Newly-bought refurbished computer frequently freezes and crashes.

If you still have problems after installing those drivers (and there are no yellow triangles with black exclamation marks in Device Manager) then try starting Windows in Safe Mode. In Safe Mode only core Windows drivers are loaded, so you have a stripped down basic Windows system. Because of this some devices may not work properly (or at all), your display will be low resolution for example, because you'll be using the Windows basic display driver.

If you have problems in Safe Mode then it's almost certainly a hardware problem. If there are no problems in Safe Mode (beyond those caused by no third-party drivers being loaded) then it's almost certainly a software or driver problem.

ubuysa said:

If you still have problems after installing those drivers (and there are no yellow triangles with black exclamation marks in Device Manager) then try starting Windows in Safe Mode.

So far, I haven't encountered any freezes or other such problems at all since performing the clean install. The only issue that I had was finding the warning messages in Device Manager (because my clean install had wiped out the drivers, and the first Windows Update afterward didn't install all of them).

Since my previous post, I have downloaded the second set of Windows Updates (the ones labeled as "optional") and installed them, including a restart to finish the installation. This update not only added drivers, but also updated the computer's BIOS. After the restart, the warnings in Device Manager are gone.

I'm hoping that the clean install has fixed the problem. Maybe there was a problem with the refurbisher's installation of Windows or some of the drivers that they included. I now have a brand new installation of Windows and a brand new installation of drivers, and even an updated BIOS. Only time will tell whether this has fixed the problem.

Don't ever trust reviews on websites. Especially China owned Newegg. They can and will be fake, even Amazon's, Trustpilot, you name it.

Read post #2 again... oh wait.

hbenthow said:

I'm starting to think that I should return this computer for a refund and try to find one somewhere else (maybe from a Microsoft Authorized refurbished).

Remember 'once bitten, twice shy'? But to be bitten twice by the same company?

My opinion? Stop with all the guessing and just return it for a refund. It's not up to you to investigate whether a particular make/model has an inherent issue.

Maybe from a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR)? Just maybe?

I have bought several PCs from different MARs here in the UK over the years. Only once have I had a problem... and that was just a missing recovery disk.

Hope this helps...

RickC said:

Remember 'once bitten, twice shy'? But to be bitten twice by the same company?

I had a similar experience years ago, in which a refurbished computer was faulty (it would randomly restart). But that time, the seller sent me a replacement that worked properly. I was hoping that the same would happen this time.

Maybe from a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR)? Just maybe?

Good point.

I've submitted a refund return for the one from NewEgg, and ordered another Dell Precision 3620 (but with a different CPU and GPU) from an Amazon seller that's a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher.

For the time being, I've dusted off an old, slow computer that I haven't used in years to use until the one from Amazon arrives.

I think that's very wise. Give it a thorough testing when you get it and send it straight back if it's not 100% functional.

hbenthow said:

I've submitted a refund return for the one from NewEgg, and ordered another Dell Precision 3620 (but with a different CPU and GPU) from an Amazon seller that's a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher.

Good decision, IMO.

ubuysa said:

Give it a thorough testing when you get it and send it straight back if it's not 100% functional.

What would you recommend as a good battery of tests?

Be sure to run Windows Update as soon as you boot it for the first time, and across reboots, until no more updates are found. Check in Device Manager that there are no yellow triangles with black exclamation marks. If there are, check in optional updates for suitable driver updates and install them.

If you want to thoroughly test the hardware you could run the following...

• Memtest86 to check that the RAM is all good
• Prime95 to check that the CPU is good (run all three tests for about 20 minutes each). You'll need to monitor CPU temps during these tests, they will make the CPU run hot.
• Furmark to check the graphics card.
• A chkdsk /f on each storage drive to be sure the filesystem is good.
• Check each USB port by plugging a device in and verifying that it works.