Anything is possible, but a virus is highly unlikely to cause freezing.
A system that freezes usually means you have a problem w/ the CPU, memory,
or PSU (or possibly some combination of all three). For example, I recently
upgraded my KT7A-RAID mobo from a 1.2GHz T-bird to XP2000+. System ran
PERFECTLY w/ the T-bird, was running for the past 18 months, rock stable,
Prime95 runs endlessly, no errors. I pop the XP2000+ in, do a complete
reinstall of XP SP1, and no matter what I did, I could not get the system to
stop freezing after 1-2 minutes w/ Prime95. I dropped my BIOS to BIOS
defaults, then Setup defaults, tried various VIA 4in1 drivers, tried w/ and
w/o NVIDIA video drivers, nothing worked UNTIL I changed the CPU default
voltage from 1.75v to 1.84v *and* up'd the CPU Drive Strength from 0 to 1.
Even then, Prime95 will only run 4-5 hours before dying, but the system is
now usable for normal activities.
The lesson? The XP2000+ places a LOT more demands on the system than my old
T-bird ever did, and my system just couldn't provide it w/ enough power
using the processor defaults. Btw, the PSU is a 350W Enermax, no slouch.
You can see the same thing happen w/ memory, sometime a little more voltage
will help. Or sometimes the memory is bad, as soon as an error occurs, all
bets are off, if the system makes an incorrect calculation, which then
produces some low-level machine code error, a freeze is likely.
So *usually* when the system is freezing, it means that the CPU or memory
are producing errors that result in bad instructions, and then the system is
lost, doesn't know what to do, and just stops. This can be the result of a
damaged CPU or memory, OR, insufficient or unstable voltages to these
subsystems. And it doesn't have to be the CPU or memory's fault either.
The CPU and/or memory may be fine, but a cheap PSU might not be able to
provide reliable and consistent voltages to the CPU or memory, so they are
unable to retain their state, and then again, the system freezes.
The easiest and cheapest thing to do is verify memory w/ Memtest-86 (
http://www.memtest86.com ). Just create the floppy, boot it (comes w/ it's
own OS), and let it run AT LEAST one pass, overnight even better. If you
have a bad memory module or overly aggressive memory timings, then it will
usually cause errors in memtest-86. In some cases, if bad enough, I've even
seen memtest-86 itself crash! Btw, that's another thing to consider, overly
aggressive memory timings. Here too, if the memory can't handle it, it may
work for a while, particularly if not under stress, but add a little stress,
and it can often result in errors, and then freezing.
Lots of cheap PSU out there too, esp. those that come w/ those $35 case+psu
deals. These PSU's are often poorly made, have unstable voltage output per
rail, cannot tolerate running at high wattages (sustainable wattage is often
not anywhere near the rated wattage), etc. But the PSU can often be the
most difficult culprit to detect because the affect of a bad PSU (short of
outright faliure) can be extremely difficult to detect, its affects are
indirect, and few people ever suspect (not until they've exhausted all other
possibilities). I've seen a quality PSU make some chronic problems simply
disappear, like magic. Many people who THINK they have a stable system
might be surprised to find out just how unstable their system really is if
they ran Prime95 for a while. If your system has ANY weaknesses, Prime95 is
very likely to sniff 'em out. And a LOT of the problems stem from bad/weak
PSUs.
HTH
Jim
