I currently have an Alienware custom PC that I wished I had never bought (I was mislead by their false claims). After two years of having that paperweight, it has never worked for more than a couple of days. I have tried everything and their tech support has taken it back twice and it still came back with major problems.
Recently, I reformatted it and installed the VIA 4in1 (4.36) and Detonator 4 (23.11). When I go to install the SB Live Platinum 5.1 software/divers, the installation program always locks up completely. This also happens with various software Mechwarrior 3, which stops almost immediately upon installation.
Yesterday, I took out every card in the computer, leaving only the video card (no sound, modem, DVD decoder...all PCI). I reformatted again and tried to install Mechwarrior to see if it was one of the PCI cards. Installation stopped at 2% and the computer once again, locked up completely.
I don't know what to do. Both the SB Live Platinum 5.1 software/driver and Mechwarrior 3 game installed fine before. Now after the reformat, they lock up the computer every time I try to install them.
Also, the computer tends to locks up when I am at the desktop, checking the settings. This is with just the VIA drivers and Detonators installed.
Is this a hardware issue? Here are my specs:
CPU - AMD Athlon 800MHz
Mobo - Asus K7V VIA KX133
Graphics - Guillemot 3D Prophet GeForce 256 DDR
Sound - SB Live Platinum 5.1
Modem - 3Com 56K Fax
DVD decoder - realmagic hollywood
HD - 27GB IBM deskstar
DVD-ROM - Pioneer 8x/40x
CD-RW - HP 9100i
Recently, I reformatted it and installed the VIA 4in1 (4.36) and Detonator 4 (23.11). When I go to install the SB Live Platinum 5.1 software/divers, the installation program always locks up completely. This also happens with various software Mechwarrior 3, which stops almost immediately upon installation.
Yesterday, I took out every card in the computer, leaving only the video card (no sound, modem, DVD decoder...all PCI). I reformatted again and tried to install Mechwarrior to see if it was one of the PCI cards. Installation stopped at 2% and the computer once again, locked up completely.
I don't know what to do. Both the SB Live Platinum 5.1 software/driver and Mechwarrior 3 game installed fine before. Now after the reformat, they lock up the computer every time I try to install them.
Also, the computer tends to locks up when I am at the desktop, checking the settings. This is with just the VIA drivers and Detonators installed.
Is this a hardware issue? Here are my specs:
CPU - AMD Athlon 800MHz
Mobo - Asus K7V VIA KX133
Graphics - Guillemot 3D Prophet GeForce 256 DDR
Sound - SB Live Platinum 5.1
Modem - 3Com 56K Fax
DVD decoder - realmagic hollywood
HD - 27GB IBM deskstar
DVD-ROM - Pioneer 8x/40x
CD-RW - HP 9100i