I have just got a Packard Bell imedia PC from the world of pc......Its been up and running for about a week now and just keeps freezing the screen so i cant do anything....it also keeps dropping my internet conn.....
I am runnung vista with the ultimate upgrade pack and have installed my wireless keyboard and mouse, webcam etc apart from that its all pretty standard...its got a core2 quad thing and i thought that i had put my pc troubles behind me with this new machine!!!
urm....I know i cant take it back to the shop as i have constantly been on 420 and have photo's of my grow on here, i know that someone who is technically wiser will be able to sort it out in no time but i am a complete tech-fuck-wit...

Any questions...ask away and as long as my pc doesnt freeze i will answer!!!
Thanks in advance
Peace
DW

Im relatively good with PC's but wouldnt like to attempt to fix one without being able to see it sorry , If you decide to take it back to the shop to get it fixed download a program that shreds files rather than just deletes them - I use Tune Up utilities to do this which i downloaded from a torrent site not sure if it works with Vista though, you really also need to delete all temporaty internet files, cookies and your browing history before taking it back. If you think it could be a virus you could try and download avast the free version has touch wood kept me clear of viruses for about a year , theres a couple of free spyware removers out there that are good and free - a-squared , spyware blaster and spybot are all quite effective I have found, sorry I cant be of more help I just dont really know to much about fixing a Vista Machine

You have just bought it, so you should just take it back to the shop and get them to sort it out so that you've got a usable machine.

Just transfer all your photos etc., onto a USB stick or burn them onto CD/DVD and then clear the cache and the browsing history on it, and then you're sorted to take it back.

If you *really* want, after you've gotten your stuff off there and cleared the cache/history, you could use some disk wipe software to wipe the 'free space' on the drive to prevent any files from being able to be recovered ('undeleted').

Thanks very much for getting back to me....I'm gonna try and download some of that anti spyware you said about.....I know nothing about computers and if someone such as your good self is a bit dodgy on vista.....i think perhaps i shoulda got something a little more familiar with xp on!!! Oh well....thanks for the advice!
Peace
DW

Nice one Scribble....Do you think that is my best option? If thats what it has to be then so be it ....its my new toy and no boy wants to hand back the new toy leaving a void where there once was a 420 threads page!!
So its file shredding then eh?
Cheers for getting back to me....I am gonna bite the bullet and clear the cache etc....after all i NEED a usable machine that dont keep freezing!!
Peace
DW

I think you have to face it that it's going to go back.

Having a PC that freezes is the most annoying thing. Every time it pauses for a second you think it's happened again.

But, there are so many possible causes (hardware and software) that I doubt you'll find much success.

Does it happen entirely randomly, or when you're doing particular things (running a certain game/app or surfing)?

|Hi Strawberry....it is mainly happening when i am surfing which happens to be 98% on 420!
I have tried to pin point exactly when it went wrong- but bar coming back to my teenage years- i cant think when it was....tooo much toking makes domina a forgetfull man!!
I only really got the pc updated when i found 420!! I wanted to get my photo's uploaded and have a quicker machine!! Our old pc was slow as a snail but never froze!!! BTW there is Norton on it pre installed so i thought i would be safe from virus's

Thanks for answering me anyway....its looking like it has to go back
Peace
DW

have you got enough ram installed ? as vista is a hungry beast ...and if you do decide to take it back ask for xp to be installed as vista is pants with its compatability with hardware and software ...they might do it for nowt

Nice one Vince....I have this pcu dial thing that says i am using 33% of my available ram....not sure what this means...have just checked CP and i have got 4gb of ram so i guess i am using about 1.33 of that ram.....does this help?

I have seen a couple of things about vista which aint to great so if and when it does go back i think i will go for xp.
Thanks for getting back too me....
I'll leave it a while for any other suggestions then its the big WIPE!
Peace
DW

Norton is a total POS and shouldn't be relied on for keeping a machine clear of anything - the only thing it's good for is slowing the most absolute beast of a machine to a crawl.

