64,000.00 dollar question.
I built a vista home system for a friend. It freezes up in media player,on the internet,or just whenever it feels like it at his house but will run all day long when i bring it back home,no matter what i do with it.
I've noticed 2 things about his house.
He trips breakers now and then with the whole second floor going out. He also has a cb with antenna on roof over top of this room. Also i loaned him a pc with xp pro on it and he has no problems with it.
Both computers have 1 gig ram
xp is a 160 gig ide drive
vista is a 160 gig sata 300 drive
they have identical dvd burners

i hope he has a fire extinguisher.

get a line checker at the walmart or hardware place that just plugs into the wall socket.
were you plugging into a surge protector or what??

He has a surge suppressor now and has moved the computer. I'll take the vista one back tomorrow and see what happens. He said landlord is supposed to check out main panel soon.