Laptop locking up after downloading "critical" updates

[Guest]

I have a Compaq Presario 700 running XP home. After downloading the "critical" updates for XP, it inexplicably locks up occasionally, however I can't find a pattern of what is causing it. I called Compaq and downloaded the bios and ram flash updates, but its'still locking up. I have to pull the plug and battery to reboot.

My question is, how do I determine what is causing this? I've tried running Dr. Watson, but when it locks up, nothing is written to the log. It seems like an interrupt problem, but I can't seem to recreate it with any regularity or find a pattern to it's behavior. Any help is much appreciated. I really don't want to hose it and start from scratch.

 

[Kevin]

At the risk of repeating what you have probably already heard and read here
goes:
Have you run anti-virus software that has been currently updated? How about
anti-spyware, anti-adware and anti-trojan software? Do you have the system
protected with a firewall? What is the nature of the freeze? Is there an
error message of any kind? Have you run scandisk, checking for errors? If
all else fails, call Compaq again.

I have a Compaq Presario 700 running XP home. After downloading the

"critical" updates for XP, it inexplicably locks up occasionally, however I
can't find a pattern of what is causing it. I called Compaq and downloaded
the bios and ram flash updates, but its'still locking up. I have to pull the
plug and battery to reboot.

My question is, how do I determine what is causing this? I've tried

running Dr. Watson, but when it locks up, nothing is written to the log. It
seems like an interrupt problem, but I can't seem to recreate it with any
regularity or find a pattern to it's behavior. Any help is much appreciated.
I really don't want to hose it and start from scratch.

 

[Richard]

I'm having this problem also. I've seen several references to lock
ups after the updates. Possible culprit is hotfix 824145 but I hadn't
verified yet.

I'm going to do a clean install and update criticals 1 by 1 until it
starts showing same symptoms.