[TheAscension]

So for the past 6 months I've had some trouble with my computer locking up. Basically what would happen is the HDD access light will go on solid and the computer would lock up for about 1 minute. This occured frequently and at random. I could not find the problem.

During the first occurances of this the HDD ended up failing and I sent it back for a replacement. So I thought it was related to a HDD failure. Well I got the replacement and the same thing occured. I went through multiple recoveries, formats, reinstalls and eventually the problem would come back. Even after another HDD replacement it happened again.

I thought it might be a hardware issue with the SATA connections or something wrong with the chipset. It was a good thought, but it didn't make sense because upon initial install of Vista and drivers and even a few programs the problem was not there.

I got tired of having to reinstall Vista and drivers so this time I took an image of the Vista install (hats off to MS for Vista's built in drive imaging). I then did a clean OS restore and noticed the problem start occuring after I would install certain games, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 and SupCom to be exact.

I thought about what was common between the two and realized that they both do a DirectX install during setup. I figured that had to be it. So I installed SupCom and quickly cancelled the "DirectX runtime 2006" install (had to be quick because it installs fast). Sure enough haven't had a problem since. Interestingly, I installed Forged Alliance after that but forgot to cancel the "DirectX runtime 2007" install. No problems with that version of DirectX. Still running smooth.

Not sure if this is happening to anyone else, but just an FYI for those of you out there troubleshooting.

[BlueMak]

I have big trouble believing that DX could cause such a problem. I am not saying it is 100% impossible, I just can't see how it could happen. If it happens again try to reinstall the latest version of DX and see how it goes.