Help: What's making my computer crash...

[KnowsNothing]

OK, I know that's a pretty tough question without seeing it crash, but I'll try to give a good description.

When I read relatively large word documents (~ 30 pages with lots of plots), the computer will just freeze up. Ctrl-Alt-Delete does nothing. No blue screen, just locks up and I have to reboot. I'm using Office 2000 and running office 2000. I have a AMD XP 1700+ and a Abit NV7-133R mobo, Radeon 8500 128 MB videocard.

I have 2 dimms of ram, one is 256 MB and the other one is 128 MB. The 256 MB stick is Kingston ValuRam and I think the 128 MB stick is PNY. I'm thinking the problem might be cheap RAM, but what do I know?

Any suggestions other than just to start pulling things out and see if that fixes the problem?

Thanks

 

[KnowsNothing]

bump?

 

[stingray2]

did this problem just start, or has it always done that?
you might try re-installing Office 2000. it does not take long.
are there any service packs for office 2000? and have you put them in?

after that, if you still have a problem, start pulling your memory, try
each one to see if one is bad.

 

[EKAtBzboyz]

memtest86 each stick of ram one at a time

i turned agp 4x to 2x on mine before and it fixed same problem (but for me it was just random, not only when i do something specifically) in 2k

what are your temperatures? (are they above 60C)
try running prime95 see if it causes an error or if the heat causes it to freeze

try running 3dmark 2001 to see if its teh videocard overheating

if still not ok, just pull everything other than 1ram/cpu/videocard/hd

 

[woodie1]

I would suspect the RAM first. Maybe the video card temps next.