Re: [OT] I can't take it anymore!

[Kim Wall <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MacNewbie wrote:
> Right thats it, over the past 6 weeks both PCs in the kids rooms and
> the pc in the family room have all crashed and burnt running XP. I
> just can't face rebuilding them for the nth time.

Sounds like either a case of dodgy hardware, or excessive cruft from
installing and uninstalling squillions of games / malware / whatever
(seems likely if kids are involved).

If you haven't met it before, http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ is
dead
handy for tracking down some common forms of hardware dodgyness.  Also
worth checking they're not overheating from excessive dust buildup.

If it's more likely to be software abuse, then I suggest either forcing
them to run as an unprivileged user - keeping the admin password a
closely guarded secret - or, more optimally, giving your kids a set of
install CDs and teaching them to rebuild their own systems.


Kim.