My computer locks up and freezes

[Ronald Dove]

My computer locks up and freezes when I am on the
internet and even when I am not on the internet. My
computer use to lock up and freeze when I had windows98.
I did a fresh install (not an upgrade) and installed xp
home edition. With 98 my computer would only freeze when
I connected to the internet. Now,with XP, my computer
freezes when I am on the internet or off.

Could my problem be a hardware problem

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP]

My computer locks up and freezes when I am on the
internet and even when I am not on the internet. My
computer use to lock up and freeze when I had windows98.
I did a fresh install (not an upgrade) and installed xp
home edition. With 98 my computer would only freeze when
I connected to the internet. Now,with XP, my computer
freezes when I am on the internet or off.

Could my problem be a hardware problem

The most common cause of freezes is buggy video drivers. You may need new
video drivers. Check the site for your video board manufacturer for new
drivers for WinXP. Meanwhile you can do the following:
1. Use the default mouse pointers.
2. Turn down your color depth. (Right click the desktop and choose
Properties | Appearance | Settings) Some people find that increasing color
depth helps.
3. Turn down your graphics hardware acceleration. (For Win 98, Start |
Settings | Control Panel | System | Performance | Graphics button) You will
see little, if any, performance degradation.
4. Turn off your desktop wallpaper.

If these make the problem go away you need new video drivers.

If you have an ATI video board, try adding these lines to System.ini

[display]
DevBMP=0 <--- That's a zero

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
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