HD failure or mother board failure? Help!

Seven weeks ago my HP Media Center PC m1050e died. It's only 2 years old. I was/am running XP2. Hard drive was 80gb, 512mb RAM. My first mistake was that I took it to Best Buy's Geek Squad. After a week they told me the hard drive was dead (good grief, I already kinda knew that). Another 3 days and they told me the "chip" for the mother board was dead. They sent it to HP to fix and 4 weeks later it was back in the store (with a new "chip") and they put in a new 320 gb Western Digital SATA hard drive into it at the store. I finally got it back last Wednesday. It's been working fine since then. I took it to another repair shop today to put in more memory, 1gb, because I'm really not that computer literate to be poking around inside the computer. I saw him put the stick in, he powered up the computer and it was running fine, it recognized the new memory. I took the computer home, connected all the wiring and powered it up. Then it started making a continuous shrill beep noise. I looked at the screen and my desk top was showing. I went to move the mouse and the cursor was frozen. I waited about a minute, it was still making the continuous beep and was frozen so I powered down by holding down the power button. Waited about 2 minutes, powered up and now all I see is a blue HP Invent screen with the weird symbols (like Hebrew almost) in the upper left hand corner. It just sits there, doesn't boot up completely. I hear the fan running but no clicking sounds from the hard drive.

I did a Google search and read where some people have held down the Esc key before booting and had success booting. I tried it, I get the same blue screen with symbols, will not boot up.

I called the repair shop and the guy suggested I take out the memory stick he put in, that maybe it's defective. I did that, same blue screen with symbols.

Could it be a defective hard drive or mother board chip? Any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated. I'm about ready to lose my mind here and I feel a migraine coming on :cry

Debra

 

Don't know where you are located but is your power line voltage correct or subject to large variations?
Does your TV seem extra bright for instance?

You seem to be wearing out pc components too quickly.

As to the actual fault I suggest you look for a trustworthy repairman. I would have thought, for instance, that any hard drive in an HP would have at least a three year guarantee!

 

I'm in a suburb of Detroit. Correct voltage, no variations. Everything is fine power wise. By the way, the computer was/is plugged into a surge protector. Also, I have a 10 year old HP pavilion that has been plugged into the same power supplies for the last 10 years and is still running, have NEVER had a problem with it. The only reason I replaced it with this POS is because it's 10 years old and verrrrry slow. As far as the original hard drive, it just went out of warranty (surprise, surprise) four months ago, it was under a 2 year warranty. This new hard drive is still under warranty so will be no problem to get it replaced. Is that what it sounds like is the problem?

 

OK it's not your power line. But that pc is still chewing up parts too quickly.
I think you need some reliable help to eyeball the situation.
Could be there is an underlying fault that was not fixed (properly) by your previous repairer. Why did it need to be sent to HP rather than fix it themselves?

 

They said the "chip" on the mother board was broken and they had to send it to HP for repair. It was a square black piece about 2" square. I think they broke it trying to hurry up and pull out the hard drive and replace it while I was standing there in the store 3 days after the promised date; one week after I had brought it in and they still hadn't even pulled the hard drive out. I think the "chip" was unrepairable and it had to actually be replaced so they had to send it to HP.

I have a reputable repairman *NOW*. I was just hoping it's the hard drive (under warranty) as opposed to the mother board and thought someone here would know. If it's the mother board I'm taking it back to Best Buy, which I really don't want to with all the trouble I've had with them so far, but if the doggone thing is broken again after only one week, they're going to have to do something. If it's the hard drive I'll be able to get it replaced under warranty somewhere other than Best Buy. Anyway, thanks for your suggestions. Guesss I'll be back at repair shop bright and early tomorrow

 

I believe you should remove the last new stick of ram, reboot as it was before. Dont need to be a geek to remove-install ram. Besure unplugged from wall, remove side cover, ground yourself to case [just touching case before touching ram is fine] if unsure which is the newest, just remove one and try to boot, if same thing, trade sticks. ed

 

Tunered, already did that before I posted here; I still get the same blue screen (see my original post 3rd paragraph).

 

I still believe the last stick of ram is not fully compatable, remove that stick, reinstall windows, do you have the disc? or burn them down before the original hd went south? I have had bad ram corrupt windows, i think this is where you are at. ed

 

Tunered, thanks for your suggestions. I tried it, took out new memory stick and put in the restore cd, it was a no go, still had the blue screen. Tried pressing the F10 key as well, no luck though. So I guess it's off to the pc repair shop tomorrow. Thanks all for your help.