<ul><li><a href="http://www.e4me.com/support/product_support.html?cat=desktop&subcat=eTower+Series&model=eTower+500ix">eTower 500ix</a> (from e4me.com)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.epinions.com/cmhd-Desktops-All-eTower_500ix/display_~full_specs">eTower 500ix</a> (from epinions.com)</li></ul>
Given that nobody is overly informative about the content of the system, I guess if I were you this is how I would proceed.
1. Look in device manager to see if I can find any hardware that is not working. If anything is listed as questionable or bad, I would remove it from the computer and see if the problems go away. If you're lucky, that will be the end of the trouble.
2. If you know anybody either with an old computer they are not using that has some old PC 133 ram in it, or if they happen to have some kicking around, I'd remove the memory from your computer and install the spare memory into it. Then see if the problem goes away. If it does, go out and buy new memory and you're home.
3. If number 2 is not for you, then see if you can find somebody you can trust to have a look at it and do it for you.
4. Service charges for an old computer are probably not worth the price. Still, if you know a trustworthy shop, it might be profitable to make inquiries. But be warned. Do not take your computer into a repair shop and give them permission to just go ahead and fix it. You may end up paying far more than what it's worth. Or worse, they'll charge you two hours labor and then say: sorry, can't be fixed.
Note. I have had problems with bad parts of every sort. The most recent was a very hard one to trouble shoot because the problem (freeze ups) was only intermittent and nothing consistent seemed to trigger it. What it ended up being was not the memory, not the motherboard, but "the slot" that the memory plugs into in the motherboard. Talk about getting specific! In my case there was nothing for it but to replace the motherboard. Thirty bucks or so. But it took me months and months, of part-time tinkering, to find the trouble.
When a hardware component goes bad, it can have all kinds of unusual results. You just have to think of something short circuiting, sending a small amount of electrical current up the wrong way of a wire, and kaboom, nothing works as it should. But finding what component and what to do about it is the tough part.
Recently, I did two jobs for family. On one, I put in new memory and lots of it. Problem solved. On the other, I went out and picked up a decent used computer and plugged all the old gizmos from the old computer into the new one... so it ended up being bigger, faster and better equipped than either the new or old computer by themselves. Total price was a hundred and fifty bucks.
I can't say what the best path is for you, only you know that. But there is something definitely hardware related wrong here and though we can see what's in the computer generally, there aren't any specific details about the parts other than a celeron cpu and a pci sound card. What I mean is, we don't know if the graphics card is built in or a component, we don't know how many memory slots and like that. But still, that needn't pose big obstacles. The first thing to do is try and pin down what's gone sour. Then go from there.
