Crash And Burn

My computer has been acting up recently, locking up in the middle of anything I happened to be doing. I tried running anti-virus scans, anti-spyware/malware scans, even the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. All indications were my computer was clean, and yet it kept locking up. Finally, in desperation, I wiped my hard drive and reinstalled Windows.

The worst part of this whole process was that my computer kept locking up even in the middle of the Windows reinstall. Finally, I got into the casing and discovered it was dusty dusty dusty. The intake vents for my power supply were choked with dust, along with the heat sink for my cpu cooling fan. I cleaned everything out and now I'm back online.

Had I bothered to check that first, I could have saved myself several days of frustration.