Hint: next time get quality parts. i mean heck, a top of the line Motherboard, ASUS, ABIT, GIGABYTE and good memory recommended by the mobo maker like Corsair, Crucial etc and a cpu from intel core2 duo and you should be good to go. You can NEVER buy a case large enough, lots of room so no heat buildup. My last case was so big (server case) i had room to put water cooling inside the case and STILL plenty of room. That heavy steel case can be sat on if need be. HA BUY quality, ya can NOT go wrong on electrical stuff. Concerning a new build with a fresh copy of the operating stystem, i prefer to also have a brand new hard drive that has ZERO old stuff on it. no need for conflicts with old operating stytem etc with drivers.
I agree, the reason we went with this guy (friend of family sort of thing) is that he doesn't "sell shit" (his words), so the connections and hardware are topnotch-but i didnt order them, and the guy who did wanted "cheap", so it has been a debacle really. My system has xp home in it for chrissakes!! And the other (dodgy) unit has twice my memory, stuffed if i know how that happened. What the hell!!? I'm quite certain he was drunk when he ordered them, so Im not about to blame the computer guy, he's gone above and beyond the call of duty with these things-for a guy who probably earns thousands a day to spend so much time working on them free is exceptional, and remember it worked perfectly in the shop, bafflingly. The upside, is my box is looking like being a real solid unit, everything i need really so i'm stoked with that.
Lol, no....me, i may have gone with a dell, i keep getting flyers with seemingly great dell deals all the time. I'm considering picking up a refubished lenovo thinkcentre just as a backup/learning thing, (you can get em for a few hundred bucks) run ubuntu on it and see if i can learn linux os etc....i could screw around on it without having to worry about blowing up my tower, i'm so crap with computers its just not funny. I figure, i could stash a little monitor/keyboard and a thinkcentre in a breifcase and have a legitimately portable pc......sure, there's no battery, but i dont envisage sitting around trendy cafe's sipping lattes on wireless anyway. Probably a stupid idea, but maybe that's why it appeals to me.
In spite of all the Dell haters, Dells are actually about average and OK. Their base units and "deals" are usually a good value though they hose buyers on upgrades. Years ago I thought, "I'll never have a Dell". Well, I got one on a "deal", and have been buying them ever since. Not saying they are the best out there, but at least OK and certain ones are at a good price.
Still no satisfaction, fact is i just don't know what im doing. Doesn't seem to be any error's that relate to the freeze in the event log that i can find, (never got a BSOD, just froze on xp loading) so no luck finding an error code, and i would be wise to stay out of the BIOS anyway. Strange, but true. For your amusement, i will just detail the approximate events; Worked fine in the shop pre delivery; Worked fine on initial setup- then stopped, then worked again after techy turned up, briefly. Stopped working, shipped back, didnt work in the shop, they reloaded xp just to be sure, worked fine in shop, didnt work on re-installation. There isn't even a last known good configuration i could set it to, given the problem must have been effectively "latent" on both installs, somehow-even though its not technically possible, as far as i know. I know there was "an" issue with the ups initially, but has started normally in current setup-printer is set up fine and working-my box with xp home sp2 , no probs, xp pro SP3 doesn't want to start. Go figure. I think i have it-it only works in the presence of people who knows what their doing, so it must have a "gates" chip secretly installed, an override that randomly punishes non-nerds who constantly bash Microsoft for not making reliable product, or threatening to switch to free OS. Lol-i just got a spelling error on microsoft, until i used a capital "m" Thanks for the help guys, seems im out of my depth on this one for the time being, oh well
Thought you might like to know, it turned out to be (golly gosh) a hardware problem. Took the techies one and a half day to identify it, but a minor scratch/thing on the hard drive was the problem, bizarrely, the first problem of that sort they had EVER seen from that manufacturer. The hard drive has been sent to the manufacturer, with a "please explain", and hopefully this pc , like a phoenix, will return in actual working order, more than a month or two later. Thanks guys, and hopefully someone will have learnt something from this- A) never order new pc's while drunk, & B) When nothing seems to work, with severe "bugs", never forget hardware CAN be faulty, even new, even if it's unlikely, make sure these tech guys don't just tell you whats what, and that it must be your fault.