System Freezes! PLease help!

[Guest]

Hi there, I wonder if someone could advice me on infrequent system freezes.
It's a new laptop (Toshiba), generally works fine, but sometimes freezes
without an obvious reason really. It has been happening infrequently - may
freeze few times in a row, and then few days no problem... As far as I can
tell it happens quite randomly - sometimes it happens with only Outlook open,
and me not doing anything... The pc then does not react to anything, my only
option being to restart the system... My Norton Antivirus/ Internet Security
is up to date, I also check regularly for spyware (Webroot Spy Sweeper),
Online PC Healthcheck shows no problems and all Windows updates are
installed. Have checked local disc for errors, did the disc clean up and
defragged the volume; system restore does not help either. Providing that my
PC is quite new and has high specks (OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
(SP2), Processor: Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz, RAM: 1.25GB), I
find those freezes quite annoying and few times lost chunks of my work.
Manufacturer's Tech Support suggested I run System Recovery disc before
committing the laptop for repairs. It frightens me (lol) as I would need to
rebuild the pc from scratch (I have loads of stuff on it, some software is
licensed and I would need new activation keys etc). Is there a way to
diagnose and eliminate the problem? Please help!

 

[R. McCarty]

New & "Flaky" - not a nice combination. Not sure about how well
Toshiba creates their base images. If they are like Dells, you might
have a fair amount of "Value Added" (Junk) installed. Sounds like
you've done most of the textbook items. I would go to Add/Remove
in Control Panel and scan through the program listing. It's amazing
how "State-of-the-Art" hardware can get gummed up by all the crap
these OEMs install. The only thing that stands out or raises a red
flag is the Symantec/Norton. It's a big resource hog. Did you get a
full license or one of those 30/90 day trial versions. If it was me, I
would can Symantec and use other less expensive/lighter footprint
Security software. One good resource is the vendor forums. If your
model has any type of "Global" issues, it's likely somebody has posted
them already.