exploding computer, any ideas

Rhinokey

here about a week ago i went to reboot my computer, it gets right to the login and then mem dump, so reboot.. again and again, try the recovery options nothing works, finaly format and reinstall and things go well for about 2 days then it gets to the scrolly green microsoft bar, and takes 30 mins to boot,, i try some things then wait 30 min for a boot, after about 2 more format and installs i finaly track the prob down to a pci express firewire card , one i've been using for a year. but it seems if this is pluged in, my pc takes 30 min to load.. could the card have just died? or something in the os making it freak? drivers are up to date and all, i would like to get this working, without shelling out money i dont have on another card.

any thoughts from the more computer savy would be appreciated,, tho i have doubts it being something that can be diagonosed over the interweb

Farfarer

Have you got stuff plugged into the firewire card at the time of booting?

Rhinokey

same with or without the firestudio plugged in

EarthQuake

a couple thins to try:
reset chmos (little jumper on your mobo, check manual)
update bios
remove all non-essential hardware(optical drivs, non-os HD, sound cards, usb shit, ethernet cards etc) so you just have mobo+cpu+ram+video+os drive+keyboard/mouse and nothing else. If this fixes the problem, gradually add hardware back in to nail down the issue.
try installing your OS on another(new? shit is cheap) harddrive
run memtest to check for faulty ram