I have a computer that freezes at seemingly random times. The only common event in 
these events is that the mouse has clicked on something that has a pull down menu.

This can occur in an application such as Excel or AutoCAD. It has also happened after 
clicking on the start button. The really odd thing is that it doesn't have to be 
the first time either of these actions has been attempted in the session.

The PC has also locked up when trying to change the video display properties.

When this happens, the mouse is unmoveable and the keyboard is unresponsive. The 
only thing left is to power off.

We have tried a system restore, run scan disk,ran hi-jack this,ran Spybot S&D, ran 
a windows "upgrade" and even installed a dual boot XP. The new version of XP locked 
up just as quickly as the old version.

Short of formatting,I am at a loss. Any suggestions?

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Don't format! Not yet anyway. You have things to find out first. Some of this is going to be G.P. maint., but while your fixing one thing why not take care of needed maint. First find a good memory evaluation software. I have one that I got free on the net. Almost always has to be run from DOS. This means they should instruct you how to create this program on a boot-able floppy, CD, or thumb drive. These types of programs usually take from 1/2 to 4 hours to run. I mean comprehensive testing. Before you run it though unplug everything from your box (especially the power cord), take the cover off your box, touch some bare metal to rid yourself of any static electricity, and clean your fans (NO LIQUIDS INSIDE), blow off with canned air your circuit boards, preferably with a vacuum cleaner running near but in the background to capture the nasty stuff, and finally GENTLY re-seat (wiggle and press)any and all circuit cards that are plugged into your mother board. Then reassemble things and run the memory tests. Another option to the memory test is if you have more than one stick of memory try removing one stick at a time and trying your system. Remembering that some motherboards require that there be a memory stick in certain slots (like slot '0'). Clean up your system. Dump your recycle bin get a good software on the order of "CCleaner" to eliminate junk files and trash like saved INTERNET pages. DEFRAG your drive not once but 2 maybe 3 times. Yes it does more work on things. I hate and do not recommend ANY software that so called 'Cleans' your registry. Have you done that? That can cause problems like this. In XP I suggest updating all drivers and updates to the system. In Vista it's not always recommended. Then if all else fails you might want to start over. Don't start by doing something you can't undo!

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