Freezing computer

[cecil]

Hi, bought a computer last year [Medion Titanium 8386] comes with a 64 bit tech, 3.2MHz processor, 320 H/D, etc, after only 2weeks it started to freeze up, i"ve had new motherboard replaced, the problem stilled persisted, i"ve had new memory [1Gig] replaced, it still freezes up after a 4 or 5 startups,have done numerous factory resets, and the computer has been back to their workshop [Medion] at least 5 times,they still have my computer. I was wondering if anybody came across this problem before?

[redwudz]

There's not much left to replace.

Power supply would be one and the CPU the other. It's possible one of the drives is causing it, but that seems highly unlikely. Or the video card, again unlikely and they should have checked this. I would have thought they would have substituted the PS by now also, though.

[isogonic]

i vote for a failing/faulty PS

[smearbrick1]

Is it quick freezes or total lockdown freezes?

If it is short, intermittent freezes, it could be a device driver conflict (I had the same thing with USB ports sharing the same resources. Solution: disable the offending USB ports hardware profile.)

If it is just a hanging freeze that requires you to yank the power cord, without a BSD, I would venture to say power supply.

If it froze then restarted on it's own, I would say overheated processor.

[cecil]

its a total lockdown freeze, no[BSD] whatever is on screen stays locked on. the computer had a full factory format, no hardware or software on computer, just what came with the disk, and it still locks up after 4or 5 startups,

[ROF]

From what I can see on the specs for this system and reading many user complaints it sounds like the proprietary power supply is conflicting with the proprietary motherboard. The problem is that you can replace one and might get some useful life out of it but after awhile one or the other starts acting up again and will require replacement. The Medion is what is called a supermarket computer. It's sold in supermarkets next to the lemons for a reason. Sorry to hear about your luck.

[cecil]

hi rof, thanks for your reply, you are absolutely right, i bought the computer from a supermarket in the UK, Aldi stores. i have now ask for a full refund, as the computer never worked from the word go, it has cost me a small fortune in phone calls to their helpline, the dammed thing is not even a year old. thanks to everyone for your help, will let you all know of the outcome

[blinky88]

HEAT is a major contributor to problems with components and your problem sound very much like a heat problem.

Try adding an additional fan or two.

[handyguy]

Yep, you can take the case off & point a big fan at it to verify that.

[blinky88]

handyguy, that's a very good alternative to installing the fans. I do know that overheating does cause alot of problems with various components and doing as you suggested would 'cost nothing' and only take a few minutes to confirm whether or not heat is the problem.

[ROF]

Yep, you can take the case off & point a big fan at it to verify that.

I wouldn't recommend such operations for too long for several reasons.

One would be the fact that your system is open to any and all manner of objects from entering and causing issues. If you have pets you know what curiousity did to the cat.

Secondly, would be dust and debris. A large room fan can pick up a tremendous amount of dust and large pieces of debris in a very short time. Again if you have pets you will notice after a few days that your motherboard now has hair seemingly attached to it.

Thirdly, it's just makes an ugly biege box even uglier.

It's just no a good idea to operate your computer with it's guts exposed to the world.