My computer freezes with or w/o internet....

[SpecialK]

i just recently got connected to the internet. prior to my connection my computer would freeze during games that were more detailed than card games, like "Age of Empires". Then it got worse. when we got the internet we would sometimes have our computer just restart all on its own. And once again any larger scale games, like Lineage2 would freeze after no longer than 5 minutes. we got spyware doctor, we have some antivirus thing, we reformatted, we replaced the power supply, and during the BIOS my friend (who is the one better versed in computer tech. than i.) said he turned something off that automatically saves stuff a little at a time so that loading time for stuff doesn't take so long, i forget what he called it. but after all that nothing has changed it. And it's not even a case of over use because sometimes we'll go a couple days without turning on the computer.

I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give as to what may be the problem or even where I could find information that would help me figure it out. Thankyou very much for your time. please respond via the thread or you may contact me by the email address on my profile.

-Kristina-

[lmnobs]

We need to know some specs on your computer , such as age and what os you are using . Your problem could be anything from hardware problems to software or programs shutting down . Memory sticks can cause this also and Heat is usually the culprit . Make sure the CPU Fan is working and you may even Reseat it in the Board . If running xp try this
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> System
Go to Advanced
Under the Startup and Recovery section, click Settings...
Under System Failure un-check "Automatically restart"
See if it stays running longer and get back to us with more details...

[SpecialK]

Thankyou very much for responding so quickly! I've unchecked the automatic restart and will test that out. And here is the computer information...My system is Windows xp professional version 2002 and computer is AMD Athlon(tm) 2000+ 1.67 GHz 376MB of RAM. Also our video card is NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. I hope this is enough information. Let me know if there's anything else I need, and again thankyou for helping me out :)

[lmnobs]

One other thing you can do is to enable error rporting in your XP Pro . and here is a link to Microsofts help page to help you understand it better
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/sysdm_advancd_exception_reporting.mspx

[SpecialK]

Unfortunately we already have error reporting enabled and Microsoft hasn't found the cause :(

[lmnobs]

Then do you have any errors to report to us??? and did unchecking auto restart make any diff?

[vantim]

Did you get any messages in event viewer. Go to the control panel and double click on administrative tools. Then double click on event viewer look in the system and the application messages for little stop signs and see if any of them coincide with your freezes. If not click start>run>and type msconfig in the run box. Go to the start up tab and uncheck any unneccessary programs from starting when windows starts. Then see if the freezes stop

[vantim]

Also make sure your antivirus is uptodate and do a full scan of your hard drive. Scan for spyware too. Use a good spyware scanner like adaware. www.lavasoft.com.