Unfortunately as well, Packard-Bell have far from the best reputation for building decent PCs, and as for PC World - well....


e2a: 4GB of RAM is plenty (to run *even Vi$ta* ) - also the 'RAM used' figure is pretty meaningless when it comes to Vi$ta as it uses most of your unused RAM as a disk cache etc. to help your machine be more responsive.

I must admit that I just installed Vi$ta Ultimate 64Bit on my new Core2Duo machine yesterday (just to play Crysis 64Bit version to see what it was like) and I must admit that with SP1 installed etc., it wans't actually *that* bad - is BSODed on me a couple of times, and the installation procedure had me crawling a couple of web forums for solutions as to why it couldn't find a 'valid system partition' (answer was disabling 'legacy USB support' in the BIOS ), but on the whole it felt quite snappy, and disk access was particularly fast (using ACHI/SATA).

This is in contrast to the Vi$ta 32Bit versions that I've used in the past which felt like total POS.

And as for those shops (like PC World) which sold laptops with 512MB of RAM on them with weak built-in GFX and then put Vi$ta on them... They took about 12 minutes to even boot (not exaggerating) and then another 5 minutes for the egg-timer to go, and then another 6 minute wait when you launched a web-browser...

No wonder I had loads of ppl asking me to rid their new PCs of Vi$ta and replace it with XP or Linux.

Given your answers mate, I'd say send it back and don't waste time on it. Life is too short for such pc-fuck-upery.

A simple way to clear your disks is a format (not the quick option) and reinstalll the OS. (The data is still theoretically recoverable, but nobody will go to the effort required without reason.)

p.s. if you can reinstall the OS without any crap from the seller (Norton, dvd s/w, crappy apps that do worse jobs than the native apps) you might inadvertantly fix the thing. (Though I think the odds are better for it being a hardware issue.)

Thank You All for your responses....I will bid a fond farewell shortly as i begin to wipe all trace of my hobby from the computer......until we meet again comrades!!
Peace
DW

Freezing will be a problem with explorer.exe

Go to the task manager, processes, and end everything apart from explorer.exe that doesn't have "SYSTEM" or "LOCAL SERVICE" next to it.
Then slowly open up all the things you need, wireless net, etc. one at a time and play around.
One of the progs will eventually make explorer crash and woo-pee you've got your problem.

Start -> run -> type "msconfig" without the quotes go to "startup" and then find the afformentioned shit-eating program and unclick it. This will stop it ever running again.

e2a: Just noticed you use vista, the above method may not work for vista.

I have just inserted a corsair 4gb mini usb device into the usb slot to save all my photo's and files to....it seems too have automatically installed atself as part of ram???? Feck knows whats going on.....the pc froze countless times yesterday so i did a disc clean up and de-frag(about as tech as i get!)....then i did a norton scan and fell asleep!!
come back to it this morning re started and its froze four times before making the post....it has yet to happen again....
how do i configure this dam corsair thing??
Thanks for being so patient! I am a complete non starter with computers bar 420 and photo editor!!
Peace


Ahhh Biz! What the feck is goin on with this machine!!

Dude you got it sorted yet~?..pisser when ya pc fucks up int it,good luck DW.

Oh dude your usb should show up as just a storage device of some kind,bit of a noob with comps myself bro sorry!!!

Well not exactly.. ...I'm kinda going along the..if it happens again, basil fawlty type madness of threats to a machine that cant hear me....i really dont want to have to take it back but if it keeps happening not only will i take it back but i will give it a damn good thrashing in the process...
Nice to see ya mate....if i am not about...its this swine of a bastad machine!!
Peace
DW

Comodo do a good security suite for free and adaware do an anti spyware for free.

Sounds like its a 'readyboost' enabled usb stick, i got one for the missus last yr for her vi$ta desktop.
(which may be getting xp installed onto it soon)

p.s. did you make the backup disk when you first started using it?
you may need it if your doing the 'format (not the quick option) and reinstalling the OS.''
''(The data is still theoretically recoverable, but nobody will go to the effort required without reason.)''
how about a bored pc employee ?
i dont think the effort is that much , i got some freeware that scans for deleted data when i accidentally deleted some piccies.

