>>The store told me if may or may not matter if the capacitors look the way they do. 

Baloney!  Your own experiences for some time now have pointed to a hardware issue and the Capacitors have verified the source of the trouble...

>>the PC is working like a charm

REALLY?  Then, WHY are you needing to do things like "recover the registry"???

IMHO, it's time to recognixe the PC is NOT running properly and either fix or toss...

Friends do not allow friends to use "known defective" equipment...

>> I've had problem with registry corruption pretty much all along. 

There is something intrinsicly wrong in either the hardware, the software installed or the operating procedures, if that is happening...

>>Everybody has serious problems with Windows

That is an incorrect statement.  I support manu ysers who have ZERO problems and they use their systems daily for many tasks.  Poor hygene and computing practices cause most of the problems...

>> most people just reformat and reinstall Windows when unexplained problems occur

Another incorrect assumption.  In all my years, I have had ONE situation where a re-format was the best approach.  Massive viral infection (over 8000 files) and the client runs ONE application and it's data files were intact.  Re-loading Windows was easier than eradicating the vermin in that specific scenario...

My wife's system has migreted across multiple motherboards and HD's since 2004 on the very same install - never blipped once, for example...

>>I've run tons of hardware tests,

Just read the various problem issues you have reported over time - those are indicative of failures...

>> Viruses are powerful things

HUH?  We're talking "verified hardware problem" - where did malware come into the picture???

>>none of my friends could assure me of hardware problems.

Get better friends, my friend...

>>How difficult would it be to make an O.S. that allows the user to trace what is running

VERY.  To properly run a trace, the tracer has to be EXTERNAL to what is being traced...

>>(why I was thinking of Intel motherboard for the next one) 

Intel is "just a brand" - they do not make the boards, Foxcon does, and they do NOT use the better capacitors on all the areas of their boards.  ASUS and Gigabyte do, for example...

>>It's mostly the individuals that have to re-format every now and then.

You aee still painting a very wide brush.  I support home systems as well and they are not re=formatting all the time either...

>>Most individuals here (this country is not tough on piracy laws) do use pirated software

No idea where this came into the discussion...

>>Your wife must be playing FreeCell most of the time. <g> 

My wife [heavily] used many applications and used them well.  Why is this so difficult to fathom?

>>If Windows was smart enough (even DOS was doing a much better job), it would detect hardware problems

That's like saying your car lacks the smarts to "know" a tire is flat (defective hardware).  DRIVING will inform the operator of the problem, not "the car".  Windows "failing" is telling you there is an underlying hardware issue, but you are choosing to ignore it.  I have to ask why?

SMART technology (the prediction indicator in HD's) is only as good as it's reporting and  have seen many scenarios were the SMART information is incorrect.  Your DVR's are looking at that info, nothing more.  Or, are you saying the DVR has sophisticated surface scanning technology for the HD?  I doubt that is the case...

>>When using an AMD PC or non-Intel chipsets, the problem crashes, then auto-restarts itself w/out any errors whatsoever, then cycles again via another crash and restart.

Bad programming, pure and simple...

>>MSCONFIG often provides us with little info.

That's why I use and recommend Autoruns instead.  Much richer info about all the things loading when Windows does...

I agree with Dale that it's not true that "everyone reformats" all the time. Many people do, or they reinstall Windows from a recovery disk. But it doesn't have to be true.

I've NEVER had to reformat a drive or do a complete reinstall of Windows due to unsolvable problems in 18 years of using Windows. My systems don't slow down. A crash has been extremely rare since XP went on my systems and when I was using Vista, it never crashed. Even in Win 9x days, I didn't have frequent crashes.

I'm a home user and I do a lot more than surf the Web. I use many programs, but I know what they are and where they come from. There is no pirated software on any of my computers. First of all, I think it's wrong to pirate software or do illegal downloads of music, software, etc. Second, using pirated software is one of the best ways to get infested with all manner of horrible stuff.

I agree it would be wonderful if we had this self-diagnosing hardware, but that's probably a pipe dream, so not worth wasting any "wish" cycles. Same for software.

What you want could only happen with a closed system even worse than Apple's, where a manufacturer had strict control over hardware and software. But then things would be considerably more expensive and our choices markedly worse. It's not a tradeoff I'd want to make.
--Judy M.

>I'm a home user and I do a lot more than surf the Web. I use many programs, but I know what they are and where they come from. There is no pirated software on any of my computers. First of all, I think it's wrong to pirate software or do illegal downloads of music, software, etc. Second, using pirated software is one of the best ways to get infested with all manner of horrible stuff.<

I agree with you.  I wish I could afford all the software I need to compete in this world.  Example, I use photoshop only on occasions.  If I were to purchase all Adobe CS4 series (Dreamweaver, Flash and photoshop) it would cost me a fortune.  Sure, there are alternatives.  Example, I purchased MS Frontpage 2003 and MS abandonned it soon thereafter.  I purchased Office Accounting in 2007, MS just abandonned it. 

>I agree it would be wonderful if we had this self-diagnosing hardware, but that's probably a pipe dream, so not worth wasting any "wish" cycles. Same for software.<

No it's not.  The first IBM PC's were very smart.  Anything hardware related, you'd get an IBM error # which you could look up in the user manual that came with the PC.

Ron