Media center pc m8020n keeps freezing with windows 7 home premium

[Marc77049]

I recently updated my OS from vista business to windows 7 home premium and since then I have problems with constant freezing. I have tried to reinstall new OS over start over fresh with my hard drives reformatted and still the same issues. The computer will boot and sometimes will work on for a while and sometimes freeze on boot up. I am out of ideas I was told to replace memory and I have done that and still no solution. What else can be wrong!!! Thanks in advance for all the input.

[HardBeatZ]

Hello Marc77049,

There is a possiblity still of a failing hard drive. If the hard drive is dying and the read / write speeds are diminishing then the computer can lock up and freeze when the hard drive is being accessed. You may have to run some diagnostic tests on the hard drive to ensure it is still working in proper order.

This forum thread explains how to find information about the hardware diagnostics and some other further testing you can do, although it sounds like you may have already ruled the RAM out as the issue.

Computer freezes (even after fresh windows install)

Let me know if you are able to do hard drive diagnostics and what the results were.

[Marc77049]

Hello hardbeatz,
I would like to thank you for the input. I got home from work and turned on my pc to try the troubleshooting link you sent me and my pc said it had a system fan failure and shut down. Would that cause it to freeze as well? Or is that a separate issue entirely?

[HardBeatZ]

Hello Marc77049,

It could be what has caused it, but it is more likely that it is a seperate issue entirely. If the system fan has been failing for a while and your computer has been getting hot, more often than not they would just shut down and not turn back on till it's cooled down, however it could theoretically just cause the system to bog down.

How old is this machine? It may be possible that parts are just reaching their end of life and starting to die (although let's hope not).

The relatively good news is fans are pretty cheap so it should be a cheap fix to get the system fan failure issue out of the way and then we can monitor the system to see if the freezing and lagging continues.

[Marc77049]

Yes it must be a separate issue I did replace the fan last night and still the same issue. I got irritated with it trying to follow link u sent me with it freezing do is temporarily quit. Will try again when I get home this afternoon. Again thank you.

[ETECHCOMPUTERS]

Hello, i know this thread is kind of old but I am a PC tech and just had this PC run through my shop with the EXACT same problem. We updated the OS reseated heat-sink cleaned out dust etc. none of which fixed the issue. the actual prolem is on the graphics card that came with this machine. if you pull it out i can guarentee you it has a blown capicitor on it. You can use the PC without the card until you either de-solder and re-solder on a new cap or just upgrade your card. Hope this helps someone out there!

PS dont forget to change the video settings in the bios to onboard.

[HardBeatZ]

Hello ETECHCOMPUTERS,

Thank you for sharing your feedback! It's always a good idea to check the hardware when looking at the software doesn't fix the issue.

[ETECHCOMPUTERS]

Yes it is always good to check the HW when trying to narrow down an issue. we test all HW with Eurosoft. Eurosoft cannot pick up a blown or bad capicitor as the unit still works. it just causes the whole PC to lock up and freeze. sometimes it happens instanly sometimes it takes 30-45 minutes. The reason it doesnt freeze in safe mode is because you are only using bare minimum drivers and not using the full power of the card. I just responded to this post because i know i tend to do google searches on stubborn problems and i hate when someone posts the same problem but never comes back and leaves the solution. so now hopefully anyone with this issue can refer here and get it fixed! This unit ships with a GPU card which can easily be removed and just use the onboard GPU. So in reality, this could be a "free" fix :-)