Finder forgets setting. Has to be hardware related

Question

Has anyone else been having issue with their Finder preferences magically changing?
My finder will repeatedly, on random occassions, forget the settings for certain things. For example, most settings will be fine, but a few folders will lose their view settings. Or when I restart, the computer will mix up which monitor is which (left and right will swap) and a restart will sometimes correct it. It is a lot of annoyances like that which are driving me mad!
This happened when we first bought the machine back in 2009. At the time, I contacted support and we chalked it up to a software issue. Because at the time I was having the infamous issue where it would not wake up after sleep if the hard drives went to sleep. Back then, when the OS upgraded (10.6 I think) the errors went away and all was good...until the next OS update and they came back.
This issue has been with me since day 1 of owning this computer. And I have already swapped all of the memory modules, all of the hard drives, done clean installs 5 times and run every possible repair/fix I could find suggested anywhere. I have been dealing with this issue for a long time now, and it is driving me mad. It has to be resident in the system hardware (not including hard drives or memory) and not the software. Because the last 3 clean installs have been on new hard drives, with all other drives removed.
I honestly fear powering my computer down because I'll have to reboot 3 or 4 times to get the monitors to show up properly (I used to reconfigure them manually each time). And my main folder I work in, keeps losing its settings (Icon size changes, grid size and arrangement). This is seriously getting annoying as it takes up valuable time. This is my work machine and it seems like I spend too much time fixing it. We don't have these issues with the other 3 machines here in the office which is why it leads me to believe it is hardware. I'd just let Apple deal with this, but when it was under Apple Care, I was told that it was the OS, now I am wiser and know it isn't!!
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve this? I can't see buying a new machine when this is still a powerhouse.
Also, keep in mind that I have tried just about anything that is out there in regards to permissions, settings, installs, etc... But if you know of something I can try that might alter something on the main hardware (cpu, motherboard, etc..), please let me know. And sorry for the long rant. Been dealing with this issue for 4 years now!!!!

Answer 1

Back up all data.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below to select it:
rm -i /V*/Working/Working/.DS_Store
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V).
You may be prompted to remove a file named exactly ".DS_Store" (without the quotes.) Press the Y key and then return to confirm. Press the N key and then return if you get any other response, or just close the Terminal window. You can then quit Terminal. Test.