Please help me with my major Vista 32bit problems!

[SymphonicX]

Hello all

I am having major problems with vista - this is a system hand built so doesn't come from any manufacturer...my problems are as follows:

I get random crashes - the screen freezes and has to be restarted by powering off then on again
The mouse and keyboard will sometimes really conk out - the mouse movement will be impossibly slow and laggy, and the keyboard doesn't respond too well, first it won't take in a letter when its pressed then upon the second press of a button it'll spit out that command about 20 times, giving me loads of letters repeated for no reason -sometimes i try in vain to bring up the task manager to see what's going on and if I am lucky enough to get there (or usually pre-empt it crashing) it doesn't actually display anything problematic, everything appears to be working fine according to that. the only way to fix this issue is a complete reboot - the problem is sometimes it does it and sometimes after about the 5th restart it'll be fine for ages...so it feels totally random sometimes...throughout this my hard drive is whirling and whirling...

Sometimes Event Viewer shows some errors with the mouse driver, I looked up a solution to this which involved editing the registry but all the reg entries are correct according to vaious websites....no critical errors are really reported though.

Here are my specs

AMD AM2 X2 (dual core) 3800
2GB (2 x 1Gb) DDR2 RAM
320Gb SATA-II hard drive
Black DVD ReWriter (Dual layer)
Nvidia Geforce 8600 gts video card
7.1 Channel High Definition audio

any help would be VERy appreciated, this si killing me!!

T

[Miz]

Did it ever work without problems? If so, did you install any new software or hardware right before the problems started?

Hardware: If it had these problems from the start, have you opened it up and checked all the connections to make sure they are correct and secure? Have you checked that all fans are running? Are you sure the power supply unit is powerful enough?

Are you absolutely sure all hardware is Vista compatible?

Software: Are you sure all installed programs and all drivers are Vista compatible?

[SymphonicX]

Hi there, thanks for your reply :)

when if first got the PC it would randomly crash ie: mouse keyboard and hd would freeze leaving me no choice but to power off then on again...but no problems with the mouse pointer or keyboard spitting out stuff...

I have opened the case and checked all the cords, connections etc...the fans work (both cpu and gfx fan)

The machine passed Vista compatibility test when it was installed for me (what do you think from my specs up there? To me it sounds pretty solid, most stuff is pretty new and my lowest score is 4.8 windows experience index, which is the processor, everything else is between 5.6 and 5.9)

the only bit of sotware which I am dubios about is the wireless keyboard and mouse drivers, will uninstall those tonite and see if I experience same probs from normal usb keyboard and mouse....event id error is 51 I think, if that helps...

[jsmartin22]

Does your bios have settings that refer to a USB Keyboard/Mouse? Perhaps these need to be enabled? Wireless keyboard/mouse are basically a not-so-reliable USB keyboard/mouse. A standard USB Keyboard and mouse would work better, at least for troubleshooting purposes and PS2 Keyboard/Mouse would work better yet, at least for troubleshooting.

I might also suggest you try a PS2 Keyboard and Mouse. Like you, I had a homebuilt system, and while I didn't have crashes, when my computer went to sleep, it didn't wakeup. Basically, the Wireless Keyboard/mouse didn't work so well. Problem was greatly improved when I migrated to a PS/2 keyboard.

[SymphonicX]

hey there

Thanks muchly for this - I did indeed stick a ps/2 keyboard and mouse in my computer and it didn't behave at all like I said before - I have made three successful boot attempts, one failed one and had one blue screen between last night and this morning - the blue screen said something about my processor sending an invalid clock response or something similar (any ideas on that one?)

But anyway as for the lagging/freezing it seems that the USB wireless device (which might I add was cheap as chips and obviously a piece of sh*t) was causing the problem - the only slight downside was that sometimes when the computer boots it won't recognise the DVi signal to my HD telly, so it starts up with a black screen, bringing the pc into and then out of Sleep mode solves this, and the keyboard that I just ditched had a very handly sleep button oni t....oh well, I've just changed the front panel to go to sleep rather than shutdown....handy!

Still now I am going to have to sort out the BSOD and general freezing problems, but I am very shocked and slightly appalled at the lack of USB keyboard support in Vista!!

Thanks for your help. any other insights greatly appreciated :)
T