My computer has been acting up lately. Not just the minor errors that you just close the window and try again, but the kind where it becomes all but unusable.

I’ve tried everything I can think of:

• chkdsk /F
• Virus Scan (3 different ones no less! AVG, Avast, and Webroot Antivirus)
• Spyware Scan (4 different ones)
• HijackThis! logs
• Defragment
• Disk Check

Each and every scan comes up clean. The only scan I couldn’t do (which still grinds me) is a ram analyzer. It’s a program I had to burn to a CD and then run during boot-up. I discovered that my boot order is strange: it doesn’t boot the removable disks before the hard drive. So that test won’t work, not without figuring out how to force my Compaq to check the disks first.

I’ve added memory and then taken it back out. Tested with only one stick and then swapped it for the other. It’s been especially bad in World of Warcraft, which I’ve had to uninstall and reinstall several times because various game files wind up corrupted or simply damaged. All my friends, even though in tech jobs, have run out of suggestions.

Of course my mom, despite claiming to be as computer illiterate, does everything she can to help me. Naturally, she’s the one to point out classes start soon and my computer is basically worthless. Will I be able to do my homework? Oh, crap!

She’s also the one to come up with the ultimate solution, “Give up and just look for a new computer.” And then almost as quickly says, “Just no more Compaq’s.”

I mutter something about maybe building my own. She points out what I’ve always wanted to, that it has to be easier by now, and that I’d be getting what I want.

Moms really do know best.