Hard drive shuts down and won't restart

[Guest]

I have Vista home edition on my computer (came installed with it). At least
once a day the hard drive shuts off and I have to reboot my computer. The
screen is still "lit up", although there is nothing on the screen.

Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks!!

 

[Saran]

I have Vista home edition on my computer (came installed with it). At
least once a day the hard drive shuts off and I have to reboot my
computer. The screen is still "lit up", although there is nothing on
the screen.

Any idea how to fix this?

To really fix it you'd probably have to dump Vista and install XP. This
is especially crucial if you do anything high graphics applications,
especially games, but also apps like 3D Studio Max and such. Vista
actually performs worse in most cases than XP in that regard.

 

[Richard Urban]

What you have basically said is:

If your Ford Crown Victoria is broken - fix it by buying a Ford Taurus.

That's NOT fixing the Crown Vic!

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Richard Urban]

What makes you think the drive is shutting off?

Even if the drive goes to sleep your desktop is held in the RAM and would
still be visible.

I would start by updating the video drivers. Then set your computer so it
does not go to sleep. Turn off all screen savers. See if it still happens.

--

Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

 

[Charlie Tame]

What makes you think the drive is shutting off?

Even if the drive goes to sleep your desktop is held in the RAM and
would still be visible.

I would start by updating the video drivers. Then set your computer so
it does not go to sleep. Turn off all screen savers. See if it still
happens.

There is something a bit weird about "Some" machines, particularly with
Vista but not exclusively, I guess it's showing up more with new
machines, the older ones folks just got used to.

I have one that is fine with XP, 2000, Linux but it WILL NOT shut down
with Vista, not can you reawaken it - it goes dead but then just hangs.
Have another that shuts down for 2 minutes then away it goes again. New
BIOS etc, no help.

I think your advice is about all that can be said, it may be that this
user will never get it to perform as it should and I don't think it's
"Vista" per se, just bad luck.