Got a Packard Bell Easynote W3 running XP media center here that has a few issues. AMD 1.8GHz, 1GB PC2700s, AMD Radeon Express 200m.

It has about 2-4 BSOD per week. I've done a fresh install and applied patches and service packs etc. Swapped out the RAM, checked HDD for errors and so on, but still the problem occurs. It generally isn't under stress when the failure happens. From looking at the error codes it has been pointing towards the HDD, but there have been other suggestions too. As the HDD has checked out I'm looking for other areas/components to look at, and ways of testing as well.

Another issue is the DNS service. Once it starts up it soon takes up 99% of CPU time. I've disabled this for the time being and everything appears to work fine and run smoothly. Is this a service I need to worry about?

This laptop is 5 years old, the BSOD has apparently been happening since day 1, been back to the manufacturer several times, and still not resolved. Probably no chance of sorting it out with them now after so much time has passed. I'm tempted to try a dodgy copy of XP on there just to see if I can replicate the problem. I doubt it is a problem with the OEM OS, especially after a fresh install, and I've not found any related info online for this product, but it's always nice to confirm or eliminate suspicions.

Any suggestions considered.

Bloody family tech support !?!?!?

Try running Spinrite over it. Well worth the investment.

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm

Truly random BSODs are often down to the motherboard, or the cache on the processor. You've already checked the bits you can replace so it's not going to be fun.

The only thing I think you could try doing is going into the bios, loading "safe defaults", disabling cache and increasing the memory timings. Unfortunately, a lot of laptops don't actually give you these options...

I'm wondering whether it's worth taking the HDD out and running a Live Linux CD for a few hours. What would this eliminate? Since he's done a fresh install of Windows I suppose it would prove/rule out a HDD problem. If that worked I'd be tempted to either install Linux on the HDD or download a copy of Windows 8 Developers Preview and install that, (as an alternative to a dodgy XP install) and then see if the laptop continues to misbehave.

If the laptop trouble is on particular bits of the motherboard, the Linux CD might not find it. For instance, depending on the motherboard Linux and Windows can deal with ACPI in quite different ways so a problem in the power side or chipset may well appear fine.

Also, if the Linux CD does trip up, it might well be nothing to do with any mobo issue. Because of the peevishness of some manufacturers, certain drivers (especially the aforementioned ACPI drivers) have had to be rather hacked together. So what you'd need to do first is check online to see whether your mobo had any issues w.r.t. Linux. Check especially for your particular chipset as mobos can go through several revisions.

Personally I'd start with as few subsystems up as possible - basic VESA monitor driver, keyboard, mouse, no ACPI, network, Bluetooth, hard disk etc. Then I'd turn them on one by one and see which one buggers it up.

HTH

Thanks for the help guys.

Not sure exactly where to start with all the differing advice. I'm leaning towards trying a different Windows OS initially as it's something I already know how to do, whereas with Linux I'd have a bit of a learning curve. Windows 8 sounds like a better option than a dodgy copy of XP, I think the beta comes out at the end of the month, hopefully the laptop will meet specs.

I don't have a great deal of access to the machine in question, and downtime will need to be at a minimum as well. I'll proabably be stoking this thread for the next couple of weeks.

It's looking as though this Beta of Windows 8 will be out at the end of the month. A fact of which I was not aware when I made my previous post. I'm really looking forward to trying it out. Looking at the spec's in the first post, your laptop should be fine.

Sorry to hijack the thread, got a quizz for you all

Why does the battery of my english-bought laptop spaz when charging in the uk, but charges fine in france, through an adaptor?

Voltage difference?
The continent's 110v vs. 240v here?
Might be the crux of the matter.

Europe and most of the world is 220v-240v. Those 110volts ares used in the majority of the Americas.

The whole of Europe should be 230v, but you will likely find that the UK is 240v and the mainland 220v, they claim 230v to satisfy the EU.