HELP, any suggestions please?

scott94 · Sep 19, 2008

HELP, any suggestions please? *Problem Solved*

Problem now Solved

hi guys, firstly im new to the forum so would like to say hello to everyone, hope everyone is well.

secondly, ive been experiencing a problem with my desktop which i bought from pc world in january of this year.
the problem is i turn on the pc and its fine, but within the first 15-20 minutes the pc will crash regardless of what im doing, i could be on a word document, a game, the internet, and it will crash. then i turn it off, then on again and its fine the rest of the time im on it could be an hour, could be all day. its always every other time it crashes, and usually within the first 15-20 minutes, but sometimes longer.

the spec of my pc is: processor: Intel core 2Duo E4500, 2.2 GHz, 2047 MB of RAM, and 32-bit operating system, and i use windows vista home premium.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what may be wrong with my pc it would be greatly appreciated!

Barman58 · Sep 19, 2008

hello scott94, and welcome to the forums, :party:

In order to better help you can you give some more information.

such as do you receive any messages or does the pc just freeze?
do you get a Blue Screen error? if so what does it say?

unfortunately your original post doesn't give enough information. although time based problems are often related to screensaver or power management issues.

if you can post back with some more information I'm sure someone will be able to help

Joan Archer · Sep 19, 2008

How long has this been happening and if recent what changes have you made to the system ?

If it's been like this since you got it I'd take it back as it's still under warranty.

scott94 · Sep 19, 2008

hi barman and joan, thanks for getting back to me, sorry for being vague with the description.
The pc just freezes, i cannot do anything it wont even let me go to task manager. its been doing this since i bought it in january this year.
I went into pc world, and they said contact the tech guys, so i phoned them and we chaged the power settings, to no avail.
then i downloaded a packard bell diagnostics cd, did a hard disk scan, no luck, then did a reinstall of vista-to no avail.
and now im getting really frustrated because i need the pc for uni, and im worried the warranty will run out before pc world can rectify the problem

mansrm81 · Sep 19, 2008

try a memory test.

Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

scott94 · Sep 19, 2008

mansrm81 said:
try a memory test.

Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

thanks for the suggestion, would you reccomend buying one, or downloading one?

mansrm81 · Sep 19, 2008

The download one why pay when you can get it free

scott94 · Sep 19, 2008

mansrm81 said:
The download one why pay when you can get it free

haha good point:D thanks i will download it and try it out, i will let you know how i get on

i havent got a clue which one to download though

bassfisher6522 · Sep 19, 2008

If it's still under warranty, I would tell them to take it back and fix or replace it if it's been doing it since you got it. Intermitten problems, that is problems that manifest themselfs here and there from time to time are one of the hardest problems to trouble shoot in pc industry. If you have a friend that is pc savvy have them trouble shoot if with you. If no such friend then a pc repair shop is next. Most pc techs will start with the power supply and work their way through the system piece by piece. It could be just about anything at this point. If all else fails you could always reformat computer, make it like the day you brought it home. Save any and all programs, pictures, software that you dont want to lose or can not download again. I cant stress this enought..Save everything you dont want to loose. Good luck.

Barman58 · Sep 19, 2008

Hi scott94

your PC will still be under warranty but under UK consumer law the responsibility for this is now with the manufacturer Packard bell as you have had the pc for more than six months. as it has never worked correctly I would Write to Packard bell or at least e-mail them Contact link and explain your problems. explain that you need this pc for university and give them an actual date.

Unfortunately, as Bassfisher said, intermittent faults are the hardest to solve as the are not reproducible to order and thus diagnostics are difficult.

sorry can't give simple answer

but think it's important for you to get things underway with Packard bell as soon as possible.

scott94 · Sep 19, 2008

barman58 said:
Hi scott94

your PC will still be under warranty but under UK consumer law the responsibility for this is now with the manufacturer Packard bell as you have had the pc for more than six months. as it has never worked correctly I would Write to Packard bell or at least e-mail them Contact link and explain your problems. explain that you need this pc for university and give them an actual date.

Unfortunately, as Bassfisher said, intermittent faults are the hardest to solve as the are not reproducible to order and thus diagnostics are difficult.

sorry can't give simple answer but think it's important for you to get things underway with Packard bell as soon as possible.

ok thanks for youre help barman i will email them tomorrow, what do you mean "reproducible to order?" sorry im abit of a newbie when it comes to pc's especially vista.

