Hi, I wish to share my log on the experience to solve the frequent crash problem on my Compaq Presario 7500 computer. I believe this experience is a useful reference for the others on the Net. Keyword: Uncheck Enable Write Combining option in Windows XP 29 February 2004 (Sunday) My Compaq Presario had a very long time problem since a few months ago – it crashed/hanged when I was surfing on the Internet, viewing Chinese webpage, printing, playing game, doing word processing, moving fast on the Windows XP start menu, almost every activity on the computer would cause crash. Since then, I tried various possible ways to solve the problem but always failed. At first, I tried software method (reinstalled Windows and even converted to different versions of Windows). Second, I tried hardware method (tightened the connections and had component removal to isolate problem). But all the attempts failed. However, I found a solution recently (in last weekend) that seems to overcome my computer’s problem. I will list down the details here: a. Install Windows XP b. In the desktop properties (right click on desktop and select properties), select Settings tab ® Advanced ® Troubleshooting. You will see a Hardware Acceleration section. Reduce the level from Full (the default) to None will help to eliminate the Windows XP Start Menu crash (when you only move your mouse cursor fast on the Start Menu). However it does not completely remove the other frequent crash problem on my computer although it somehow alleviates the problem to a much lesser extend. c. Windows XP provides an option called Enable Write Combining (I see this option on Windows XP only and other older Windows e.g. Windows 2000 and Windows 98 do not have the option. Uncheck the Enable Write Combining option will totally solve the crash error on my Compaq Presario! (At least no crash happened after two weekends’ testing) d. I still believe there is a hardware failure in my Presario’s motherboard around the display logic. This is why the crash kept happening even though when I switched back to Windows 98, which is the default Windows operating system that I used for a very long time without any problem. The crash happened even after I had a fresh installation of Windows 98 using the Quick Restore CD that came together with my computer. This means something very wrong with my computer. Windows XP provides the option that just nicely covers up the motherboard hardware failure. I did not bother about the option in older time as Windows 98 and Windows 2000 don’t even have the option. I finally found a solution to the frequent crash problem of my Compaq Presario! Computing is wonderful!

Thank you.