Help - kids have killed the computer

rumpelstiltskin_2

The screen freezes

macman

Have you tried a Sys Restore as Browntoa suggested 2 days ago?
If that fixes it, then it's clearly not hardware related. And a Sys Restore does not affect your warranty if you do subsequently have to take it back.
But I would still like to know the provenance of this PC. Now we have established it was only purchased Christmas '09, there is no way a 'new' PC can have Vista SP1 on it. Vista SP2 was released in May '09, which implies that it's either a second user system or a refurb that has not been 'refurbed' very well!

rumpelstiltskin_2

Thanks for all the feedback.

I purchased this for Tesco so I would be surprised if they had done anything dodgey.

However, I think that the fact it is not fully up to date does give me enough ammunition to request a refund or repair.

With regard to system restore. There are no system restore points to restore back to

maxtweenie

rumpelstiltskin wrote: »

Thanks for all the feedback.

I purchased this for Tesco so I would be surprised if they had done anything dodgey.

However, I think that the fact it is not fully up to date does give me enough ammunition to request a refund or repair.

With regard to system restore. There are no system restore points to restore back to

If it came from Tesco, it's more than likely that it was either very old stock or even a return that they've resold. Either way, I'm sure Tesco will replace it.

macman

Is Sys Restore turned on? Hard to think that on a brand 'new' PC you have not installed software (or your kids have not downloaded something to install) in a month that would not have triggered it to create a Restore Point.
Why are you so convinced that they have downloaded something that has done the damage?
Since we established that they have sold you a PC that's been in the stockroom for about 7 months, and possibly been returned (in which case they could not legaly sell it as new (was it described as a refurb?), I think you have a good case for just taking it back and asking for a replacement. Tesco's usually have quite a good approach when this happens, obviosuly they can't check anything in store, so they tend to accept things back and supply a replacement without too much hassle, as long as there is no physical damage.

fiddiwebb

rumpelstiltskin

We really need a bit more info to help. I agree with macman that looking at the OS that it is not a new computer.

Did you buy it from Tesco's as brand new or was it a managers special in a sale (even then it must have been hanging round for a long time?)

When it freeze's does it stop before it gets to your desktop or before and are there any error messages?

Is the computer an Acer, if so what model

macman

PS: just ocurred to me that with SP1 only it could in fact have been built any time after April 2008!

Spendless

Hi, I am OP's wife. Yes it's an Acer purchased as a brand new item (not a re-furb or special or anything else) in December 2009. We think it is something to do with kids as it stopped working after 9yo son tried to change his cursor into a different object.

fiddiwebb

Does it do the same in safe mode?

How far does it get before it freezes and are there any error messages?

rumpelstiltskin_2

By Jiminy I think I've fixed it.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I noticed that virus checkers, malware etc was all crashing on the same file (Google Toolbar counter). I deleted this manually, emptied the recycle bin, ran anti-virus and anti malware and all now seems OK.

I have also installed SP2

Thanks again

Rumpelstiltskin