Ok, Where to begin, My computer specs are as followed:
Athlon XP 1700+
Win XP Pro - Upgrade (if you needed to know)
398? MB RAM (around there)
GeForce 4 MMx 440 Graphics Card
Don't know motherboard (if you could also tell me how to find out, i've looked all over the board for the name)
Ok
Now for the problem, I come home from school, turn on my computer and sit down. About any given time it wants to my computer suddenly freezes on me for no reason. My teacher said it might be a heat issue but it isn't, I've checked that all of my hardware is seated correctly, and formated and re-installed Windows XP twice. It started happening right after I started getting updates from Microsoft's Website. I don't know though. I I figured out that if I keep games and programs running it won't freeze up as often. And when it freezes it just quits. If it's in the middle of a song it starts to studder, a game or any other program it just freezes. Can't move the mouse, CAPS and NUM Lock key won't turn the lights on or off, and I have to reboot my computer. I know it isn't a virus so if anyone can help me with some feedback that would be really grate. Thank you.
First you'll have to enable Administrative Tools in the Start Menu properties.
From there, navigate to Programs, Admin Tools, then click on Event Viewer.
In the left pane, click on "Application Log," and sift through there to find any reference to programs crashing, or a log for a Blue Screen of Death. It should give you a number in the format of 0x00000000. If you can post that back, we could probably get some more information for you.
Aside from that, any patches (or SP1), driver update, or recently installed programs?
This is assuming you have 1 256MB stick, and one 128MB stick...
Even if MemTest doesn't show any errors, you can try popping either stick of memory to see if the frequency of crashes reduces. If you pop out the 128 and it works, get another stick. If it's the 256, same process.
Could be your power supply, or motherboard grounding out (if you've moved the box around lately), PCI cards that came unseated, and a few more things. I could guess the memory though.
Unsolved 
