Well my computer isn’t working… I think it has a virus because it wont turn on. Until that gets fixed Im only gonna have a very short time with access to a computer every day 
. Unfortunately I will almost definately have to wipe the harddrive and will lose ALL of my ZBrush stuff.
Unrelatedly, I have a request. Renderosity banned my account, and I don’t know if I’m still in the contest. COuld any members of Renderosity please check the 10 of clubs contest to see if my entry is still in it? Oh well I’ll have to spend hours reading through the posts I missed when I get my computer working again…
I checked over there and your submission is still there.
As to your computer problem, it could be a problem with your power supply.
Is this what happens: Your computer starts to boot up and then shuts off? If so, a power supply problem is your most likely culprit.
It also sounds a lot like a RAM problem. Or somthing else hardware related.
Next time your computer boots up, you should hear a series of beeps. Thats your computer vertifying your hardware. If somthing is wrong with any part of your hardware, it will hang and turn itself off.
Next time you boot it up, listen to the beeps. Come back and tell me how many there were and if they were consistent in sound.
Also at what point in time does your system lock up and turn off?
if it beeps more then 3 times it might Not be your computer it might be the Bus Driver Waiting For You 
I agree with Winged One, it could be your power supply, I have 2 computers in different locations in my house, one is my 3 year old pc and from time to time it fails to turn on at all, until I unplug the power plug, give it a few taps then replug it!. My other one, a brand new pc, has a similar prob too, on a few occasions it doesn’t detect my hard drive and won’t boot(it scares the hell out of me!) to fix it instead of tapping the plug I replug it into another socket and it then boots up, weird huh 
Well, if it’s a single beep and the computer still shuts off, then the problem likely lies with the power supply. If it’s a different number of beeps then the problem probably lies elsewhere.
Here’s a website that displays the beep codes (POST or Power On Self-Test) and what they mean http://www.pchell.com/hardware/beepcodes.shtml
Well Im not at home right now, but I dont remember any beeping. I press the power button and almost immediately it displays a message, I think something about drivers I cant really remember. It then stays like that until I turn it off. When I tried running the boot disk to wipe the harddrive, it didnt work. I’ll check more when I get home though.
Gerlon, It sounds like a problem with your bios to be honest. Very well could be a virus. It could be something as simple as you need a driver update for your bios. Or it could be somthing as serious as having to flash your bios (somthing you don’t wanna jump right on into)
An other possibility is that the CMOS battery might be dead. On newer mother boards it looks like a lithium watch battery and can be easily be replaced. On older ones, it might be more problematic since they often used a rechargable NiMH battery that was soldered directly to the motherboard.
Hi Gerlon…just curious…why would Renderosity ban your account?
Well 1, i have had that problem that gerlon is having but it was with the power supply.
and 2, i also wonder why renderosity banned ur account.
They banned my account because I use Kazaa. Unfortunately they assume that just because I have it I use it to download pirated programs. This is, of course, complete bs, I used kazaa to download music. Since then I have switched over to audiogalaxy since I doubt that will get me in trouble, but I still dont get my account back
I used to use KAzaa, but i only downloaded music. I would never pirate a program either, if i like what i see (or use a demo), i just save up and buy the thing. I have some CDs made with Kazaa but now i dont have it.