Computer locks up after executing app in Windows XP

[AznMaverick]

Whenever i launch an app like photoshop or pc anywhere, the app will start to load with all the initial splash screens. However, shortly after my whole computer locks up and all it can do is ctrl + alt + del. Sometimes this will free up my computer and everything is fine. Other times all i can do is do a ctrl alt del > reboot and it will take forever for windows to terminate all my apps then finally reboot. Do i have a virus? I have the latest virus scanner and firewall from symantec and did a full scan, nothing shows up. Is there anything else i should be checking?

 

[DaiShan]

Does this happen every time you open an application, or only occasionally? Does it only happen for the two programs listed above? Photoshop requires a lot of memory, do you reboot your computer often? It could also be a memory issue. Try running memtest86 on loop over night and see if it turns up any errors.

 

[AznMaverick]

It's not all programs, but i don't exactly know which ones. You may be right, i'll try to run memtest and we'll see from there.