Comp Keeps freezing

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Basically at random points my comp will freeze, it just stops responding, first the screen freezes, then the little red light blinks, then stops "on."

According Norton WinDocter and XP everything is fine. The disk is defragmented etc, no viruses. I've had the PC about a year and these lockups started about a month ago.

There are two funny things that I have identified:

1.) CPU usage will spike on a particular program, usually Norton anti-virus but sometimes Windows' own network software. I'm on a university network with a 10 megabit connection, I never had these lockups before coming to Uni and I'm not sure if I've ever had one off the network.

2.) In the last day or so I've gotten the same error message twice, which I forgot to write down. Its a string of numbers and letters wich cannot be "read", it asks me to close the program, I click yes and nothing happens.

Aside from those two things my greatest fear is that its connected to the HD, in which case I'm not a happy bunny. How do you scan for bad clusters XP?

My System:

XP SP2 (32-bit)
Sempron 3400 +
2 Gig DDR ram
160 GB Maxtor 6L160MO HD.

I don't think its to do with the graphics card or sound, as it will happen at any time. Sometimes I can play Oblivion for 2 hours, then restart and it freezes in five minutes while I'm checking my email.

[Xiahou]

Have you checked Event Viewer?

[Lemur]

There are a few places you can look when random crashing starts happening. This is on my mind right now, 'cause I'm getting random blue screen of deaths (BSOD). RAM can be wonky. To test the RAM, download an appropriate version of memtest86 (I have no floppy drive, so I downloaded a version that can boot from CD). Run it for 24 hours. If the RAM is bad, you'll know.

Next up would be the motherboard or the CPU. I know of no good way to test them, so if any orgah has a CPU test utility, please help a brother out.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Thanks Lemur, the RAM has been through 4 passes. I can't leave it on over night as its about 5 feet from the head of my bed.

[ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88]

Ah Yes, I had and still Kinda have a Similar Ploblem to this, so this may help me also..

[x-dANGEr]

Well.. I remember long ago, one of our "PC-made-server" computers used to crash down, and a lot, after around a year of constant running.. There were things, that sadly I can't remember fused in the Motherboard because of the heat AFAIR.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Oh boy. I had fan problems a few months ago. Just the little fan on the MB, it didn't seem to have caused any long term damage.

Well I've scanned the HD and it seems fine. I'm going home in a few weeks so I think I'll sit on it and the comp can spend Christmas back in the shop where I bought it.