system freezing under xp

[celery]

I have a three year-old custom build AMD-based system running XP Pro. Lately, it's been freezing up occasionally, usually under heavy system load with lots of Windows open. Everything I've read says freezing is usually hardware related. I ran memtest (http://www.memtest86.com) as a bootable CD, so I've ruled out corrupt memory as the problem. The CPU seems OK, as it's running at 30 degrees. Any thoughts on how I should proceed next, or any recommended tools to diagnose the problem?

[JPMNICK]

I have a three year-old custom build AMD-based system running XP Pro. Lately, it's been freezing up occasionally, usually under heavy system load with lots of Windows open. Everything I've read says freezing is usually hardware related. I ran memtest (http://www.memtest86.com) as a bootable CD, so I've ruled out corrupt memory as the problem. The CPU seems OK, as it's running at 30 degrees. Any thoughts on how I should proceed next, or any recommended tools to diagnose the problem?

a 3 year old install of windows XP is most likely your problem. you should do a reformat if you can, it should help

[celery]

a 3 year old install of windows XP is most likely your problem. you should do a reformat if you can, it should help

I'm pretty good about keeping junk off of it, running Ad Aware and monitoring system processes. I guess there could be some stuff that's fallen through the cracks after 3 years, so I might give that a shot. I hate Windows :(

[DolaMight]

a 3 year old install of windows XP is most likely your problem. you should do a reformat if you can, it should help

yep. fresh install needed. After installing and reinstalling programs eventually the registry becomes bloaded and XP becomes unresponsive even with frequent defrags and registry cleaners.

I make an image of a fresh install of XP and then reload the image every 6 months to a year. It takes me 10 minutes. No need to backup anything as I keep any files on a separate partition.

[celery]

yep. fresh install needed. After installing and reinstalling programs eventually the registry becomes bloaded and XP becomes unresponsive even with frequent defrags and registry cleaners.

I make an image of a fresh install of XP and then reload the image every 6 months to a year. It takes me 10 minutes. No need to backup anything as I keep any files on a separate partition.

I've never seen this lead to a complete system freeze before. I'll give a fresh install a try though.