"Unknown Hard Error"???

[hefe]

Hello All,
I'm having a problem with my pc.
-Mainboard - Generic(intel chipset)
-3 hdd's
-224 MB RAM
-Quite a few PCI cards
The box has worked flawlessly up until a couple of days ago, when i installed a video card and a sound card at the same time. After installing, the pc wouldn't boot(ACPI blue screen). After some trouble-shooting i determined that the sound card was causing problems...so i returned it and bought another, higher-end sound card...which also didnt work. So i scrapped the sound card idea all together.
Heres the problem:
Since then, the pc DID boot, but VERY slowly and would not always shut-down. It was getting worse and worse until yesterday i got a blue screen that i've never seen before and now it wont boot at all. It said "Unknown Hard Error" and thats it.
I have no idea what this is, and any help would be very appreciated. Please respond with any possible ideas-of-cause, solutions or request for further info.
thank you,
hefe

 

[franklin97355]

try paring your system back to as few cards as you can then run any diagnostic software you can get your hands on. An "unknown" hard error could be just about anything but because it seemed to get worse over time I would look at the hard drive first followed by memory then the processor.

 

[hefe]

Franklin,
I appreciate your reply. Thank you. I solved the problem by taking the easy way out...but hey...it worked. I switched all the hardware(i.e. hdd's, cd-rom, cards, ram, cpu) to a spare case and mainboard that i had, and everything seems to work fine again. So, i really don't know what the problem was...the board itself?, bios?...your guess is as good as mine...probably better.
But again, thanks for your help.

hefe