[Mega Robo-Dino-Ninja]

My computer locks up after I've been on it for a while, that is, the screen freezes and I can't move the mouse or use ctrl-alt-del, I have to turn the computer off. This usually happens when I'm watching online videos on sites like veoh or hulu, but that may just be because that's usually what I do on it. I'm running a pentium D dual core processor 2.66 Ghz, 1 GB Ram, Geforce 7300, 160GB hard drive, and windows XP SP3. I have adaware, spybot, spyware blaster, avg 8.0, and zone alarm on and fully up to date (I also use a host file for blocking ads). The CPU is not working hard (usually at 4-13%) and I'm only useing a third of my RAM.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

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My first thought is to use task manager to see what programs are running in the background. A good test is to end task on a selected program and run the computer to see if it freezes again. Do this one at a time, and do not end task on Explorer or systray. These are processes that run all the time and may not use memory all at once. Some check the internet websites for upgrades, etc so you may be running out of memory and swap space when it happens. Try running without the AV for a day to see if it still freezes. When i ran Norton's i had freezes on some computers. Now i use Avast AV and i make sure when i first srtat up the computer that avast has finished its startup run before doing anything. If i start internet surfing too soon i will get lockups for a little while on any of my computers i have running.

Some programs in processes you will need running all the time. So if you have problems ,just reboot the computer to let the program reload and choose another one. If any program that you have end tasked on seem to cure the freezes, i would see if there is a problem, or delete the program if you really don't need it. Some programs you can put in manual in the services so they don't start until you need them. If nothing helps here it is time to look for a hardware problem somewhere.

SRX660

[SRX660]

My first thought is to use task manager to see what programs are running in the background. A good test is to end task on a selected program and run the computer to see if it freezes again. Do this one at a time, and do not end task on Explorer or systray. These are processes that run all the time and may not use memory all at once. Some check the internet websites for upgrades, etc so you may be running out of memory and swap space when it happens. Try running without the AV for a day to see if it still freezes. When i ran Norton's i had freezes on some computers. Now i use Avast AV and i make sure when i first srtat up the computer that avast has finished its startup run before doing anything. If i start internet surfing too soon i will get lockups for a little while on any of my computers i have running.

Some programs in processes you will need running all the time. So if you have problems ,just reboot the computer to let the program reload and choose another one. If any program that you have end tasked on seem to cure the freezes, i would see if there is a problem, or delete the program if you really don't need it. Some programs you can put in manual in the services so they don't start until you need them. If nothing helps here it is time to look for a hardware problem somewhere.

SRX660

[Mega Robo-Dino-Ninja]

Ok I still got crashes with AVG off, as well as tea timer. So far I've been clean since I turned off Zone Alarm. I'll let you know if that fixes it.

Update: I kept my computer on for a few days with ZA off and then it crashed again. I had Win MedPlay open so it might have been that. I did notice that one time, after a fresh bootup, my computer crashed with windows media player being the only open program. Also, sometimes the monitor just turns off like it's not getting any input, so I'm looking at my graphics driver too. I'll try updating WMP and my driver and see if that helps.

Edited by Mega Robo-Dino-Ninja, 27 July 2008 - 11:30 PM.

[Mega Robo-Dino-Ninja]

Ok, after various other fixes and mostly after the video card update, no more problems. Thanks for your help.