Windows Vista Freeze

[Ed in Calif]

HP Pavilion 06300f PC. Vista. Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180. Very straightforward use, no funny programs, no heavy graphics programs. Have downloaded Adobe and DirectX, play Fallout 3 game with no problem, and not much else. Norton Firewall, Anti-virus, Malware. Windows Firewall disabled. (Planning to change to Avast based on suggestions here.)

The problem is that the PC freezes about once every two hours of use. I can't see any pattern to it except that it happens on a click on a link or search. It doesn't relate to a particular website...it has happened on Internet Movie Data Base, Google Search and the occasional blue website link in a text, for example. Probably more on the Internet Movie Data Base website than any other site, but then I use that site a lot.

When the freeze happens, whatever is on the screen turns faint and freezes. The little circular icon that indicates the PC is searching or loading swirls around. Nothing works but to shut the PC down completely with the power switch and restart.

Not critical but annoying and I would appreciate any suggestions on things to do to try to cure this.

Is it likely that this is firewall related?

Thanks for replies.

 

[Lexluethar]

Go into reliability and performance monitoring by clicking on control pannel, then admin tools. Then click on reliability monitor and see what program is causing the issue.