My computer has temporarily bitten the proverbial dust. I'm diagnosing the problem now (it keeps restarting in an infinite loop even before POST), but if I can't get things in order quickly, I may just end up buying a new Core i7 system. The only problem I have with that is the ridiculous price-gouging going on with the latest Intel hardware, and the fact that it means a $300 motherboard, $300-$1000 processor, and $200-$300 ram. And as the title of this posting suggests, I really don't think I can make my priority such stupidly expensive computer hardware in this time of economical whathaveyou.

My worst fear is that I won't be able to isolate the problem. That will literally mean buying new hardware piece by piece from scratch. It's tough to say what the problem is, since it all started with what seemed like a graphical failure. I had just installed the latest Nvidia drivers, and every game I attempted to launch would hang and crash... of course, that could be a memory issue, too. The unfortunate thing about that I can't even run memory diagnostics without the ability to POST. So at the moment, I'm clearing the CMOS and letting it rest overnight.

The bright side is that I'm forced to play a whole lot more 360 games, of which I am currently finishing Gears 2, half-way through Fable 2 (still), and just today got my copy of Mirror's Edge. But that means no more Fallout 3 (I've done almost everything there is to do in that game, anyway), and worse yet, no more Left 4 Dead. God, I was just starting to have fun with that game, too. In fact, I was in the throws of setting it up so I could play CS maps Left 4 Dead style when all of this happened.

By the way, I'm typing from my laptop now. If there's anyone tech-savy out there reading this, please feel free to offer me some advice. My wallet may depend upon you.