Vista - HELP, any suggestions please?

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!

hello scott94, and welcome to the forums,

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

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.

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

try a memory test.

Memtest86.com - Memory Diagnostic

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

The download one why pay when you can get it free

haha good point 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

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.

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.