[mishmashmei]

Hi, many thanks in advance to anyone who attempts to solve my problem.

My 2 years old PC started freezing and looping since Thursday. After numerous freezes, this is what I've noticed.

My computer freezes 5 to 15 minutes into running programs that requires more RAM than the average net surfing or mswording, e.g. watching a video on hulu or playing warcraft. It tends to last longer before going into a freeze if I'm doing other less RAM-taxing business, say around 30
minutes to an hour or more.

The first indication i get on the computer acting out is when the audio goes into a loop, and if i'm fast enough to shut down the video browser, the audio will stop looping, but even then, everything is super lagged and it all grounds to a full stop within a few seconds. The last to go is always the movement of my mouse cursor. If i'm watching a video or playing a game in full screen mode, it just goes into instantaneous freeze without warning.

I've tried monitoring the process with Windows Task Manager, but everything seems normal up until the point that it's not, and even the task manager freezes. Pressing ctrl+alt+del again wont work, and the only way of turning it off is to hold down on the ON button. There is no blue screen warning or error code. When i restart my PC, it starts up like normal and functions like normal till it freezes again.

It's not an overheating issue, my harddrive has been properly defragmented, and I have around 19% free disk space. Viruses and spywares have all been removed. Scans, updates, defragmentation and disk cleanups are all done on a regular basis. The last program I installed
(before the problem started) was 2 weeks ago (musicnotes player/reader) but it didnt cause any problem. When the audio loop is prevented or stopped, there's no discernable deathly sound from the computer that could indicate a hardware problem. System restore doesn't get rid of the
problem either.

I have a Dell Inspiron MXC061 with Intel dual core CPU T5300 @ 1.73hz & 1.73Ghz, and 1.99 GB RAM. It runs on WindowsXP Media Center Edition vs. 2002, Service Pack 3.

What can I do short of reformatting my computer? Will reinstalling windows remove existing softwares? (eg Photoshop, games, antivirus)

Any help on this matter will be much appreciated. Thanks...

[mishmashmei]

HELP! the dreaded blue screen of death has appeared with the error: INVALID_PROCESS_DETACH_ATTEMPT
i dont know if it's related to my freeze problem or is it just rebellling against the external hd i'm using to backup my files.

i'd really appreciate it if someone can at least answer this question: Will reinstalling windows remove existing softwares? (eg Photoshop, games, antivirus)

[mishmashmei]

bump

[Phantom010]

Please click here to download and install the HijackThis installer so we can see what's running on your computer.

Run it and select Do a system scan and save a logfile.

The log will be saved in Notepad. Copy and paste the log in your next post.

Do not fix anything