Lock up problem

[tkistre]

My wife's aunt brought me her 5 month old Dell computer Saturday. Specs: 512mb memory, P4 3.0ghz cpu, 80gb hard drive, dvd/cdrw combo, integrated Intel video, audio & network, PCI modem running WinXP Media Edition. They use AOL to get online through modem. About the only thing they use it for is to get online some, work in Word & Excel a little bit and play a Windows game every once in a while. That is all. They go days without using it.

Not sure how long this has been happening, but the computer will lock up for no apparent reason. You could be online with AOL, typing a document, playing a game or just sitting at the desktop. It also locks up occasionly when it is in the suspend mode (monitor powered down.) There is no set time. It may do it twice in 30 minutes or it may not happen for 12 hours. Just no consistant thing.

Steps I've taken:
Updated Windows
Updated BIOS
Checked for viruses - none
Checked for spyware, etc... - none
Checked registry for startup problems - nothing
Ran Memtest for 8 hours - no errors
Checked Event Viewer right after lock up - nothing

Short of formatting, is there anything suggestions on what to check?

 

[fire400]

rollback from the Windows update and see what happens, maybe update other hardware equipment as well

could be a damaged peice hardware[z] if you know you can boot the computer with another drive successfully without lockups. most likely it could be your software environment just not wanting to like itself, fresh install?

might be heat generation issues, failed fan or bad paste or messy PSU.

check software first, then strip the machine down the bare minimum components as far as hardware goes and add a peice from there on to see what the real deal iz

 

[tkistre]

sorry to get back so late, but was out of town

ok, this problem was happening before Windows updates. I had did Windows update & BIOS update in hope of fixing the problem. The motherboard is integrated, so I could only change out hard drive, DVD Combo & modem. The only problem with that is since it is not a consistant problem, it sometimes goes as much as 12 hours or more before a lock up, so it could take days to troubleshoot hardware. I think it is very likely software related, but I just don't see any obvious thing it could be. I removed everything is the System Tray, but it still locked up. I did check for heat issues, but didn't see anything out of line.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Its 5 months old....its under warranty. Make dell fix it.

Dont want to sound like a smart ass but you shouldnt have to trouble shoot dells problems for them

 

[zagood]

Originally posted by: RadiclDreamer
Its 5 months old....its under warranty. Make dell fix it.

Dont want to sound like a smart ass but you shouldnt have to trouble shoot dells problems for them

QFT

-z

 

[tkistre]

The reason I was trying to see if it was a easy fix problem is because the owner has already called Dell several times. She was very fustrated with them because everytime she called, they (support in the Middle East) stated that they wanted to charge her for software support, even though she has a three year warranty for it. I was trying to see if it was something that maybe I could easily fix and help her out.

After talking to her today, she claims it has done it since she got it in January, so although I don't want to, I'll be calling Dell tonight.

 

[Oyeve]

Does it have Norton Anti-virus on it? That SW causes all sorts of havok.

 

[tkistre]

No, it does not have Norton. It came with PC-Cillin, but has expired. I put on AVG. I spent two hours on the phone with Dell to only have them state, they believe it is a software problem, not hardware, so they want to charge for support. I knew the first thing Dell Software support would say, is to do the Recovery. So I did it myself last night. Still, the same problem. I went ahead and put it in Safe Mode. Came back 5 hours later, same thing, locked up. I'll be calling Dell again tonight. Now I know one reason they are selling computers so cheap. They do not offer software support.

If anyone else has any suggestions, feel free to add. Thanks!