PC New Build Help

Hi Guys,

I could really do with some help!

I recently spent a lot of money building a gamin PC but have been having major issues. I wonder if some f you could have a look at my spec and see if I am doing anything wrong?

I've got the following components -

Abit AN8-32X Mobo,
AMD FX-60 CPU -Zalman CNPS9500 cooler
2GB Crosair TwinX PC4000 RAM (2X 1GB Matched pair)
2 x 300GB Maxtor Dimondmax III (SATA II)
XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 XXX
Creative X-FI Gamer
KWorld DVB-T 100 Digital HDTV Tuner
Sony Dual Layer DVD-RW
900W quiet PSU
Coolermaster Wavemaster case
Logitech DiNovo Media Desktop
Logitech Z-5500 Speakers
17" Iiyama monitor (for desktop)
30" Dell 3007WFP (for wall)
Epson R800 Printer

I've built a few PC's in the past and it has been fairly straight forward. This however has not!

I have configured the CPU and memory at mobo default rather than try to get the memory running at DDR500 speed. I have one of the 300GB HDD as the primary drive with the second being split into 3 partitions. 1 x Drive C: page file (5GB), 1 x Back-Up image of Drive C, 1 x Downloads.

I have downloaded all the latest drivers for the graphics, sound, mobo and Kworld TV card, I have also downloaded all of the MS updates for Media Center 2005.

The problems I have been seeing range from Windows locking up - it stalls but I can still move the mouse cursor. Sometimes pressing ctrl+alt+del resolves this but other times I have to press reset.

Other issues are Media Center picking up 67 freeview channels (after a long scanning period) but some do not play properly (for example FTN or TMF, I can hear broken music in the background but the picture is black) This is only a recent issue as I have had all the channels working fine previously.

Also the whole PC seems slow. For the price of the machine I would have expected something special but I have been really unimpressed.

I initially thought it may be a heat problem, but the CPU temps hardly ever go over 40 C.

Any help would be appreciated :) .

Kind Regards,

James

Has windows given you any error messages? Have you had any blue screens? When you get the task manager through ctrl-alt-del what is the processor load doing? Take a look at the Event viewer under administrative tools. Are any errors listed there? Download memtest and check the RAM thoroughly. Download a SMART monitor (links at bottom of the page) and check that your HDDs are fine.

I wouldn't worry about the TV card until you have Windows working properly. In fact, since your symptoms look like harware problems, I'd suggest removing the TV card and the Creative sound card to see if those are the problems.