First off let me say that I am not to computer savvy. However, I am not afraid to take apart then put it back together, run tests, add memory, etc. A about a month ago I moved in to my own place and with the help of my mother-in-law built a computer using a spare mother board and hard drive (and maybe a few other things :cheesy: ). Upon putting it together she told me and my husband that we probably wanted to buy some more RAM, so I installed that ( an yes I wore the wrist brace and kept my arms resting on the case). Shortly there after we bought speakers. We we first plugged in the speakers they didn't work, I told her about this and she told me that she would come by and check it out (shes in the systems dept. at my work) she told me that the sound driver wasn't installed and installed it for us. Viola! sound. After a week of our new found sound The computer crashed but started right back up. The next day when I turned it on it would completely boot up until it would get to the loading screen right before the user names then it would just act like it was processing but with out ever going anywhere. I did a bunch of diagnostic tests, I've did a check disk, direct X diagnostic, and we even went and switched out the hard drive for a brand new one! I made a Boot disk and that i think is the only thing that makes it start up anymore. If it my sound driver can I just take that one off and get a new one or does it have to a specific one that's compatible with the motherboard?
Here's my information
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Built 2600)
BIOS: Award Medallion BIOS V6.0
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 1600+, MMX, 3D Now, ~1.4 GHz
Memory: 1024MB RAM
Page File: 237MB used, 2226MB Available
Direct X Version: DirectX 9.0c
Sound Device:NVIDIA nForce Audio
Type:WDM
Default Device: yes
Sound Drivers:nvapu.sys
Version:6.14.0442.0030
WHQL logo'd: yes
any help is greatly appreciated, and if I haven't provided enough details please let me know!