Computer Freezing Up randomly

[mjserv]

Recently my computer has been freezing/locking up randomly, but it only seems to happen when some programs are running

I have tried everything I can think of and I still haven't been able to narrow it down. I'm not saying I'm brilliant or anything but I am a PC Tech and this one has got me beat. I don't know if it's settings, software incompatibility somewhere,

I currently have Process Explorer from sysinternals.com

I do not have a wired connection (but i do have the latest drivers for my cards) to try

Any help is very appreciated.

if anyone has any idea or has had a similar problem, please help me out here.

I'll give HijackThis! a shot

Oh did i mention its a pc with xp.

[adamparkzer]

Lots of things could be causing that:

How much RAM do you have?
Did you do a virus scan?
How often do you defragment your hard drive?
Do you use a system clean-up utility?
How much free space do you have on your hard drive?
Do you run a lot of unnecessary programs at once?
Have you ever uninstalled programs you don't use?

Basically, check and see if anything's taking up unnecessary resources, and free up as much as possible.

[mjserv]

Thanks for fast response,

1 Gb of Ram
I have ran Avg and it's scheduled every other day
I defraged harddrive yesterday
I have ran spybot and other recommended utilitys
I have 10 Gb left on a 60 GB harddrive
I have Comodo Firewall, Spybot Resident Shield, Avg listed in startup
I am very up-to-date on virus updates, computer updates, disk cleanup, internet cookies etc.
No unnecessary applications that I know of.

Thanks

[mjserv]

fixed problem;


turns out it was wireless adapter and or the wireless utility software. i uninstalled software, installed another adapter lying around and no freezes yet.

crossing fingers after mentioning it...

thanks for help

[tridge]

I was going to suggest hardware...usually a freeze would point to hardware failure, not a software issue.

[ichwar]

I was going to suggest hardware...usually a freeze would point to hardware failure, not a software issue.

That's correct. When I had this problem a while ago, I finally traced it down to all my usb devices plugged into the back. When I replaced my wifi usb adapter with a pci card and I got usp to ps2 adapters for my my mouse and keyboard, my computer stopped locking up.

[Smith6612]

I don't even bother with those wireless card utilities unless it's absolutely needed. Anything from Windows XP and up, use the Wireless Zero Configuration in Windows and let Windows manage everything. For Linux, just use it's native program, as well as Macs. Windows 2000 and older, sure you're probably going to need those.

[lauriecallentine]

I don't know if any body suggested in trying format the hard drive and installing a firewall and antivirus programs.

[zen-r]

I don't know if any body suggested in trying format the hard drive and installing a firewall and antivirus programs.

Please read the thread. This problem has been fixed already.

[ichwar]

Please read the thread. This problem has been fixed already.

True it has been fixed, but that is a rare case.
As lauriecallentine suggested, many Windows problems like this are best fixed by reformatting. *feels secure on Linux*