My computer has been randomly resetting more and more often for months, always the kernel displaying the same hardware error which was very much incomprehensible (and nothing on google search that matched). It got to the "10 times per day" level and I can't take it anymore.

So I bought a new (motherboard+cpu+memory), plugged them together, and it doesn't POST (no beep, no bios, nothing, just fans spinning).

I bought these new parts at 2 different local shops (no shop had them all in stock). Since I can't tell what is wrong I don't want to just return the motherboard without knowing that is the problem. So I've got one shop testing it on their bench. They said "$79 for one hour on the bench" and I said "ok" meaning in my mind they would figure it out in "one hour"... but I now think they meant $79/hour for however many hours it takes.

Also, I left an old NVME on that motherboard that has nothing installed on it (well it has RISCV stuff that will absolutely not work I was planning to wipe it) and now I'm waking up in the middle of the night thinking they might have been trying to recover my data! I hope not.

Turns out they are open on Sat at 10 AM so in 9 hours (It's 1AM now) I'll go in there and get an update maybe stop them... they have had it 1.5 days already.

In my OP here, I was wondering if in the mean time I could get a jumpstart on installing a new operating system if I buy a new NVMe drive and do the install in a different computer and then move it.

And finally, I have no idea how you guys use phones for nostr. My finger presses 3 of those letters at once, always types the wrong one, and keeps miscorrecting what I type, plus my arm gets sore holding the phone up all the time.