Me and a couple of friends of mine built a HTPC for my use just over a fortnight ago and even though I've only been able to use it for a few days due to various hardware problems, it'd been working pretty well, but now I'm having some weird problems when it comes to Windows 8 Pro: To start off with, my HTPC keeps switching itself off every hour or two which is frustrating as it means I have to switch the computer back on. Also, I keep having certain programs such as XBMC, PowerDVD and Q-Dir crash on me a lot and in some cases won't let me shut them down, even when using Task Manager. The weirdest problem I have is with the screen display, my HTPC is hooked up to a 32-inch Samsung LED TV and when I first hooked it up to the TV, I changed the display settings for the icons and text to 150%, but now the picture seems to be a lot different as seen in the attached photo. As shown in the photo, the bottom half of the taskbar at the bottom isn't showing properly at all even though the screen size is set to the correct proportions of 1920x1080 along with the icons on the top part and the left side of the screen not showing properly as well. Don't get me wrong, I think Windows 8 is a good OS (especially when installed on an SSD like mine is, which is the Samsung 840 Pro 256gb), and yet, these weird problems, especially the sudden switching off of the HTPC worries me greatly. And before anyone says, just switch to Windows 7, I'm not interested in doing so, especially as I don't want to miss out on the benefits of faster boot times, plus I got my copy of Windows 8 Pro for free through my university and MS Dreamspark because I'm doing a degree in computer studies which made me eligible for a free copy. If anyone can help me out, I'd be very grateful.
You need to set the screen to just scan in its setting. I assume at some point someone changed the aspect ratio on the tv. Is it turning off when not in use? If so change the power settings in control panel.
How do I set the screen to scan in the setting? Do I do that using the TV or via Windows itself? Also, how do I view .dmp files as I take it I need to read those to find out why it keeps crashing. EDIT: I managed to sort out the problem with the picture using the Options menu on the TV. I remember taking out the HDMI cable from the port on the TV while I was moving the HTPC and I've a feeling that it may have automatically changed the aspect ratio without me realising it. Also, I was checking out the power settings section in the control panel and I've changed certain settings so that it doesn't go into sleep mode.