Blaydrnnnr · Sep 19, 2008

....Welcome!! Reproducable meaning it does "this" everytime I do that"...yours just seems to crash at random times during random work loads.. so its hard to make a connection right off as to what is being done that causes the problem... yours is going to take aliiitle investigation... but.. all that being said.. if its still under manufacture warrenty.. you need to get in gear and get the manufacturer working to fix, or replce the machine or devices... otherwise this is going to be solely your problem and can get tricky to figure out.. not impossible.. but take alot of diagnosing.....since the machine still has a warrenty.. use it....the people here will try to give you an idea of where to start looking for possible answers.. but I'd get the manufacturer to back theyre product and satisfy the customer.:D
Also.. there is a tool here on the free tools thread, that will give alot of info on your machine and what is in it.. the Vista Forums Sysinfo tool...http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/176785-vistaforums-sysinfo-tool.html
It may help someone here help you..:D

Barman58 · Sep 19, 2008

:D not a vista term, not even unique to computing really a fault is "reproducible to order" if you can make it happen by performing a certain action e.g. open a particular program and cause a crash or even press the brake pedal on a car and cause a judder in the steering :D

good luck with PB they sold you a PC and if it won't run normally it's "not fit for purpose" so is a warranty issue

swarfega · Sep 19, 2008

Have you checked your viewer to see if theres any errors? Also a complete list of your hardware and and windows version including x86 architechture would be handy.

scott94 · Sep 19, 2008

Blaydrnnnr said:
....Welcome!! Reproducable meaning it does "this" everytime I do that"...yours just seems to crash at random times during random work loads.. so its hard to make a connection right off as to what is being done that causes the problem... yours is going to take aliiitle investigation... but.. all that being said.. if its still under manufacture warrenty.. you need to get in gear and get the manufacturer working to fix, or replce the machine or devices... otherwise this is going to be solely your problem and can get tricky to figure out.. not impossible.. but take alot of diagnosing.....since the machine still has a warrenty.. use it....the people here will try to give you an idea of where to start looking for possible answers.. but I'd get the manufacturer to back theyre product and satisfy the customer.:D
Also.. there is a tool here on the free tools thread, that will give alot of info on your machine and what is in it.. the Vista Forums Sysinfo tool...http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/176785-vistaforums-sysinfo-tool.html
It may help someone here help you..:D

thanks for the welcome and the advice, i will make contact with pc world in the morning.
thankyou for pointing me in the way of the sysinfo toll, ive downloaded it to my desktop but not sure what to do with it? sorry to sound like a newbie but what am i meant to do with it?

kind regards

Blaydrnnnr · Sep 19, 2008

you run this tool, it will have a place to check what things you want on the output file.. I would check " select all" and save it to your desktop..then post it back here so others can get a look at whats there and possibly whats going to be a potential problem. ( maybe )

Blaydrnnnr · Sep 19, 2008

:D...Excellent advise and great work on the research...Speaking from personal experience... do what you have to to get what you paid for.. a properly working system.

SIW2 · Sep 19, 2008

Hi Scott,

It has been some years since I looked at this, but unless there has been an Act of Parliament that has escaped my attention, The Sale of Goods Act is still in force.

Very simply, the party you have the contract with ( who you paid your money to, i.e. pcworld ) has a Statutory duty to provide goods that are fit for their purpose and of merchantable quality.

A warranty cannot override these Statutory rights ( it may add to them, but cannot reduce them ).

There has been so much case law established in this area, that it is hardly tested in the courts at all nowadays. It is generally accepted from precedent that an item costing in excess of £100 would be expected to last at least two years. This is why some credit card companies offer "free" extended warranty for 2 years on items over that amount - they are not giving you anything you haven't already got.

You say this problem has been there ever since you purchased the machine and you have already reported it to them.

In that case, take it back to the organisation you purchased it from ( pcworld ) - you have a contract with them, not the manufacturer.

Insist politely but firmly that under the Sale of Goods Act you have the right to a full refund, or a brand new replacement machine ( your choice ).
The shop assistant probably won't understand this - but the manager should have been on a training course and should know exactly what you mean.

You do not have to accept a repair if you do not wish to. Do not be fobbed off if they tell you it's not their responsibility as it' s to do with the software - If you bought it with preinstalled software, that is part of what you bought.

This only applies if you have not caused the damage yourself, of course.

I would take it back immediately.

SIW2

Barman58 · Sep 20, 2008

SIW,

Sorry if I misled

, I mis-understood a part of the act as it was explained to me

- the six month period relates to the burden of proof of a fault, basically if you return an item as faulty before six months you don't have to prove the fault exists to the vendor, they have to prove it doesn't exist.

In Scott's case, from my own experience, I would be banging on PC world's door and demanding action by now. Saying that I would also contact the manufacturer, explaining the fault and the facts of PCWorld's inactivity.

I have often found the manufacturer to be more responsive in this type of intermittent fault than the retailer, (especially the Large retailer),

scott94 · Sep 20, 2008

swarfega said:
Have you checked your viewer to see if theres any errors? Also a complete list of your hardware and and windows version including x86 architechture would be handy.

hi swarfega, i check the event log before my pc crashes and after, to check the errors, and the main one that seems to come up is the WerSvc application (event id-5007), and also but not as frequently the EventLog system (event id-6008). does anyone know what this means? and if theyre related to my pc crashing?

regards

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