New computer decides to freeze and crash.

**Father Jack** · July 15, 2011, 07:11 PM

I bought a desktop (from a company which will remain anonymous) and it arrived today. I set it all up and after 15 minutes from loading her up for the first time, the screen freezes and is completely unresponsive. 'Well that was odd, I better make sure the drivers are all up to date and all of the windows updates are installed, that'll fix it,' I mused to myself.

After switching the computer on again and having about 20 minutes of trouble free leisure time with me and the computer happily making sure drivers etc were up to date....the computer turned off and then turned back on again. The freezing screen and crashes continued whenever I tried to do anything, while I sat there thinking, 'and to think I spent nearly £700 for this.'

I then tried to use the repair options from the Windows 7 boot disk, however it always froze during this process. I then decided to re-install the OS, however, again, it froze as I was doing so.

Has anyone got any ideas as to what could be the problem? The company's phone lines won't be open until Monday so I would be grateful for any input/ideas in the mean time.

For the record, Windows 7 came pre-installed and I have checked the components inside and everything looks fine (i.e. it is all connected properly).

Cheers

**The Black Reaper** · July 15, 2011, 10:40 PM

download memtest86+, remove a ram stick from your mobo and try to boot up with that... run memtest, follow the instructions on how. Repeat for the 2nd stick if the 1st is fine.

**PoleCat** · July 15, 2011, 11:14 PM

I'm assuming SATA. Could you check to see which port the HDD is installed in and which port he optical drive drive is is installed in? This might be an easier question to answer depending on your answers. I'll also assume you bought the system from an outside vendor instead of a custom build. Good luck!

Lastly, Reapers suggestion about running Memtest isn't a bad idea - give it a shot.

**The Black Reaper** · July 16, 2011, 12:02 AM

yea faulty memory can cause random shutdowns and/or boot up loops

**Father Jack** · July 16, 2011, 09:43 AM

It appears to be running without any freezing in safe mode. I'm not sure if this is indicates that the problems are being caused by driver clashes.

Cheers for the ideas, I'm just updating drivers in safe mode, if that doesn't work then I will look into the RAM being the issue.

**Taiji** · July 16, 2011, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Viridios

I then decided to re-install the OS, however, again, it froze as I was doing so.

2 Things to try:

1, Try a different power socket.

2, Set the bios to defaults.

If it's still freezing then send it back.

**Father Jack** · July 16, 2011, 06:22 PM

I managed to sort out the freezing by running the Windows Device Verifier. As I suspected it was caused by a clash between drivers but the verifier sorted that out.

The only problem remaining is the crashing. The computer will all of a sudden seem to lose power, switch off and then restart. Perhaps a PSU fault? Or could issues with one of the RAM sticks cause this? I have emailed the company but I wont get a reply until Monday.

**The Black Reaper** · July 16, 2011, 09:12 PM

try to test each stick of memory with memtest86+... if that doesnt give you any results then yes it could possibly be a psu problem.

Do you happen to have another PSU to test your computer with? If not try to use your PSU on a friends computer to see if similar problems occur

**Top-Tier-Tech** · July 16, 2011, 10:00 PM

I had a motherboard that would send the PC into boot loops until I set the DDR3 1600 RAM to XMP (the RAM itself works flawlessly), so you could fiddle with the RAM settings if it passes memtest.

**Father Jack** · July 17, 2011, 08:36 AM

Thanks for the replies.

I will void my warranty if I start removing the PSU and the RAM, so I am going to wait until I get a reply from them tomorrow. Perhaps I will throw these ideas at them and see what they think.