computer crashes

[xaznfirez]

there a few things that will crash my computer (what i mean by crashing is the computer will freeze and i have to press the reset button):
1-playing .rmvb/.rm files will crash my computer 95% of the time
2-playing music on wmp with a few programs running will crash 50% of the time
3-using a program to convert one file type to another will crash 99% of the time

any specific ideas on what it could be? e.g. types of hardwares? thanks

computer temp seems to be ok ~30+*C

comp specs:
Athlon XP 1800+
512 kingston pc2100 ram
60 gb maxtor/western digital? hd
geforce 3 ti200
sound blaster audigy
acorp/via mother board
10/100 ethernet card
pioneer dvd-rom
lite-on cdr-w
pioneer dvd-rw

 

[aznkidlee]

You might have some spyware, viruses or registry errors on your computer. Have you ran any spyware, viruse or registry cleaners?

 

[MasterJason]

Check you ram, Also does your pc crash in gaming?

 

[jerry5739]

the ram is brand new...everything is brand new...its never been booted..thats wut im trying to do...i just bought it all..and put it together...so im gettin a bit depressed.

 

[xaznfirez]

i did a spyware scan, a antivirus scan, and a registry cleaner. the computer still crashes. yes, it crashes in games 90% of the time.

 

[gaara]

CPU and memory look to be the problem.

Also, never run multiple proccesses while encoding files, encoding is a huge strain on the CPU, and especially for a 1800+, so that's probably why it crashes nearly all the time when you try encoding.

 

[xaznfirez]

i never ran multiple processes while encoding files, it still crashes.

 

[Booyah]

i know this sounds crazy but, uninstall sp2 (if ur running sp2) then get all available updates EXCEPT sp2. once all available have been installed, try re-installing sp2 again. this fixed random crashes for me on my brand spanking new built pc.

 

[MasterJason]

Try memtest 86

http://www.memtest86.com/

put it on a floppy and boot from it