Acer 7740-6656: mysterious system freezes

Thanks for replying!

At the time this happened, I had the following open:

* Firefox (latest)

* Skype

* Foobar2000

I haven't tried on high-end games on this machine, since I'm told the graphics aren't optimized for that. 

Any ideas?

Vince,

Thanks for the suggestions. Let me group them into what I think are possible and which have already been excluded:

POSSIBLE

3. It is possible that an automatic update is causing the freeze. I allow Windows Updates automatically, but I am careful about everything else. I usually make them notify me.

6. Check your temperature by holding your finger over the exhaust vent. Download the free CoreTemp program to make sure that you aren't haven't problems with a defective fan or with dust.

7. Unplug your mouse and carefully plug it back in to make sure it wasn't loose.

I will check on each of these. Haven't seen an MS Update recently, but I doubt turning it off for a few days will hurt.

1. The next time it happens, press Ctrl-Alt-Del. You might have to wait a couple of minutes (literally) for it to start, but be patient. When you can get into Task Manager, it will tell you what is "Not Responding."

I have done this, and waited up to 15 minutes, but the Task Manager never came up. I will try it again.

LIKELY EXCLUDED

2. Although you were not running high-end games at the time, it is still possible that you have too much going on. Download the free Win Patrol program and find out what your Start-up programs are. Do not delete  unwanted programs. Disable them until you are sure you do not need them. Never interfere with a program from Microsoft.

I don't think this is the case -- I've got this stripped down pretty well.

4. Is your browser Google Chrome? They are having problems with this issue. Other browsers eliminate the problem.

No; this was the first thing I eliminated!

5. Update your anti-virus program and run a deep scan.

Not worried about this one either.

8. Go to Start-Search and type in the word Memory. This will take you to your built-in memory tester. It will require a reboot.

Here's where it gets interesting -- I did this last night, and ran the "Extended" scan. It got to 94% complete and then seemed to be advancing no further.

So I hit F1 for the options screen, and this is where it got interesting.

The options screen came up... but it was being drawn on screen very slowly, taking about thirty seconds to draw the whole screen.

This is in text mode.

When I exited out of that and went back to the main screen, that redrew very slowly as well and after several minutes had not advanced or updated.

I exited normally and booted Windows, which ran at normal speeds.

At this point, I'm beyond anything I've ever seen.

I will see if I can eliminate more of the possibles like mouse, heat, etc. to continue this. I appreciate your ongoing help.