I built my first system last November - an Intel 850GB motherboard with a 1.7G processor and 512MB ram, running WinXP. It has an ATI All In Wonder Radeon (I play a little with home video, and also like to watch TV on the PC), TDK VeloCD 16/10/40, and Toshiba DVD (oh yeah, and a 40GB IBM Deskstar HD). The good news is that it ran fantastic for a few months. But after a couple of months of light use and moderate tweaking (new software, etc.), it started to act up.
My problems came to light when I loaded a new driver for the ATI card. The TV-in would lock up the system, and around the same time I found out that the TDK wouldn't burn anymore. It thought I fixed them both (going back to the older ATI driver, and I forget what I did with the burner - but I haven't used it that much), but once again hadn't used the system that much in a few months (except for email and browsing, of course).
Well, ATI came out on August 1 with another new driver (and a new TV capture on 8/9) and I thought this might finally fix my previous problems. Well, I'm ready to tear my hair out. HELP!! The TV capture locks up the system (with all the latest ATI drivers loaded), and my burner will attempt to do its thing, but stop after a few seconds - ruining the CD-R, of course (so I hate to test it!).
On the ATI, I've uninstalled and reinstalled all the latest drivers dozens of times (in different orders, combinations, etc.), but the TV capture always locks up (the rest of the video features seem to work OK).
Working on the CD burner problem, I've even tried physically removing and re-installing the CD-RW and DVD but it still won't work.
Last, I've strained my brain trying to uninstall any questionable software that I've put on the computer these last few months, but have struck out on that approach too. In February, I got a used scanner (HP 4200C) and also installed OmniPage with it - but could that have possibly caused this mess??
Any help or suggestions would be VERY welcome!!