Odd Computer Setup Question

[Solecismic]

I've recently purchased a new desktop computer, it came with XP Home.

I couldn't access the Control Panel - damn thing hung when I tried about 90% of the time. So, tech support recommended I do a repair install of XP. That did nothing. So they recommended I do a reformat and a clean reinstall. Several hours of work here, considering all the crap I put on my computer.

I did that, and now I can access the Control Panel, but it often crashes explorer.exe when I exit. So tech support thinks I may have a bad memory stick (I have two 500M sticks). I suppose I could reboot with one stick out - it's not a big deal, but this sounds a little silly at this point.

Do I have a lemon here and should package this thing up and send it back to Kansas, or should I keep working with this guy? I'd build my own system, but I want a system with zero problems, built by people who know what they're doing. Or is this just what all XP customers have to deal with - I know my customer support workload is about 75% just XP Home acting up and refusing to recognize installed programs properly.

[stevew]

Im gonna assume you got all the latest windows updates. And if thats the case, I'd send it back if it were me. Ive never had much trouble with XP home, and I have a crappy emachine.

[Tasan]

Definately sounds like a memory problem. Do you have some free time to mess with it? There are some free memory testers out there that will give you a definate answer. This is one memory tester out there, I believe microsoft makes one as well thats free on their site, but I don't have the link for it:

http://www.memtest86.com/#download0

Anyway, more than likely the issue you see is not merely XP related. Xp generally isn't the crash monster that older Windows version were, it just doesn't always want to behave ;- )

EDIT: Silly me, a simple google led me right to the Microsoft tester:

http://www.windows-help.net/microsoft/memdiag.html

In fact, this is the one I've used. It nailed a memory problem I was having once.

[gstelmack]

Echoing Tasan: XP is very stable when run on reasonable hardware (and on systems that don't have all this "free" software installed that's really a front for spyware and trojans that are doing really nasty things behind the scenes on them). There is almost certainly a hardware problem if a clean XP install is failing, and memory is as likely a culprit as any.

[Gallifrey]

I would pull the RAM sticks and re-seat them, one at a time rebooting after each. This should expose the bad stick.

Here is where it could drive you crazy. If you install any software while a RAM stick is not working well or isn't seated well, the install can be subject to problems.

In a situation like yours you need to make sure the hardware is stable first. XP is very stable, Home or Pro (the only real differences is in networking).

I build my own PC's making sure the hardware will work well together, then install my OS and other programs on a fresh drive, only after I prove the OS install is clean and all my hardware drivers are clean.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Tasan

Definately sounds like a memory problem. Do you have some free time to mess with it? There are some free memory testers out there that will give you a definate answer. This is one memory tester out there, I believe microsoft makes one as well thats free on their site, but I don't have the link for it:

http://www.memtest86.com/#download0

Anyway, more than likely the issue you see is not merely XP related. Xp generally isn't the crash monster that older Windows version were, it just doesn't always want to behave ;- )

EDIT: Silly me, a simple google led me right to the Microsoft tester:

http://www.windows-help.net/microsoft/memdiag.html

In fact, this is the one I've used. It nailed a memory problem I was having once.

Thanks for the link. I'm running the tests right now. and the first pass of the extended test was clean. I'm inclined to think this may be related to the myraid of crap the video card driver disk installed.