Help: Possible Hardware Failure

[Angrboda]

Remove the graphics card and put the old one in. See if the problem goes away. If not, the problem isn't the graphics card. (Though you might have borked the PSU trying to run it.)

Okay, so I found a solid state external hard drive. Does anyone have any recommendations for software to do the copying? It seems like I can just do that with software that already exists on my computer. Like, I remember doing this years and years ago and not needing software.

Should I do that or get software?

If your old drive is smaller than the new drive, you can clone it. Otherwise you'll need to backup your files to an extra disk (external or internal), and reinstall windows and programs on the SSD. I'd recommend getting an external drive regardless.

Acronis, Easeus, and Macrium make software that can do it. I use Acronis, but I don't think the trial version will do it. The free versions of the others may have limits.

What you want is "disk cloning" software. Clonezilla will do it if the target disk is larger than the source, but you end up with a one-for-one copy the same size as the old disk.

If you want to get by on the cheap, you would need an external disk or something to backup your system to first. (Backup os & files -> spare; install windows to new disk; restore backup over new windows install; restore other files)

Speedfan is a good free utility for monitoring temperatures of the mainboard components.

Crystaldisk is a good tool for monitoring disk condition.

WD and Seagate make free tools for checking your disk condition, and may work on other brand disk.

I'll follow up with more later.