tony sayer wrote:
In article , Adrian Brentnall
scribeth thus
HI All
Sorta DIY - I'm trying to fix it myself g

WinXP Pro SP3 PC, Dell fairly basic desktop (Vostro 200), about 4 years
old, fully updated, running Avast antivirus & Spybot.
Every so often, the PC just locks up solid, not responsive to mouse,
Alt-Ctl-Del or anything else...
Only way out is to pull the mains plug (I know it's not a good idea -
but what can you do ?)

Happens most often when running a particular web authoring package
(Netobjects Fusion) - but has also happened (once) with another web
authoring package (WYSIWYG).

Tried blowing the muck out of the PC fans etc. - but doesn't seem
to have made any difference. Lifted & reseated the memory.

I'm a bit at a loss for where to look next?
Any ideas, please ?

Thanks
Adrian


With that sort of symptom I'd try a substitute power supply first at
that sort of age. Most all the instances of this happening have been
hardware related. XP is a stable system otherwise..

Don't know if that make was subject to the dodgy capacitors that did
plague many motherboards some time ago, but worth a look to see if any
of them are leaking or bulging etc...

I had two caps go on a 14 month old PC. Got a new MB and it's fine, but
well worth a quick check for bulging caps.