Computer freeze problem

[kingonly]

I have an old computer that I decided I was going to turn into a media box for my living room. I erased the hard drive and re-installed Windows XP and all the service packs. It is fully patched up. I also have the latest AVG free and Spybot installed on it. The computer will freeze when it's idled for a short period of time. That is the windows will become totally unresponsive. If I hit Ctl+Alt+Del to bring up the task manager, it allows me to access the previously frozen windows. It seems like a virus or adware to me, but this is a clean install. The Windows XP was a store bought version so it's not from some torrent or Wares site.

Here are the specs of the computer:

AMD Athlon 3200 (2.23Ghz)
1 Gb DDR2
Nvidia Geoforce 6800 GS/XT

Nothing too peppy but perfect for a media box.

[Dimeq]

Nothing too peppy but perfect for a media box.

D:

disable standby/hibernation imo.

[fireknight43]

Get rid of AVG for one. Get malewarebytes, update, scan, follow instructions given. Also go with Peppy's advice.

Malwarebytes.org

[kingonly]

Yeah sorry. I did turn off the hibernation. It's set to be always on. I also increased the Virtual memory to 3000. (Usually it's 3 x your Ram Size.)

[Robert Munch!]

try re-imaging it one more time and see if the same issues re-occur and if it does you may have hardware issues or a bad image on the disc. Have you used the install disc on any other computer with issues also, is the disc scratch free?

[bananahammock]

It's definitely power management related. I'd say disable all power-down functions, specifically the hard drive? I had a similar experience many years ago and disabling the power-down shits got everything on track (although it will cause premature ejac.. err, failure).

[kingonly]

I've checked all the power management thngs. Everything is set to stay on forever.

@Robert- it is a brand new disk that I got from my grandfather a year ago when he passed. He bought an extra and never installed it. The disk is perfect.

@Fire-I'm running AVG on all my machines and don't have any issues with it. If this problem doesn't go away I will try the Malwarebytes stuff.

[bananahammock]

King, I haven't the foggiest idea how technical you are, so if this offends by being either too technical or dumbed down, tell me to fuck myself.

COuld you continue to use the system indefinitely without lockups until you allow it idle? If so, that eliminates the possibility of heat/cooling issues. Once it does lockup, have you tried firing up task manager to see if a particular process is bogarting the CPU or if memory usage is exceedingly high for any one task? My advice, stop using the comp. for a few and see what it does. If the hard drive starts grinding away after 5 minutes, you could isolate it to some kind of file I/O shit..? Can you hear any noises that seem to correlate with the slow-down?

Just some brainstorming. I'd stay and chat but I have a gnarly beer shit coming down the pipe.

[kingonly]

I fired up the task manager and the only programs that were using anything was AVG, Spybot, (It's tea timer was using a bit of memory),Steam and then nothing else of note. My system idle was getting the majority of the CPU cyles.

I've uninstalled AVG and Spybot and tried Fires recommendation. I will let you all know what happens.

Banana can fuck himself, but not because of any good/bad advice he gave me. He can fuck himself because I care. lol!

[kingonly]

Things seem to be working fine. Thanks Fire and everyone for helping figure this out. Now I have a new problem.

[fireknight43]

<metal gear noise>

What?

[kingonly]

Sorry I fixed the new problem. It was a Vista issue with sharing. I messed around and figured it out. My idea of a media box is not going to work the way I have it set up. The wireless connection is fine for surfing the internet, but streaming music or heaven forbid video is not going to work wirelessly. I'm going to wait until it warms up then run ethernet cables outside my house to every room. That should solve the problem once and for all.

[bananahammock]

I ran PS3 Media server on my box with everything connected wirelessly (fuck spell-check, it is a word!). To say it was a failure would be an almighty understatement. That's all.

A I will fuck myself. Hard.

[clockw3rk]

I ran PS3 Media server on my box

why would anyone do that, unless you have movies or something that you wanna play on your nice 40+ inch flat screen tv instead of your 20 inch flat screen monitor. ive occasionally acquired movies and played them on my tv through my ex-bawks360 just cause i wanted to watch them on more than a tiny screen.

[bananahammock]

I absolutely cannot watch movies on my computer. I've got a bodacious 46" TV with a dynamite surround setup in my living room. I've actually ditched the streaming setup all together and installed a 500gb hard drive in the PS3 with all my music and movies. Works far better than a library of CD's and DVD's.

[kingonly]

Yeah banana that is what I've slowly been preparing for. CD's and DVD's are slowly going away and I'm backing mine up on 1TB external hard drives. CPU magazine predicts that everything will be digital in a few years. You will still have CD's, DVD's and stupid
Blue Ray's, but the majority of people will have them on hard drives of some form.

[bananahammock]

Why they chose a 2.5" HD for the PS3 is beyond me. Using or even allowing a 3.5" would've made things a lot easier/cheaper.

While I don't think we're going to see a purely digital world anytime soon, I do expect to see digital media become more mainstream. Even a year ago, most Blu-Ray players didn't support USB and/or DivX. The MPAA is understandably reluctant about giving me 50gb of DivX storage per disc.

On another note, I can score 720p rips that weigh in at < 4.7gb from btjunkie and look and play fantastic on the PS3. Just got Payback. Happy days.

[Jelly]

Why they chose a 2.5" HD for the PS3 is beyond me. Using or even allowing a 3.5" would've made things a lot easier/cheaper.

While I don't think we're going to see a purely digital world anytime soon, I do expect to see digital media become more mainstream. Even a year ago, most Blu-Ray players didn't support USB and/or DivX. The MPAA is understandably reluctant about giving me 50gb of DivX storage per disc.

On another note, I can score 720p rips that weigh in at < 4.7gb from btjunkie and look and play fantastic on the PS3. Just got Payback. Happy days.

I suspect they went with 2.5" drives to save space and possibly power. You'll recall that they weren't terribly concerned about cost in the first editions of the PS3. I always wondered that as well, it would seem to be a much better idea to stick a 3.5" drive into the fat PS3s. The slim PS3s, though, I can see why they would want to save the space in there.