Brand New PC Freezing

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Lukedt95

New Member
Brand New PC Freezing - SOLVED

First off, sorry if this is in the wrong section.

So I bought a Desktop PC and it came only a couple of days ago, on the second day when watching a video on youtube, the whole computer froze for about 2 or 3 minutes, it then came back and came up with this -

'Intel Media Accelerator had stopped working but has now been repaired'

I thought nothing of it and carried on using the computer as normal, however it happened around 3 or 4 more times after that, I decided to upgrade the graphics and fitted a brand new ATI Radeon 1GB PCI graphics card, everything was fine until it froze yet again, it's frozen today at least 3 times, at first I thought it was flash causing the problem (I was using Google Chrome) however after unistalling that and the Intel Media Accelerator (driver) the problem still persists. What Should I do? I really don't want to send it back as I need this computer (I bought it online)

Just to note (Incase you need to know)

The Mother board is a GA-G41MT-S2PT
There is one stick of 4GB Ram in there
The proccessor is an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz
The OS is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
The Hard drive is around 160GB

Usually the freezing fixes itself, however I have had to hard boot at least once. The screen just literally freezes (You can't move the mouse etc, before coming back)

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
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Lukedt95 said:
First off, sorry if this is in the wrong section.

So I bought a Desktop PC and it came only a couple of days ago, on the second day when watching a video on youtube, the whole computer froze for about 2 or 3 minutes, it then came back and came up with this -

'Intel Media Accelerator had stopped working but has now been repaired'

I thought nothing of it and carried on using the computer as normal, however it happened around 3 or 4 more times after that, I decided to upgrade the graphics and fitted a brand new ATI Radeon 1GB PCI graphics card, everything was fine until it froze yet again, it's frozen today at least 3 times, at first I thought it was flash causing the problem (I was using Google Chrome) however after unistalling that and the Intel Media Accelerator (driver) the problem still persists. What Should I do? I really don't want to send it back as I need this computer (I bought it online)

Just to note (Incase you need to know)

The Mother board is a GA-G41MT-S2PT
There is one stick of 4GB Ram in there
The proccessor is an Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.20GHz
The OS is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
The Hard drive is around 160GB

Usually the freezing fixes itself, however I have had to hard boot at least once. The screen just literally freezes (You can't move the mouse etc, before coming back)

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
Click to expand...

What does your CPU run at, when idle and when internet browsing (check task manager)...
 
The CPU usage when idle is around 3% and when browsing is around 55% when loading a new page before going back down to 3% when just browsing a page.

And no, there are no beeps at all when turning on the PC
 
Now I just went into the 'Safety settings' in the BIOS and it showed me that the CPU fan was running at something like 2700 but the system fan was running at 0, now I'm not sure if I even have a system fan (forgive me If all computers have them, I'm not that knowledgeable about PCs)

Could over-heating be the problem? I've set it to warn me when the PC get's over 60 degrees C (It was at around 55/56 when I was in the BIOS)
 
Anyone?...

I've had no warning about the temperature, which is beginning to make me think it isn't heat related.
 
Thanks for the reply, I checked the RAM using memtest and left it on for over an hour (it found no errors) I even tried taking out the RAM, cleaning the pin connectors and putting it back in.

I don't think a faulty Hard drive could cause errors as I had a hard drive on an old laptop that was very badly damaged with bad sectors, yet the computer never froze, not once (I later replaced the Hard drive anyway) Plus this is a brand new computer, and all the components are also brand new. Or could a bad Hard Drive cause it to freeze? As I've said, I'm no expert. If it is the Hard Drive, I'll ask the company I bought it off for a replacement, they've already sent me out a case fan free of charge in case it's a heat issue.

I'm at a loss here, I don't understand what is causing this. I could try a fresh install of Windows, although I'd doubt that would do anything.

Would anyone recommend running the preloaded Hard Drive test? The one that you have to schedule next time you boot up?
 
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Lukedt95 said:
Thanks for the reply, I checked the RAM using memtest and left it on for over an hour (it found no errors) I even tried taking out the RAM, cleaning the pin connectors and putting it back in.

I don't think a faulty Hard drive could cause errors as I had a hard drive on an old laptop that was very badly damaged with bad sectors, yet the computer never froze, not once (I later replaced the Hard drive anyway) Plus this is a brand new computer, and all the components are also brand new. Or could a bad Hard Drive cause it to freeze? As I've said, I'm no expert. If it is the Hard Drive, I'll ask the company I bought it off for a replacement, they've already sent me out a case fan free of charge in case it's a heat issue.

