I bought a new dell vostro about a month ago, pre-installed with
windows vista home premium 32bit. All has been going well with it
until Wednesday night when for some reason whilst using messenger the
program froze, went light grey and a timer came up in place of the
pointer.(i have a vague recollection of seeing a pop up regarding the
power supply to the computer - not sure what it was) nothing else
would work on the comp, ctrl/alt/del did not work so I couldn't force
application to quit. Eventually just held power button until system
rebooted. Since this first happened the computer continually freezes
with no way of closing down programs, have tried a system restore, but
even that process stalls and doesn't complete. Have tried uninstalling
McAfee in case that was causing it but to no avail. I loaded up
windows in safe mode which seemed to work fine, although the system
restore was unavailable in safe mode.
At the time it was downloading an 80mb vista update, which is yet to
finish, again in safe mode the vista update was not running. The
freezes occur with random programs, not just one particular one
Anyone got any ideas of what the problem is and how to fix it, got a
lot of uni work needing done outside of work hours and not having use
of this computer is really annoying.

Hi,

Sounds like a hardware failure, something that is not uncommon in a new
system. Contact Dell and use warranty support as a component or the unit
itself may need to be replaced.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

<wayneledlie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f9f7bab6-542b-40f0-8a03-511bcd825ab7@xxxxxx

>I bought a new dell vostro about a month ago, pre-installed with
> windows vista home premium 32bit. All has been going well with it
> until Wednesday night when for some reason whilst using messenger the
> program froze, went light grey and a timer came up in place of the
> pointer.(i have a vague recollection of seeing a pop up regarding the
> power supply to the computer - not sure what it was) nothing else
> would work on the comp, ctrl/alt/del did not work so I couldn't force
> application to quit. Eventually just held power button until system
> rebooted. Since this first happened the computer continually freezes
> with no way of closing down programs, have tried a system restore, but
> even that process stalls and doesn't complete. Have tried uninstalling
> McAfee in case that was causing it but to no avail. I loaded up
> windows in safe mode which seemed to work fine, although the system
> restore was unavailable in safe mode.
> At the time it was downloading an 80mb vista update, which is yet to
> finish, again in safe mode the vista update was not running. The
> freezes occur with random programs, not just one particular one
> Anyone got any ideas of what the problem is and how to fix it, got a
> lot of uni work needing done outside of work hours and not having use
> of this computer is really annoying.

is there any way of finding the pop-up about the battery in an event
log somewhere, so I could at least know what it said?

wayneledlie@xxxxxx wrote:

> is there any way of finding the pop-up about the battery in an event
> log somewhere, so I could at least know what it said?

Not if your computer won't start! Just call Dell and don't wait.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

<wayneledlie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f9f7bab6-542b-40f0-8a03-511bcd825ab7@xxxxxx

>I bought a new dell vostro about a month ago, pre-installed with
> windows vista home premium 32bit. All has been going well with it
> until Wednesday night when for some reason whilst using messenger the
> program froze, went light grey and a timer came up in place of the
> pointer.(i have a vague recollection of seeing a pop up regarding the
> power supply to the computer - not sure what it was) nothing else
> would work on the comp, ctrl/alt/del did not work so I couldn't force
> application to quit. Eventually just held power button until system
> rebooted. Since this first happened the computer continually freezes
> with no way of closing down programs, have tried a system restore, but
> even that process stalls and doesn't complete. Have tried uninstalling
> McAfee in case that was causing it but to no avail. I loaded up
> windows in safe mode which seemed to work fine, although the system
> restore was unavailable in safe mode.
> At the time it was downloading an 80mb vista update, which is yet to
> finish, again in safe mode the vista update was not running. The
> freezes occur with random programs, not just one particular one
> Anyone got any ideas of what the problem is and how to fix it, got a
> lot of uni work needing done outside of work hours and not having use
> of this computer is really annoying.

Try running Dell Diagnostics. If your new Dell is like mine, shutdown and
wait 10 seconds. Locate the F12 key on your keyboard {or whatever function
key is used in your computer for Boot Menu} until the Boot Menu appears. If
Windows starts to load, wait until Windows is up, shutdown and try again.
When the Boot Menu appears you should see a list of your drives and at the
bottom Dell Diagnostics. Click on Dell Diagnostic. When the diagnostics
screen appears, click on Test System and then on Symptom Tree. In the
Symptom Tree run the test for computer freeze. The tests can require several
hours.

You should read your manual on Dell Diagnostic first. The manual should tell
you how to run Dell Diagnostics from the Boot Menu or from your Drivers and
Utilities disc.

Call Dell Support.

Don

Right,
I contacted dell who took me through all their diagnostics which apparently said that there wasn't a hardware failure. He eventually got me to do a restore to factory settings, but since then the computer has still frozen. Since then have installed firefox, openoffice and registered McAfee and I think that is about it, no other changes.
if playing a cd it will appear to get stuck as cds do making the most god awful noise, but the comp then freezes up again - also happens if playing media from the hard drive. It has also frozen whilst trying to transfer files from a memory disk and whilst trying to view pictures on the computer, as well as the usual freezes whilst on messenger and firefox.
I have had windows updates turned off since restore as advised by dell, who adbised then to turn back on which i just have. system was freezing before updates were reinstated
Should I contact Dell again, if so have i any entitlement to insist on a replacement/ what are my options? the comp is covered by a 1 yr next business day service warranty.
Any other options, have read about updating drivers etc, not sure how to go about this.
Any help appreciated