Comp has add

[Mannix]

My computer (xp sp2, intel core 2 duo, nvidia 8600, let me know if you want other stats) will randomly stop processing stuff, or just refuse to run other things. I thought I had this fixed a few times; ending ctfmon.exe (the worthless, resource eating helper for office, which i don't even have), nixing norton 360 and just using regular norton, and doing a deep clean of my registry with uniblue powersuite. nothing really seems to help much, and that ctfmon thing was the only solution i saw elsewhere, though i don't really know any trustworthy places besides here. so, what do you guys think this is, and how can i fix it?

[Zilla]

If all else fails, format, but at least for me that's a last-ditch option.

All I can think of to recommend is some maintainence, with disk defragmentor and virus scans and scandisk and all that jazz. Is this a new problem for the computer or has this happened as long as you've had it? If you've never had it working it's more likely to be a hardware problem.

Are you running a lot of stuff when it freezes like this? And I think more info on your processor might be a good thing too, speeds and whatnot.

And does taskmanager show a maxed out CPU or not?

Oh, and are your drivers all up to date? Sometimes things don't load if your drivers are corrupted, incomplete, incompatible, or out of date.

[bluestarultor]

It might just be you need more or have some bad RAM. RAM is where all the action happens, so if you have too many burned out memory addresses, things get clunky. Other than that, if you did any work inside the box, you might be suffering the effects of ESD damage manifesting. It's not always immediate. Also, if your motherboard is older, it could be a problem with the chipset. On the same condition, you may have too much RAM. A motherboard can only handle a certain amount before it starts to actually hurt performance.

Brain broken yet?

[PraetorZorak]

Use msconfig to boot up bare and see if getting rid of all those pesky startup programs improves your situation.

[Mannix]

nothing seemed to fix it, so i reformatted. at least the problem is gone now. thanks for taking a stab at it guys.