I am running XP MCE and starting about a month ago, whenever I watch tv using my tuner card and media center, my whole computer freezes.  It becomes responsive to NOTHING and I have to power down via the power button.  Any suggestions as to why it's happening?

Thanks!

When the computer freezes as described, it usually means a driver issue. Since it only freezes when you play live TV, I'd recommend that you try installing the latest drivers for your tuner. Also try updating your video driver as well.

Was it ever working properly and then suddenly started freezing? Or has it been this way all along? Did you change any hardware or software? Check your event viewer logs to see if anything stands out at the time the machine froze - though it is unlikely that you will see anything there because of the freeze.

Another thing that can freeze live tv is a problem with hard disc drives. If you have a driver issue or a drive problem which is associated with Media Center, live tv will freeze when it's unable to write to the buffer. Check any recent additions to your system and if you've added a new drive, check that it has been formated NTFS in your computer. (This I know has to be done in Vista, not sure about XP).

John

It was working perfect for about a year and a half and just starting happening all of a sudden.  No major changes to adding drives or anything like that either.

I will try updating all of my drivers.

One possible reason is corrupted drivers or a failing component. If updating your drivers does not help, may be worth investigating your components. If you have multiple memory chips, try alternating them to see if the problem happens with a single chip in. Run HD utilities to see if your drives are failing. See if your case temps are too high as you may have suffered a fan failure. Swap your video card, if possible, to see that the old card was not the problem. Good luck tracing the problem!

One other thought that comes to mind as I sit here swealtering in the heat...

Is your PC overheating? That can cause it to just stop dead. My Media Centre PC is doing fine, but I've had to take the side off my main PC case as it locked up in the heat a couple of times.

Mark, waiting not very patiently for the winter to return.

 

Ya know what, I'm really starting to believe that's what it is.  What do you guys recommend as it seems like my fan IS working.  Is there anything I can add on (or really what's the best thing)  to my computer to cool it down?

You can try the following:

1. remove side of case for better air flow

2. remove any dust from heat sinks (clean fans, heat sinks, dust on memory chips)

Dust is an insulator and will hold heat in. You could install an addition case fan which might provide some additional help. Since this is recent, going into a water cooled system would probably be overkill.