ahhhhhh 'puters. Uncle Bob, you are sounding like some of the things that I have had happen in the last three years. Not sure why, but 3 mid line mobos, 2 graphic cards, a set of RAM strips and a monitor. My guess - power surges/higher then necessary VAC that the surge protector missed. So far, no hard drives, but I have two external - a 320 and an 80 for back up as well as the 720 in the case - and all pretty good "name" brands. Then there are the grand children that showed up over Christmas and sent some emails to somewhere as well as viewed some nasty cookies sites that dragged in a bunch of spam as well as a virus. Then they changed some settings. I think it's all clean and repaired now, but each day up to this morning had brought a new surprise or several. Lots of clean up, defrags, registry repairs - way too much time. The next time they come for a visit, they had best bring their laptops and go wireless through my system.