Vamp's DIY to spyware removal

1. Check everything physical (connections, is it plugged in right, maybe the video card is getting too hot and locking up) since this is easy and it's most likely not this.

2. Test and see if it will do this after 20 minutes without doing anything, just letting the computer stand there. This will help with no. 1.

3. What processor are you running and how fast is it? How much memory do you have? What size hard drive do you have and how much free space is available. My next guess would be that your computer starts using virtual memory (a swap file on the hard drive used for extra memory, called VM) when you're actual memory (RAM) is totally filled up, but then it runs into issues with processor speed accessing VM, runs out of hard drive space for VM, or there are corrupted clusters on the hard drive that it writes to. I'd run scandisk, followed by DiskDefrag, in that order, and that will help you identify bad clusters and organize data in a way that's much friendlier for VM.

4. Boot to safe mode (press F8 key repeatedly at startup for WinXP, hold Ctrl for WinME or lower) and virus scan the entire computer. Then, still in safe mode, run a spyware checker.

5. I don't know your level of computer expertise but this one's a little more advanced. Click Start, Run, and type in "msconfig" (without quotes) and click on the Startup tab. It will list all the programs that will start when you turn on the computer. You can increase the speed of the computer by unchecking programs you don't necessarily need all the time. You'll probably have to dig up all these programs and find out what their purpose is, otherwise you might disable your virus scanner or firewall.

7. Maybe new monitor? I don't have a clue if you get to this point

Hey there guy, I didn't get much time to diagnose the problem last night, but nothing physical that I have checked. I even brought one of my other computers to check if it were any of the cables. So far, no finds. =)

I turned it on and had some dinner downstairs for a while. When I came back, it was indeed like I described. The monitor was not recieving a signal from my computer. It did however recieve full signal from the backup computer so I'm sure it's not the monitor.

Running a P4 2.66 with 512 SDRAM (Yes, I know, shh). I have a 120gB, an 80GB, and a 160GB all hooked up. So total I have 360GB. The 160GB was just installed as my main C: and I have about 140GB free on that one, the other two have about 10 gigs left on each. And also, I running a GeForce4 64MB DDR (Yes... I'm outdated, I know).

Will do that, I installed Norton last night and it couldn't find anything, completely forgot about spyware checker though, I keep my computer relatively clean and free of spyware.

Already have done that. Optimized speed =).

Definitely not the monitor.

Looks like I'll have to jump it into Safe Mode and see how it goes from there. However... I did manage to type up a two pages on MSWord which took like an hour between all the music and simultaneous chatting. And the computer did make it through that. Curious...

Thanks for the help though.

Virtual memory is definitely not an issue...nor are the hardware specs an issue (besides being a little old).

Definitely scan it in safe mode, some viruses like to hide pretty well. I'm also assuming your probably current with Windows Update. I personally recommend Adaware SE, but find a spyware scanner you're comfortable with and scan for those in safe mode too. I generally keep my computer clean too, but I have had random cases, and all it takes is one naughty program to open the door for the rest of them...

Good luck with this.