I'm at a loss here, I don't understand what is causing this. I could try a fresh install of Windows, although I'd doubt that would do anything.

Would anyone recommend running the preloaded Hard Drive test? The one that you have to schedule next time you boot up?
Click to expand...
You need to test the RAM for more than an hour, more like 4-5 hours. What I did when I was having the same problems was test the RAM and then go to school, come home and see what Memtest said. I'd say 4 hours should be long enough to test the RAM. You need to test each stick individually ideally too, or trying running the computer for a day or two with one stick removed.

A bad hard drive can cause freezing and random crashes, I'd test the hard drive too, there's every chance it could be bad even if it's new.

Update all your drivers too, graphics, SATA/AHCI, audio and all the rest of them. Could just be bad driver compatibility.

As John said above try running the computer in Safe Mode and see if the problems occur there too.
 
I no longer need the Intel Media Accelerator driver, as I've installed an ATI Radeon 1GB PCI graphics card, that is why I un-installed it thinking it was the cause of the problem.

I done a check for bad sectors/corrupt files and checked the box to automatically recover or repair them, it finished that and it didn't turn up any problems (I used the one pre-loaded with Windows, buy going to:

Computer>right clicking the HD>Properties>Tools>Error Checking

I used windows Update to check for new updates for all my Drivers but it seems they're all up to date.

I'll perform a Memtest tonight (leave it on overnight) and see what it turns up.

Could it be the power supply? It is recommended that I use a 500W cable, but I went out and bought the standard power cable that fits desktop PCs.
 
Don't use the in-built Windows diagnostics tool, what make/model of HDD do you have? You need to download the diagnostics tool from your HDD manufacturer.

Did you uinstall the Intel drivers properly?
 
Starting in safe mode is no help at all, as I need access to the internet to try watching videos or playing any sort of online game to see if it crashes.

I unistalled the Intel media accelerator driver via the Programs tab in the Control Panel. I have no idea of the make or model of my Hard drive.

One interesting thing to note, is the Wifi card which is installed in the PC (was installed by the company I bought it from) allows me to connect to the internet and works fine, however when I hover over the icon, it has a little cross on it and says it doesn't exist?..

Here:

Notexist.png
 
Open up your computer and see what hard drive you have, you just need to know the manufacturer.

You need to use DriverSweeper in future to uninstall your drivers and install new ones.

If you have the time and the disc maybe try reinstalling Windows.
 
Well I have a disk that came with the pc with all the drivers on there, I could reinstall them all, then erase the media accelerator with Driver sweeper?

Could that Wifi card be the problem?
 
Could try and use driver sweeper to remove the drivers for your wi-fi card and see if that helps, or you can uninstall the drivers from device manager by right clicking on the device and then selecting to uninstall the driver. You could also try disabling the wi-fi adapter or disabling/removing the drivers in device manager and the complete remove the card from your system - ie, take it out.
 
spirit said:
Could try and use driver sweeper to remove the drivers for your wi-fi card and see if that helps, or you can uninstall the drivers from device manager by right clicking on the device and then selecting to uninstall the driver. You could also try disabling the wi-fi adapter or disabling/removing the drivers and then completely removing the card.
Click to expand...

I would then have no way to access the internet to see if the problem is resolved. Plus No disk came with the PC for the Wifi card, so I'd be worried about not being able to get it to work again.

I'll try putting in the disk that came with the PC, see what it comes up with, install any missing drivers, then remove the media driver?

EDIT: I do have a disk for the Wifi Card, I'll try unistalling then reinstalling it.

Could you give me a link to a download for the DriverSweeper?
 
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On your router can you use a CAT-5 cable and use ethernet to see if the problem is resolved?

You need to remove your AMD Catalyst Control Centre drivers before you attempt you install the media driver again. In fact, remove your Radeon and see if the problem persists.

DriverSweeper http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/
 
The Problem was there before I installed the graphics card, the first time it happened it said something about the Intel Media Accelerator crashing. Which is why I unistalled that driver, bought a graphics card and fitted that.

Why would I have to remove the Radeon graphics drivers before installing the Media Accelerator?
 
You need to remove the Radeon ones from Device Manager or by using DriverSweeper because when it comes to installing graphics drivers you need to remove old versions before you install new versions, especially when they're from different companies.
 
Here's what I plan to do:

First off, remove the Ralink Wifi Card drivers etc using Driver Sweeper, then reinstall, watch videos to test if this fixes the problem. If not, unistall the Radeon graphics card, remove it from the PC, reinstall the Media Accelerator, and then remove it (via DriverSweeper), reinstall the Graphics card and then test again to see if the problem is fixed.

Wish me luck...
 
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