Thoughts on Win 7

Hi,
I had XP for years, no problems, then the mb crashed and burnt, bought new PC with Win 7 about 3 weeks ago, in which time it has crashed (frozen) at least 30 times!!! It has improved since and the problem now is that after starting I can almost guarantee it will freeze on the 1st thing I click on. After re-booting it might still do it again and need another start or it might be ok, if it runs ok it will be ok all day & night, how strange. I need expert advice as to what it might be, if I return it to the shop they will charge me saying my software is a problem!! Can anyone help please. No exotic software is on the PC, just regular stuff.

Thanks ZigZag for the tips, although I have used computers since the Sinclar ZX81 I have never got into the nuts and bolts of the PC so I might be a bit slow in getting the answers you asked for, good job I've got all day.
Roger :)

The old adage in windows always was that 90% of freezes are due to graphics issues - normally the driver not always the case and depending on where the system was purchased there may be a lot of start-up items that are not needed ( the famous Bloatware syndrome with the major OEM suppliers).

I would, After following ken's advice, check if there is a later driver for the graphics available on the graphics manufacturer's site.

I would also check what items are in start-up, as you say if the system is OK after initial start-up, it runs OK for a while it may be that two or more start-up items are clashing.

And with me it was the ZX80

Hi,
I have so far run sfc/scannow, no integrity problems. I next checked device manager, no yellow warnings on anything. I next checked event manager, there are lots of critical events the most recent is EV41 kernal power, happens between 2 to 6 times a day and has happened 88 times since the PC was built. I have not had a conclusive test yet with safe mode due to fat fingers but will try again and let you know results.
Roger

Update. Windows found a new Nvidia driver, this made it worse (more crashes) so I rolled back to the old driver. I have changed start-up to "Selective start-up load system services only", will see if that does any good. IE8 has crashed twice this evening, switching to Firefox. Will XP run on my machine if I/we cannot get Win7 sorted? I never had any problems at all with XP, bless it. I have hidden all pills and tablets etc. just in case I am tempted.

Something seems to be on the blink in your graphics. I would bring the thing back and ask for a new one or my money back. I have not had a single blue screen on 3 Windows7 machines in over 6 months.

Usually kernel-power warnings, if they're not telling you the system crashed, are telling you there's a hardware issue. What specifically are you seeing in your kernel-power errors? If the entire OS is freezing, that's not good. There are ways to test if it's hardware or software, but it requires a PS/2 keyboard (not a USB one).