What's wrong with my PC?

Question

I have a Dell E521, Windows Vista, 2 GB RAM, AMD Athlon 63 3500+, NVidia GEForce 7300 LE. Since I got my computer it has been randomly freezing, I'm talking at as random as times as you can get. I have ran all the diagnostic tools that Dell told me to do at their web site, but still no go. Now things are starting to get worse as of the past couple days. Whenever I start my computer, it won't go past the opening screen (with the big Dell logo and the BIOS number). I have to do a hard shut down for it to start properly. also, a few little things, like after my computer starts, I will right click on something in the taskbar, and nothing will happen until about 10 minutes later, where a menu will pop up in the middle of the screen from what i right-clicked 10 minutes before. Also Windows Media Player is telling me that "Media sharing is currently diabled, either because the sharing service is not running, or your firewall settings have been changed. To restart sharing, you must first...

Answer 1

i know your problem, it is there as clear as day in your first line................... Windows Vista!!!!

Answer 2

First of all you can turn off virus checking. In your control panel click on security settings and tell it you will maintain your own virus checker.



Then you need to get a hardware test program with a thorough

RAM test bad ram can cause this a free one can be gotten from www.ubuntu.com by downloading their operating system It has a good test on the opening menu.. You have to burn a CD an boot from it. Go to a friends computer and do this or maybe a library.



If it is in warranty do contact Dell.

Answer 3

Simple but a pain. make sure you have all your programs on CD to reinstall, as well as Windows. Then boot from the windows DVD and start the install process again. When it asks about repairing or keeping the current partition you want to actually delete it and reformat.



WARNING anything you fail to backup onto a second drive or external drive will be LOST FOREVER, be very cautious if you are willing to try.



Alternative is to boot from the Vista install disc and follow the prompts to repair a current installation. Unfortunately Dell (and most other brand name PC manufcaturers) ships their PCs with more junk loaded than New Jersey junkyard. I always format the drive and do a clean install without the extra "free" software.



Good luck.

Answer 4

I agree with Destroyer, sounds like a temperature problem or a hardware issue. Send it back to Dell and demand a refund or replacement (don't send it in to get fixed).



If you notice your computer getting really really hot, then it'd definitely a heating problem.



Try reformatting the harddrive and reinstalling the Operating System, if it's still the same call Dell and yell at them for selling you a piece of broken crap.



PS: Lynne is completely wrong, viruses don't manifest themselves at BIOS!!

Answer 5

That is a problem between Vista and Dell. Microsoft will have to come up with a solution for that for you. It is a programing error or it is a really bad virus which is very unlikely due to how strict Vista is.

Answer 6

Check the temperatures, try swapping out known working hardware to attempt proper POST, do a memtest86. Worse case scenario reflash bios, reformat.

Answer 7

From these computer behaviours, you may have a virus/spyware downloaded onto your computer. Otherwise, it might be a glitch in the computer. My advice is to not try and fix it, but to just take it back to where you got it, and they will either fix it or compensate. The sooner you take it back the more likely you are to have it fixed.

Answer 8

All I can say is it's time to return it and get another one, that's assuming that yours is still covered.