Hi all Hope you can help with this infuriating problem before I contact Dell... Bought the machine in January, initially very impressed. However after less than 3 weeks use the computer began freezing at random intervals with the hard disk light constantly on. This can happen after anything from 10 to 60 minutes. Being able to restart normally involves booting from the recovery CD to access the control prompt then using chkdsk which temporarily seems to act as a cure. However, checkdisk never reports any problems with the hard drive (actually RAID 2 x 320 Gb) and nor does diagnostic software I've downloaded from Major Geeks/Download.com. Also no error messages have ever been displayed via Windows to indicate there is a fault with the HDDs, although the BIOS 'splash' screen on startup does report that an error has occurred. Now something I find very strange - I've recently discovered that if I put a DVD in the E: drive, load a a program such as PowerDVD and leave it playing whilst minimized, the problem with the hard disk freezing disappears. I can then use the computer for hours although obviously this is a somewhat bizarre remedy. Ideas anyone? I think it's safe to discount overheating and virus/malware as the cause. The case never gets even lukewarm and I'm well protected with ZoneAlarm Pro, AVG, Ad-aware and Spybot. Thanks in advance Caroline Forgive me if I occasionally ask silly questions. I'm only human!

Use performance monitor and event viewer to see what is going on. If you want you can return it to the OEM state with your disks or use the docs to see how to return it like it was day one. Send it back, or have them come and fix it if the OEM state does it. If it works fine then you can assume some application or malware is causing your problem. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Nomatter what you moniter send it back. That computer will act strange for whole its lifetime. :) Believe me. -------------------- Thor Byrgesen: The one, oh the one computers and all electronics just hate.