[Alimetra]

I'm going to get straight to the point considering my computer crashed while writing about the crash.
I'm running a Windows Vista 32 Bit HP Pavillion dv6500. Everytime during the time I use Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera the browser doesn't respond and crashes the computer. It crashes like this randomly. I talked to the HP Technical Support guy and he recommended that I buy a $128 2GB new ram card. It helped for about 1 day, then afterwards it all began again.
Have any of you ran into this before? Do you know a way I can stop it?
Thank you!
Elizabeth

[cpscdave]

Does the computer crash only when using a browser?? If so I'd highly doubt its the RAM. If it was I would expect that the computer would crash whenever you used the computer.
Is the computer still under warranty? (If so why'd HP make you PAY for replacement parts??)

Has the computer always had this problem? OR is it something new? If it is new have you tried restoring the computer to a point prior to the problem starting?

It's possible that you have a virus/spy ware thats causing the problem. Try running a scan of AVG and Ad-Aware. Hopefully you can actually get a download of them done

[Alimetra]

It is under warranty. I bought it from Costco, and they upped the warranty for 2 years. I don't know why they made me buy a replacement part, but I'm pretty unhappy at how expensive it was.
When I was talking to the HP Technical Support they also directed me to restore the computer to about a month before. It had stopped crashing, then began again.
I also tried running the laptop in Safe Mode with Networking, and it still crashed.
Last night I was also just using the computer, I had began running a Quick Scan using Windows Defender and it crashed in the middle of the scan.
So I'm guessing it's not a Web & Email related crash like I thought it was, in which case, should I move it to a different forum?
And while I try to download AVG, do you know of any virus's/spyware that could cause this?
Thanks,
Elizabeth

[cpscdave]

If it is a virus you'll need to move to the virus/malware forum I dont know of any off hand that would cause this behavior.

However Its sounding more like a hardware issue to me. I'd also as HP seriously why they made you BUY a replacement part while its under warranty.
(It is possible that the computer being bought through costco is grey market and if so they probally have thier own warranty service stuff)

[Shadow2531]

Sounds like a hardware issue that just gets triggered by browsers (net connection or a browser plug-in crashing or exposing the instability in your system).

It'll probably crash with:
http://apple.com/safari
http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
and any other browser too.

[Shadow2531]

Originally Posted by cpscdave

I'd also ask HP seriously why they made you BUY a replacement part while its under warranty.

Yeh, never buy anything to solve a crash unless you know what's causing the crash in the first place. Not very wise of HP to ask someone to do the "buy all new stuff till it doesn't crash anymore" deal.

It might be a windows vista/software-related issue though or virus etc.

You could try installing Ubuntu under windows with http://wubi-installer.org/
Then, reboot your computer and run in Ubuntu to see if you get any crashes.

Or, even download a Ubuntu live cd iso, burn it to disk and boot your computer with it to see if it crashes while running Ubuntu off the live CD.
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

(That's if you have a fast net connection and can keep the computer stable enough to download Ubuntu)