computer unstable

[esa193]

ill right i have a pentuim 3 prossesor 1 ghz
and half a gig of ram
with a 5500 fx graphics
and a while ago i started getting major freeze ups and my system became very
unstable
i new it wasnt my hardware becouse when ever i played a game my comp was fine no lag no nothing
games- wow, steam, unreal torrniment ect.....
and so today i desided to reformat my computer
i reinstalled xp and drivers ect
and every thing went smooth but i still freeze up when im on aim and firefox
and for a 1ghz and half a gig of ram this could be very easy and no problem
idk what to do
does any one have any ideas?

 

[green101]

Did it freeze up for a few seconds? Then go back to normal?

 

[esa193]

no freezes up and i cant move my mouse or crt alt delet
so i have to cold boot i think its called(holding the power botton)

 

[green101]

oh, dunno your problem sorry. I just had my computer freeze like i described, and maybe thought it was the same. But anyways i just updated all my drivers and it fixed it. Do u have a firewall up? Not the windows firewalls, they are no good but a downloaded one. Because seems like u said it freezes up every time u get on Firefox or AIM.

 

[esa193]

idk wat to do its really anoying
i used to im people surf the web and downloade music all at the same time no prob

 

[green101]

Oh well lots of things can cause your computer to freeze but try downloading Kerio Personal Firewall and try it out. Maybe its virus i dunno, i had lots of problems like that on my old computer. But mine was probably hardware problems.

 

[Raffaz]

Have you scanned for viruses etc, are all your drivers upto date? Have you updated XP?

Maybe run memtest for the RAM, and run a HDD diagnostic from the HDD manufacturers website