Expert: Lorry - 11/15/2006

Question
I'm sorry, I should have said this before. This has only been happening recently. Before that both of the programs worked fine on the computer. Also, the programs freeze after you use them for about 10 minutes or so. I tried rebooting it like you said, but it still does the same thing.
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Hey. Recently my computer has started to freeze. I have two programs called IMVU, and Maplestory (Chat program, and MMORPG) My computer seems to be working fine, until I open either one. Then, about ten minutes in, everything freezes. The mouse and keyboard won't work, and things such as music stop. The only way of fixing it is to restart the computer. I've tried doing several virus scans, but nothing seems to have come up. I've also tried defragmenting the computer. Any idea what the problem is?
-----Answer-----
Hi Kaitlyn,

Am thinking that there isn't enough memory on the computer. Try rebooting the computer, try opening and using one of those programs and see what happens - without any other programs opened.

Let me know,
Lorry

Answer
Hi Kaitlyn,

Even though yiu have checked for viruses, try using Internet Explorer and go to:

http://security.symantec.com/sscv6/default.asp?langid=ie&venid=sym

Click the GO button, then under Virus Detection, click Start. You might be told that you need to download and install ActiveX Controls for the scan to work, answer Yes.

Write down exactly anything it finds, then go to: http://www.symantec.com/search/  and do a search for what was found. Symantec usually has a removal tool and/or directions for removing manually. Make sure that you follow the instructions for removal, step by step, especially the part regarding disabling System Restore.

Check for spyware, I would suggest downloading Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4, a program that removes spyware, available from:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22262,00.asp

Once installed, enable Tea Timer. Open the Spybot Search & Destroy, click  the "+" sign next to Tools on the left side of the screen, click System Startup, then on the right side of the page check HK_CU Run Spybot Tea Timer.

The Resident TeaTimer is a new tool of Spybot-S&D which perpetually monitors the processes called/initiated. It immediately detects known malicious processes wanting to start and terminates them giving you some options, how to deal with this process in the future.

Check for updates before running. If you have trouble getting the updates, near the top of the Update Window, click the little arrow next See-Cure  #1(Europe), highlight the next one on the list, See-Cure #2 and try to download the updates. If that doesn't work, try the next one the list. until you get one you can download from. Being a free program, if too many people are using the same site to download the updates, some people will not get them.

If the above doesn't help, you might want to verify that the memory installed is still good. Check out Memtest86 at:

http://www.memtest86.com/

Check out the following also:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Hope this helps!
Lorry