Randomly throughout the day (6:41pm on 1-29-11, 6:33pm on 1-29-11, 2:19pm on 1-29-11 and 11:31am 1-28-11) Windows will crash.What happens before the crash is normal workload on one of these applications; Internet Explorer, Outlook 2010, and Front Page. These are the only applications that are being used, there is a background security application (PC Tools Internet Security) that runs but the scheduled scans only run at 2am.At the time of the crash nothing happens out of the ordinary, the only thing that will even let you know that it has locked up (and stays locked up for hours until manual reboot) is the mouse stops and nothing from that point works, but all fans and HD continue to run.As I stated earlier there are no useful error logs, the only ones that show are boot errors after the crash has happened. This has only started since the beginning of December 2010, but locks up multiple times a day making it nearly impossible to work. I will post system specs at the end of this post, any information will help tremendously. OS - XP Professional 5.1, Build 2600CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0GHZRAM - 2GB Corsair XMS3 x2HDD - Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA x2GPU - ATI Radeon HD 2600 XTPS - Corsair 750W Case - Cooler Master HAF 932 KKN1 GP Black Steel ATX 1 person needs an answerI do too

Hi Judah D, ·What is the service pack installed on your computer?·Provide us the boot error you are receiving.·What is the security software installed on your computer? Check if any error codes and error message is listed in event viewer: How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427 Follow the below steps: Step 1: Check if you are able to boot in safe mode, to boot the computer in safe mode:a. Restart the computer and press and hold F8 key (Press and hold f8 key before the windows logo).b. From the advanced boot option select ‘Safe mode’. Step 2: If the issue does not persists in safe mode then check the behavior by booting the computer in clean boot state.You may refer the below link on how to configure Windows XP to start in a "clean boot" state:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353If the issue does not persist you may continue with step 2 from the above link.Make sure you reset the computer to normal mode after the troubleshooting completes. Refer the section “Steps to configure Windows to use a Normal startup state” Regards:Samhrutha G S - Microsoft Support.Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

Thank you for the Response Samhrutha, The Service Pack and OS is Xp Professional SP3 and it is fully updated.There is only one error in all of my log files. After the initial crash, the PC is restarted by holding the power button for 10 seconds and forcing a shutdown. (There is no other way that I know of to shut down when the PC Locks up completely, no mouse or keyboard control but the display is still up frozen in place) When the PC boots back up completely an error message is shown in the log, that message is pertaining to the failure of iTunes, startup application, launch. Nothing else in the logs explaining anything as to why it froze or the time in which it froze. I am unsure if the problem exists in safe mode, I will check it out but I cannot guarantee that I will be able to duplicate the crash at all as it is completely random as far as I can see.I will also try a Clean Boot when I have access to the PC and try duplicating the crash in Safe mode. Thank you again for your response and I will be back shortly with the results of these tests. -Judah del Pilar

Hello again, I am here at the computer and I have performed a "Clean Boot" on it. I cannot get it to crash personally but I will have the user beat on it over the weekend to see if it freezes. If the PC does freeze again I will then load into Safe Mode to try and recreate the error. Thank you for your patience and advise, I will let you know what happens when I know myself. Thanks,Judah

You have given us a general indication of the nature of the problem but specific error reports make finding a solution so much easier.When a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) system failure occurs for most users there is insufficient time to note down in full what it says; the exact text is important to anyone trying to diagnose what is wrong. You can gain the time needed when the error next occurs by following the procedure described below.If you haven't done so already disable automatic restart on system failure. This should help by allowing time to write down the Stop Error code and related information properly. Right click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Properties, Advanced, Start-Up and Recovery, System Failure and uncheck the box before Automatically Restart. Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure after getting this information as this setting is best left to not to allow Automatic Restart.If the system failure occurs during the booting of the computer you need to try a different approach. You can access the Windows Advanced Options Menu on many computers by constantly pressing the F8 (Function) key during Start-Up and selecting the option - Disable automatic restart on system failure. This method is not always easy to use as it can be difficult to depress the F8 at exactly the right time. Try again if it does not work first time. On some computers a different key has to be used.Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak? I would be interested in seeing a Disk Defragmenter report. Open Disk Defragmenter and click on Analyse. Select View Report and click on Save As and Save. Now find VolumeC.txt in your My Documents Folder. Open the file, and place the cursor anywhere in the file, select Edit, Select All to highlight all text and copy and paste into the body of your message. Do this before running Disk Defragmenter as it is more informative. Hope this helps, Gerry Cornell

Tell us what "crash" means to you.I think most folks associate "crash" with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), so we need to know what it means to you.To you (or your user), does "crash" mean the system locks up, freezes, hangs or becomes unrepsonsive or does "crash" mean something else?XP has a mechanism already built in who's sole purpose is to help diagnose system lock ups, hangs, freezes, etc.If your system gets into that state, you are unlikely to find anything of interest in the Event Viewer logs since XP is "hung" at that point and will not be writing any events out to any event logs.If it is the case that the system is locking up or hanging, I would use the XP method that is built in to figure it out since that is exactly what it is for. You will not be guessing what it might be, you will know exactly what it is. If you are getting Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) that need to be death with in a different way.For a BSOD, do this to start: Here is a BSOD example showing information you need to provide:http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpgSend the information pointed to with the red arrows (3-4 lines total). Send the entire *** STOP message line since there are clues in the 4 parameters.If there is a file name listed under the STOP message, be sure to include that information too.Skip the boring text unless it looks important to you. We know what a BSOD looks like, we need to know what your BSOD looks like.While you are waiting, please do this:Describe your current antivirus and anti malware situation: McAfee, Symantec, Norton, Spybot, AVG, Avira!, MSE, Panda, Trend Micro, CA, Defender, ZoneAlarm, PC Tools, Comodo, etc.Does the afflicted system have a working CD/DVD drive?Do you have a genuine bootable XP installation CD (this is not the same as any Recovery CDs that came with your system)?Perform some scans for malicious software, then fix any remaining issues:Download, install, update and do a full scan with these free malware detection programs:Malwarebytes (MBAM): http://malwarebytes.org/SUPERAntiSpyware: (SAS): http://www.superantispyware.com/They can be uninstalled later if desired. Do, or do not. There is no try.I decided to save up points for a new puppy instead of a pony!