I have an older custom built system with XP that crashes like clockwork approximately every 3 months. I play some games, use the internet and email and do some basic Office Apps and MS Money. That's it. I run Norton, Spysweeper, Adaware, and Spywareblaster all the time. As well as CCleaner. I used to run Spybot but it doesn't play well with Norton anymore. System is a P4 3.2Ghz, Asus mobo, 2Gig of Ram, MSI 6800 Ultra, 2 Lite On Optical drives, Thermaltake 680W PSU, Western Digital 250gig HD. The PSU, HD and video card are all upgrades from the originals. I never OC. Tomorrow I will probably take it to my friend who owns a comp. shop and he will back up my drive and then do a clean install of XP with all Service Packs and current drivers. He does this every three months it seems but it doesn't solve my issue of a crash every 3 to 4 months. Any ideas? Thanks for any and all help. Am seriously thinking of chucking this bad boy next year for something more reliable.

your friends experience is in question, I would never let my friends use norton, that thing has got anywhere from 8 to 19 processes, post your hijackthis log here please

You can bash me for using Norton. My friend does not use it nor recommends it. I have just stuck with it since '04. Any recommendations other than that? I hear Kaspersky is pretty good but it is a resource hog as well and takes a long time to run a scan. I know Avast and Avg are out there too. Only have experience with Avg anti-spyware. I don't have hijack this running on my machine nor do I have access to the machine to run it. I am getting some .dll error right now at boot. It won't even boot in safe mode. I am thinking of taking the machine in to another shop tonight instead and see what they can find. There should be resolution to this not just a band-aid every 3 months. Thanks for your help and quick reply.

Dropped off my machine at a different comp. shop closer to home. Owner worked for Dell for 7 years and then got frustrated and quit. Now he owns a small shop in WI. He builds custom systems on the side too. It will be interesting to see what he finds if anything. Should have my PC back on Friday. Any thoughts on an alternative anti-virus and firewall program. Thanks again for any and all help.

I wish you had waited a bit, no reason to take your pc to the shop, we could have done it for you for free.

anyways, yes forget norton, and btw I was not bashing you at all I was bashing norton.

Nod32 is one of the best

firewall you would need sygate pro 5.6

run those 2 instead of norton and uninstall it and see for yourself

Thanks for the tips on nod32 and sygate. I will chuck Norton and try those. I realize you were bashing Norton. It's all good. Last time I called them for support it went over to help desk in India. No offense taken and none intended on my part. I am sure you guys could have helped for free but I am on a timetable and need my machine back asap as I pay bills online and do a lot of emailing from home. I am sure you could have helped greatly. I just feel naked without my machine. It's not just for games even though I spec'd it out with that in mind. I will let you know what the shop finds. Anybody else have some anitvirus suggestions and firewall ideas that would be better than Norton. As always thanks for the help and input.

well next time if you stay around when one of us reponds we could have done that day. maybe next time

we dont' like norton because instead of 1 or 2 proccesses norton has a bunch like 10 or 19 which all in turn slow down your pc all because you were kind enough to use their apps.

nod uses only one proccess, thus leaving your cpu low and lite same with sygate.

if you can't find sygate let me know

It happens if you visit infected websites or if you install unapproved software with viruses and spywares. I'd suggest you to use Antivirus + Anti Spyware program.


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I suggest you stop just posting to post and read others post first, we have already check for any malicious processes running if you had bothered to check ; )

Got the computer back and it runs great! About a minute to boot and 10 seconds to shut down. 8) I will install the usual suspects along with Sygate and Nod32 or a similar antivirus. Will probably install Spybot, Adaware, my copy of Spysweeper, and ccleaner as well. I have a hardware firewall too now from Netgear so maybe that will give me an extra layer of protection. I was thinking of getting an external hard drive to backup my system in case this happens again or go with another internal drive in a raid mirror setup. Any thoughts on that? Other than the above not much else I can do except watch where I surf and be safe when I do. Thanks for the help.
Brian

OK great but a few things

with spysweeper you don't need spybot and adaware, SS does the job of both and much better then them too. installing spybot and adaware will not give you any more protection.

nod and sygate are great, if you feel like messing around with the new nod beta that also has a firewall then its free to test get ESET Smart Security (NOD32 3.0) here

if you have a router then you have a firewall (hardware firewall), hardware firewalls are the best as long as you config it correctly , if you do setup it up right you don't' need a software firewall, they are not as good as hardware firewalls

getting another drive (internal/external) to back up is a great idea, lot of us do it, what you do is get another hdd and then use acronis true image to clone your hdd

as long as you got nod, firewall, spysweeper and clone your OS drive you are good to go and would be doing what I do with my PCs

Computer is up and running fine now for a few weeks and all is good. I installed NOD32 and Sygate. I don't need to turn them off when I play FEAR-Extraction Point which is nice. I also installed my own copy of Webroot Spysweeper and that has caught a few things. I grabbed a Netgear router/firewall from PT job and hooked that up as well. I updated the firmware twice to the most current version. It has already blocked some IP spoofing. Very cool. My only other task would be a 2nd HD but not sure about internal or external and just clone my current drive over to that one. Will keep you all posted.

fantastic to hear, good luck