On Nov 16, 4:44*pm, wrote:
I am, and have been for some time, running XP SP3. *Have had no
trouble until now. * It is on a M3A78_CM mobo with a AMD Phenom 9950
Quad cpu and 4GB DDR2.

I find that it freezes up after being on sometimes an hour, sometimes
longer, requiring re-powering up. *I have tried the RAM one at a time,
and I have changed hard drives. *Same result.

So I figure it is the CPU or MOBO.

Anyone have a thought on this?

Thanks

Duke

First you say you have XP SP3, then you say you have dual bootable...
is that XP and Linux?

This is what I do when I see XP hang and need to figure out the
problem (if it is software).

If your system stops responding, hangs or freezes and you can't figure
out why, you can force a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) which will create
a crash dump file that you can analyze and see what is running at the
point of the freeze and get some ideas that do not involve guesswork.

While it may seem odd to think about purposefully causing a Blue
Screen Of Death (BSOD), Microsoft includes such a provision in Windows
XP. The feature is built in to XP specifically to diagnose the problem
when a system stops responding.

This will eliminate trying things or guessing about what might have
happened maybe.

Sometimes there will not even be a clue about the problem in the Event
Log.

Here's how to force your system to create a BSOD:

First make sure your system is not set to automatically restart on a
system failure.

Right click My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery,
Settings.

In the System failure section:

Put a check mark in the "Write an event to the system log" box
Put a check mark in the "Send an administrative alert" box
Uncheck the "Automatically restart" box

In the Write debugging information section, choose:

Small memory dump (64 KB)

Set the Small dump directory to:

%SystemRoot%\Minidump

Click OK twice to save the settings.

Now enable the XP feature to generate a crash dump on demand.

Before making registry changes, backup your registry with this popular
free and easy to use tool:

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html

For PS/2 keyboards, launch the Registry Editor (Start, Run,
regedit.exe) and navigate to:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Pa rameters

For USB keyboards, launch the registry editor (Start, Run,
regedit.exe) and navigate to:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Para meters

Click Edit, select New DWORD Value and name the new value:

CrashOnCtrlScroll

Double-click the CrashOnCtrlScroll DWORD Value, type 1 in the Value
Data text box to enable the feature, and click OK.

Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP for the changes to
take effect.

When you want to cause a BSOD (when your system has stopped
responding), press and hold down the [Ctrl] key on the right side of
your keyboard, and then tap the [ScrollLock] key twice. Now you should
see the BSOD and you will have a crash dump file to analyze.

You may not see the information about your problem on the BSOD screen,
but you will find the answer in the crash dump file. You may need
help interpreting your crash dump file if you have never seen one
before.

You can read about the feature he

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff545499.aspx

There is no harm in leaving the feature enabled (mine is always on),
but if you are compelled to remove it, just undo the change you made
in the registry.

Launch the Registry Editor (Start, Run, regedit.exe) and navigate to:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Pa rameters

or

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Para meters

Select the CrashOnCtrlScroll value, click the Edit menu, and select
the Delete command.

Close the Registry Editor and restart Windows XP.