Problem with vista after computer is on for a short while

[susan.washington]

Hi - im hoping you can help me out. I work from home and I am on my
computer ALL day - it seems that after my computer ison for say an
hour or so - my screen gets very funky on me - for example on the
bottom task bar things will overlap each other. If i go to press on an
open document - something else that is opened will appear instead - it
gets all distorted. If i do not shut down and reboot the computer
when this happens eventually if i go to open a new document it will
just kind of stall out and nothing will happen. I wind up rebooting
my computer nearly every hour!

I just went to open My Computer to tell you how much memory i have but
it wouldnt open - the box just kept flashing, very weird. I think i
have about 53 gig. I know vista needs a lot of memory to run , i
thought maybe that was the problem?

any idea what could be going on?

Thanks so much for any help you can give1
Susan

 

[Mike {0A6FF490-CF84-4d78-BD85-FF011A0C310C}]

Well, I'm pretty sure you don't have any where near 53GB of memory.
That sounds more like free disk space. Don't confuse the two...
they're two totally different animals for totally different purposes.
I'd be surprised if you had more than 4GB since that's pretty much the
max that most computers these days can have. I've got a brand new
computer that I built myself and have maxed it out at 4GB.

Let's get some stats on your machine.

- What flavor of Vista are you running? (Home basic, home premium,
business, or ultimate)? Right-click "My Computer" and choose
"Properties". You'll see it near the top.

- How much RAM (this is your memory): Right-click "My Computer" and
choose "Properties". You'll see it there. Vista should be
"comfortable" with 1GB of RAM. 2GB should be good for most
everything. If you've got less than 1GB, update today. Memory is
dirt cheap now... Just max it out.

- What's your system rating? Also on that same screen.

- Are you running a 32bit or 64bit version of Vista (also on the same
page under the "System" section, labeled as "System type".

- What kind of video card do you have? On that same screen, near the
upper-left, click "Device Manager". Expand the "Display adapters"
branch and tell us what it says.

- Now for your hard drive(s). Open "My Computer". Right-click "Local
Disc C" (or any hard drive icon with "C" on it). Choose
"Properties". How much used space, free space, and capacity.

- Have you done a Windows update recently? (start menu, "Windows
Update".) Make sure you do that frequently.

- What software do you find yourself using throughout the day?

- What software is installed? Is *ALL* of it certified for Windows
Vista???

We might be able to help with knowing that information.