Hey every one....Thank for all the responses to my little problem....its strange as since i made the post the thing has worked perfectly fine!!! So for now i am gonna see how it goes....i tried to download some anti spyware but have not had much joy....some error with something or other....for now though itsworking fine so i really dont want to have to take it back as i live in the sticks and its a mission!!
TS, No backup disc was made...i just took it out the box installed my luxery extra i.e wireless keyboard etc then away i went!! I dont even have a disc in the house mate other than dvd an cd!!
Anyway, thanks again to all....
Peace
DW

Yup - that's the one - the USB memory stick will have been co-opted by Vi$ta to be used as a 'ReadyBoost' cache to speed up disk accesses by acting as a disk cache.

If you don't want it to be used for this, and want it to store data on instead, follow this procedure:

Start->Control Panel->Performance Information and Tools->Advanced Tools (left hand navigation bar)->Configure my Windows ReadyBoost device

You will now be back at 'Windows ReadyBoost Properties' - to disable ReadyBoost simply select the option that is labeled 'Do not use this device'.

Scribble, you are top-tippidy-top mate!! Thanks for your help mate.....I will more than likely be one of those people who end up bringing the machine to you to have vista removed but while i can keep on 420'ing i am goona stick with it in a blind hope that it may of 'fixed itself'!!
Thanks for your help though...
Peace
DW

Oh sorry Domina I forgot to tell you something , if you download spyware stuff i mentioned use download.com to get them from, if you type into google anti spyware programs and download from any random site your more likely to actually install spyware and viruses. The safest way is to use download.com or find the name of the software publisher and download it directly from them. Most free software doesnt have auto update as that is the feature you normally get when you upgrade to paid version so just remember to update every week or so. If you have norton I seriously reccomend you search google about how to completely remove it as it doesnt fully cleaar it when u uninstall and like someone else said it is a complete resource hog. Comodo is also very good like someone else mentioned for a free firewall. If you can get a copy of it Reg Mechanic has for me been probably one of the best programs I have downloaded in terms of fixing glitches and speeding my machine up and it is quite easy to use. If you cant get that Tune Up utilities has a reg mechanic built into it.

Some one else mentioned about how much ram you have, this is a massive problem as nearly all big retailers sell vista installed on machines with as low as 512mb ram which is a complete joke and probably half the reason why most people have issues with Vista, if your running Vista I would say 1-1.5gb is minimum you should have installed. Im not sure if its the same wih vista but if you want to check find the run option where you can type in commands, type DXDIAG that will show how much ram you have on the first page, it will also show you what ghx card you have installed on the 2nd page, if your running the Aero style windows (where the screens get turned on an angle and you can cycle through the windows you have open) then you may find its a ghx card problem in that alot of built in ghx cards are crap running it, I think you can use that Vista Score test built in to see what rating your ghx card gets if its low that may be part of your problem but like someone else said there can be a million reasons as to why you get freezes its just a process of elimination

It's a Core2 Quad machine with 4GB of RAM, so I think it's safe to say that whatever the problem is (was? ) that it's not one of performance. (not even running Vi$ta! )

If a brand new factory set up and configured machine froze on me from the get go, the first thing I would suspect would be overheating due to something having come loose in transit. I'd take it straight back to the shop mate. I used to be a P.C. tech, and I can tell you that if they have the time, the first thing they'll do is search for *.jpg files to see if you have any interesting or illegal porn. Other than that it's unlikely they would give a toss. If they came across pics of weed they would either not know what they were looking at and ignore it, or recognise it because their tokers and do nowt.

I used to manage the tech department of a computer shop, and we used to scan customers hard drives for porn all the time, cos it was the day's of very slow dial up, and it was always cheaper to copy it off customers than download it yourself. My two favourite memories are of the thirteen year old boy with acne who had loads of women and animal type pics, who came to pick up his upgraded p.c. with his mother, who was paying the bill. She told us proudly how her son was a genius who spent all his time programming and doing his homework on it. If only she knew what he was really up to. The other one was the guy who had saved a whole load of pictures of himself giving his boyfriend an enema. He was a really nice guy and a regular customer. It was so hard looking him in the eye when he came to pick it up.

It *is* a Packard Bell from PC World....