computer freezing or hanging

I have recently installed a broadband modem - Acatel
Speedtouch USB 500 series. Since I have installed it the
computer (Windows Me) has been intermittently freezing and
I am only able to restart it by turning off the power and
leaving it for a while (at least 5 minutes). If I turn the
power on again immediately it freezes shortly after
startup.
Initially it would mainly freeze while playing online
children games (e.g.puzzles), but now freezes
intermittently on any program. At the same time as the
freezing problem started it began restarting scan disk a
number of times before completion and restarting disc
defrag with a message "drives contents changed -
restarting". I have managed to run a complete disc defrag
by starting in safe mode where it only restarted once
instead of heaps of times. I have checked for driver
updates for the modem and run a complete virus check.
There is at least 30 gigs of available hard drive space
and 256k of RAM. The computer is stand-alone and the modem
is connected via a USB port. Has anyone got any clue as to
what the problem might be?

Jane
You may have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://download.nai.com/products/mca...rt/stinger.exe

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all files.

Reboot to Safe Mode and run CWShredder - to remove variants of the
CoolWebSearch hijacker.
http://www.merijn.org/cwschronicles.html

Use CWShredder, the removal tool:
http://www.merijn.org/files/cwshredder.zip
http://www.merijn.org/files/CWShredder.exe
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads...CWShredder.exe
http://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/CWShredder.zip

download AdAware from www.lavasoftusa.com, install, update, and run it to
remove spyware, adware,
and other such nasties from your system.


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Jane" wrote in message
...
I have recently installed a broadband modem - Acatel
Speedtouch USB 500 series. Since I have installed it the
computer (Windows Me) has been intermittently freezing and
I am only able to restart it by turning off the power and
leaving it for a while (at least 5 minutes). If I turn the
power on again immediately it freezes shortly after
startup.
Initially it would mainly freeze while playing online
children games (e.g.puzzles), but now freezes
intermittently on any program. At the same time as the
freezing problem started it began restarting scan disk a
number of times before completion and restarting disc
defrag with a message "drives contents changed -
restarting". I have managed to run a complete disc defrag
by starting in safe mode where it only restarted once
instead of heaps of times. I have checked for driver
updates for the modem and run a complete virus check.
There is at least 30 gigs of available hard drive space
and 256k of RAM. The computer is stand-alone and the modem
is connected via a USB port. Has anyone got any clue as to
what the problem might be?

Check that you have the latest Win Me compatible drivers for the modem. I seem
to recall that there have been some problems when using USB modems with
motherboards using the VIA chipset and that these problems are possibly best
dealt with by using an add-in USB card or perhaps an external powered hub.

Regards,
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Jane wrote:

I have recently installed a broadband modem - Acatel
Speedtouch USB 500 series. Since I have installed it the
computer (Windows Me) has been intermittently freezing and
I am only able to restart it by turning off the power and
leaving it for a while (at least 5 minutes). If I turn the
power on again immediately it freezes shortly after
startup.
Initially it would mainly freeze while playing online
children games (e.g.puzzles), but now freezes
intermittently on any program. At the same time as the
freezing problem started it began restarting scan disk a
number of times before completion and restarting disc
defrag with a message "drives contents changed -
restarting". I have managed to run a complete disc defrag
by starting in safe mode where it only restarted once
instead of heaps of times. I have checked for driver
updates for the modem and run a complete virus check.
There is at least 30 gigs of available hard drive space
and 256k of RAM. The computer is stand-alone and the modem
is connected via a USB port. Has anyone got any clue as to
what the problem might be?