Desktop

Hi Mil,

Several things could be suspect. For starters, I would not run Kazaa 7/24. Do I assume correctly that you are running a dialup connection to the Net?

Ok, if the BSOD refers to your modem, first thing I would do is remove and reinstallthe drivers. To do this, go to your Device Manager and remove the device. Reboot and let Windows redetect it and then provide the drivers when prompted. This MIGHT resolve it. Try reseating the modem in the slot, as it may be shorting or just not seated properly. One thing you can try is selecting a different slot (if available) or replacing it with a known good modem. If you have a broadband connection, simply disable the device in the Device manager. I have a Legacy USR modem which didthe EXACT same thing to me.

You mentioned you have installed Office XP. Office by default will set itself up in your startup group. This has been known to cause some problems. Just go to Start | Programs | Startup and delete that shortcut.Spontaneous reboots could be indicative of a virus. Download the latest virus defs and run a system scan. Also there may be a power issue someplace as well. If you are running with multiple devices, drives on a 250 or 300W PS, my recommendation is investing in a more robust PS. Antec has great units with dual fans (one blows directly on your proc keeping it at least 10 degrees cooler) starting at around $50 thru Newegg.com. Having more power is ALWAYS a good thing!

Finally, do you recall the last thing you installed prior to this happening? If so, try removing that program or device and see what happens.

But I totally discourage anyone from running Kazaa 7/24. This program has a LOT of backdoors for hackers to get in. Just use it when you absolutely need it.

Good luck and this helps! Let me know what your final resolution is. :)

Regards,
Jesse

All good advice so far, if that fails try checking if your CPU is overheating, most modern motherboards have CPU monitoring systems, see if you can activate this and have it recoreded to file. Then check it after a few failures.

Another thing to do is to download and install a memory management program like Memturbo and set it to automatically recover RAM when down to about 10 MB available.

The sheer regularity indicates likely causes are a driver regularly dying, or system resources expiring, or some sort of virus or back door giving problems.

This certainly is not a complete answer, but I'd start by backing off running things one at a time to see if the problem stops with the last item stopped being very likely the cause of the problem (the converse of removing everything and adding items back one at a time). First, I'd leave off the KaZaa, followed be the constant connection. After that I'd look at stopping one at a time other services.

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