Any help would be greatly appreciated. We're using a Gateway PC that has Windows XP, we use Spyware Doctor as well as Norton and are using a LinkSys router with a built in firewall. For some reason, within the past few months, when we leave the computer idle for an hour or more, it freezes up and we have to manually shut it down and reboot it. We haven't added any new hardware or software and all system scans from both Spyware Doctor and Norton, come back clean or with minor adware items that are subsequently removed. Is there anyone who has ANY ideas how to fix this? It's so frustrating! Thanks for any help you can possibly give!

Check your Event Viewer:

How to view and manage event logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP

Also the removal of both Spyware Doctor and Norton would be an improvement.

You can get a free AV from Avast:

Download FREE antivirus software - avast! Home Edition

Thanks - I actually got the program Registry Easy to delete out the junk from the registry and so far it seems to have worked. I'll definitely keep the Avast AV in mind if the problem comes back. Thanks again!

Hi ,

Always a good idea to clean the registry on a weekly basis . Temp files are another culprit for slowing or freezing a pc ( as well as using up unneccessary disk space ) and should be cleaned regularly . You can manually clean these by clicking ,

Start > run > and type %temp% into the command box

Alternatively there are free temp file cleaning programs avaliable for download . I personally use the following :

Clean Windows XP & Vista Automatically

|MG| ATF Cleaner 3.0.0.2 Download