Windows xp media center, hard lock ups

Irish60Irish60 San Diego
edited April 2009 in Hardware
I have a newly assembled XP Media center desk top and am experiencing hard lock ups, screen freezes. please help.

Comments

  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Welcome Irish60.... I'm guessing hardware. You need to download and burn Memtest86+ to CD-Rom. Then reboot and boot from CD and run Memtest at least twice.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Also, a detailed description of your hardware may be of help. Please list PSU, MB, CPU, RAM and peripherals. Also tell us when it is locking up. Follow the memtest advice above too.
  • Irish60Irish60 San Diego
    edited April 2009
    Thanks, system specs:
    Intel DP43TF motherboard
    Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8Ghz 3mb 1066FSB
    Kingston 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800Mhz
    Seagate 500GB SATA HD 7200/16MB/SATA3G
    Sony DRU-842A DVD/CD RW
    NVIDIA GeForce 7600GS(came out of my Dell 9100)
    Power Up Black Corp ATX case w/450w PSU
    It locks up while online,(mostly)
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Power Up Black Corp ATX case w/450w PSU
    50% odds that's the problem right there - poor quality power supply. I don't know anything about "Power Up," but I bet the PSU is a generic, tired old design brought forward from the Pentium II days, just with a new label. Irish, the PSU is the heart of the system - not the motherboard, CPU, or memory.

    RAM problems can cause hangs, but it's usually a blue screen or system crash. A freeze can also be an indicator of poor power regulation. Please do run the Memtest utility as outlined above.

    Also, please look at the PSU and provide the brand, model number, and UL number shown on the label. Also, write down the current ratings shown on the label or find a link to a photo of the label. Although it may be rated as 450 watts, with cheap PSUs, that rating can be next meaningless. Maybe it's a actually a good power supply, maybe not.
  • Irish60Irish60 San Diego
    edited April 2009
    Ram Memtest86+ twice, passed both times. Will check out the power supply.
    Suspect video card,this acutally came out of the Dell I replaced because of the same problem.
    The nes system ran great for 72hrs before problem occured. System event viewer shows this error:
    Service Control manager, The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load i8042prt
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Irish60 wrote:
    Ram Memtest86+ twice, passed both times. Will check out the power supply.
    Suspect video card,this acutally came out of the Dell I replaced because of the same problem.
    The nes system ran great for 72hrs before problem occured. System event viewer shows this error:
    Service Control manager, The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load i8042prt

    It sounds like a good course of action. If you have another vid card to test with give that a go. Let us know what you find.
  • Irish60Irish60 San Diego
    edited April 2009
    So besides that fact I over looked the obvious, the problem is now solved. It turned out be my video card. Thanks for the help.
Sign In or Register to comment.