Iv'e worked on computers since 1980s'. I do not keep up on all the latest hardware. I do not really care. I was involved with developing software. I was a win 98 se guru. And I was a XP guru when most of us were still waiting for it to be officially released. In my experience.. Hardware doesn't make a machine, It's the software.
I posted that SP 2 would be a problem for cad/cam users long before it was a known problem. Not because of a crystal ball. But because I and many others knew that lots of software authors was cheated on the code.
Many machines I work on get my special tweaking and never have a problem as long as the user leaves them alone. I have my own special point of sale and database DELL machine that has never failed since it was new in 2003 with never a reinstall of any kind. Never a virus and never a reboot.
So, why do I get the calls to fix this "piece of junk"? The reasons vary however. The most common is just what this poster is complaining about. Its some kind of constant software crash..
Just for the record. I run another 2.4 P4 that runs my printer and cutter and internet and online and every thing else I can pour to it. It has never had a reinstall, never had a hard drive crash, and never had a malware problem. Its been running constantly since 2004 with hardly ever a day when it is turned off.
IT got my special tweaking years ago and runs as good as it was when new. So what is the point. No, its not bragging. Its to point out that a properly tuned machine will run good software without a hitch. The only thing i do si clean the junk files out of the temp folders a few times a year.
The next point. In nearly every case of a reasonable software package crashing is caused by some kind of conflict. No, not hardware conflicts. If a machine can sit there and run fine with just a desk top then all is good. If a machine will run with a screen saver then it is good. Screen savers use a lot of power. In fact, many old IT techs will run a complex screen saver to test a a machine.
In the end I found almost always there is a conflict within between some piece of junk utility. in about 95% of the machines with a crash problem That I personally tweaked.. there is some screen saver, some little goody that causes the problem. Some cute little goody the owner just can't live with out. Some little registry cleaner that removes just one little line and it causes an intermittent problem.
In almost all crasher machine there was some unknown service hogging resources or some task bar utility that runs some script. The causes are countless. The goodies remain in the thousands. But they are the problems. Main stream software like corel, or flexi or whatever that runs just fine. Add in one little unknown utility and runs in the background and now you got a crasher. Why? because many of them violate and fudge on certain memory calls or api calls or some other established rule. Yes, programmers take shortcuts.
IE:
There was a doctors office I used to attend. I was guaranteed to get a call around the 15th of each month for months. His reception office machine was always trouble.
I fixed it one month and removed the CD drive. I never got called again. The receptionist constantly complained about the CD being gone. However, I knew she was doing something with that CD drive that installed back a cute little utility that was the frigging pain. That is. it never was a pain until she started up the accounting billing around the middle of the month.
So does every one see the point.
Discard all those cute little goodies, those cursers, those strange screen savers, those clocks, those radio's, and all those other freeby little junk piles that secretly cause you problems. I never never observed a properly tweaked machine become a crasher unless there was someone was adding in something that really didn't need to be there..
And finally. Most of you do not know about the capacitor fiasco. Yes, fiasco or should i say scandle or even FRAUD. I worked on way too many P4 machines and even some newer machines that were unstable because of bad capacitors on the motherboard.
All you have to do is google 1500 uf 6.3 v capacitor and you will see some shocking truth. Just a few years ago way too many electronics companies ripped off users by replacing bad motherboards that merely had a bad .10 cent capacitor on them. They would remove your board. Replace it with another one. And repair your board with that .10 cent capacitor and put into someone else machine. Charge 100 bux and make a nice profit.
This caused a load of crash problems for way too many computer users thinking it was software when in fact is was all based on a scam. Yes, even a number of late model machines are suffering this crash problem. And yes a machine will run fine with one software but crash when running another when it has this cap problem.,,