on the computer and try to get it to freeze (basically by internetting and LOTROing at the same time - high demand as possible)
If I can get it to do it, continue by;
3. Read my motherboard book re resetting CMOS & try this
.....assuming this doesn't cause more issues
4. Go to 2
If 2 still shows issues,

Research good non Nvidia cards & do a forum search on LOTRO with my preferred cards (so I don't buy something that causes LOTRO to crash)

5. Buy and install new card
6. Goto 2.
If 2 still happens,
7. talk to my friendly computer guy and spend more money

Anyone see anything that makes them want to scream "NOOO! Don't do that!" while running forward in slow motion to prevent the disaster?

As an aside, my computer is running at 39 degrees C. If it were human, it would be running a considerable fever. I love my probe software.