On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:26:01 -0700, Moxey2000
>Easier said than done, I'm afraid. We are all outside the US on a Navy Base.
>Wouldn't it seem likely, with all of the other folks having this problem
Define "this problem"
>with Vista, that Microsoft would be aware and issue a patch for it?
That's what suggests it's the PC rather than the OS per se, especially
with a new PC that you haven't installed anything on or exposed to
malware attack as yet (if this is the case, of course).
>Since another computer (among the 4 we bought) is doing the same thing
Tell me more about these 4 PCs?
What else is installed on them?
>it seems to me a software issue.
Well, if 2 out of every 4 Vista PCs failed, we'd have heard about it.
We've heard about a lot of things, but not those sort of failures...
So it's more likely something particular to these, such as drivers,
additional software, the way they were setup, etc.
You said you're at a naval base. Is the climate a lot hotter than
where the PCs came from? Is your mains supply good, or are you
running on lumpy generator power?
I'd start by checking the hardware. With new PCs, you aren't likely
to have bad motherboard capacitors, but you could have overheating
(especially if some moron applied serial number stickers to the top of
the processors, so the heat sink contact is bad; consider this
especially if pre-Core2Duo generation) or bad RAM, or bad HD
especially if lumpy power, poor case cooling or G-forces.
Make a MemTest96 boot CDR and test all PCs for 24 hours with that,
ejecting the disk after it starts to run so that any unattended resets
will be obvious (as opposed to booting the test again).
Then check HDs with HD Tune from
www.hdtune.com (must be run as
administrator). This test will show temperature and SMART details
updated in real time as you do the "slow" surface test. You can post
the SMART results text here, etc. Strive for < 40C HD temperature.
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To one who only has a hammer,
everything looks like a nail
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