windows 7 issue
 

I'm having an issue with a windows 7 machine. Not my laptop buy the desktop I also have. It's a generic HP box with 1.25 gigs ram, ATi processor, etc.

But it keeps freezing and requires a hard reset. Any ideas? I'm running the monitor to the output off the mother board since the supplied graphics card has a bad fan.

Does the cursor still move when you move the mouse? I had a similar lockup issue on my Compaq running Ubuntu, ditching the onboard graphics and going to a cheap very outdated video card fixed it. Some day I will justify spending the $50 on a newer card.

I thought win7 needed 4 gigs to run.

if you run aero and all of that fancy stuff.

the graphics card I have on hand works but the cooling fan is going bad. It sounds like the bearing is shot.

Win7 doesn't even take a gig to run, I have it on my AMD 3400 x2 with 1054MB ram and it is fine. Did you install Win7 yourself or did it come with it? I woudl start with a fresh install of Win7, if it still happens then turn to hardware. If you're not using the standalone ATI video card, remove it and see if the problem persists. Essentially you want to keep narrowing down the problem until you just have HD, Motherboard, and Power supply. Then you know it is one of those three or RAM.

its a fresh install. I'll put the standalone card back in and see if its causing an issue by not having it. The fan works but the noise from it is ridiculously loud.

Hows the memory configured? You have 2 512s and a 256 or something?

Windows 7 will run just fine on a Machine with as little as 1GB of ram so long as it has a decent graphics setup. 2GB+ will run great for most people, 4GB is excellent....I use 6GB.....my brother uses 16GB. :D

Freezing is most likely a heat issue, or failing hardware. I'll assume by its 1.25GB of ram that its not exactly new.

Issues:

-Dusty/dirty = overheating
-Failing hardware (Ram, or Hard drive)
-Software error (less likely)
-Messed up attached peripherals

What model HP is it? Install CPUID and tell me the MB manufacturer and the revision number of the firmware.

There's a known problem with HP MB's that cause this random freezing.

ok I will have to try that. I'll put the graphics card back in as well and see what happens

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74...rx24/cpuid.jpg

This is what CPUID found.

Let's see the main board specs.

PentiumD systems are olllld at this point.

Kill it... kill it dead