The problem turned out to be a failure of the PCI-E slot on the motherboard. There was another PCI slot still available, they moved the video card (an NVidia 8600 GTS) to that slot, and the computer now works. I didn't ask for details, so I don't fully understand why, but the tech said I would see reduced video performance with the card in its new location. Something about PCI-E vs regular PCI or something like that.
They can't move a PCI-E video card to a PCI slot and call it a day. The physical interface is completely different. It's possible your motherboard had another PCI-E x16 slot on it which they moved the video card to.
Computer shops play tricky games all the time. I imagine the shops in Mexico are no different. I think it's more than possible the shop had a similar PCI video card on hand. They kept your old PCI-E card and replaced it with its PCI counterpart. Or, the card could be completely different which would explain why Windows is experiencing a driver issue. You should open the case and have a look. Try and find a model number on the video card.
The tech said that I would do well to start researching and looking for a new computer, because he said it was quite possible that this problem was only the first of a cascading series of failures.
This could be true, or the video card just died. It happens. You may be fine for another 8 years if you get the driver issue sorted out.
Second question: Since the video card is in a new location now, every time I boot up Windows I get the dialog box saying there are no video drivers installed. I have downloaded (but not installed) the appropriate drivers from NVidia's website, but except for that dialog box from Windows, everything seems to be working: I can pull up the NVidia control panel and change settings, etc. I'm pretty much of the school "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Should I install the new drivers (150+ MB of them!) or leave well enough alone? What do I do in order to install them anyway?
You should install the newest nVidia driver package. It's possible you have a video card in your machine with a newer graphics chipset than your original card (assuming they did a swap).
If I do need a new computer, what would you recommend? I know, that's like asking "How high is up?", but in general what should I look for? My current computer, even though it is eight years old, is still a pretty decent machine: dual-core 3GHz processor, 4 GB RAM, 4+ TB across four hard drives, 256MB on the video card, SoundBlaster sound card, six SATA slots, six USB ports, HDMI & VGA video out, parallel and serial (!) ports, E-SATA and FireWire, etc. There are seven cooling fans inside the case, if you count the small fans on the CPU and the graphics card. As you might guess, some small form-factor, stripped-down non-expandable computer is not what I'm looking for.
Having seven cooling fans is not a desirable feature. One is more than enough for a modern, powerful, quiet, efficient computer. If a parallel port and serial port are important to you, I'm always shocked when I see a new Lenovo box still come with those... PS/2 ports as well. Some Dell Precision workstations also come with serial and PS/2 ports, but no parallel. Overall, I think Lenovo is your best bet when it comes to legacy ports. Even their lowest lines usually have them.
The rest of the specs of your current machine aren't very good. I could build a dual-CPU 3GHz Penitium 4, but it would be terribly slow and nearly worthless. I assume your CPU is a Core 2 Duo, but that's still quite outdated. 8GB of RAM is pretty-much the standard these days and a 4TB hard drive costs about $130 when on sale (in the USA). You probably can't buy four 1TB drives for that cheap.
One great thing about newer computers is that they're insanely cheap for what you get. I could walk in to Micro Center any day and buy a sub-$300 laptop that would blow the doors of your full-blown desktop. I would suggest having a look at the
Lenovo Outlet. Often times, there are great deals to be had.
Don't be afraid of Windows 8. It's not terrible, but I would still prefer Windows 7 at this time.
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