Hi, I'm having trouble with my computer freezing up after 10 min. running. I did a system recovery, but did not help. The problrm began when I was up and running online and I moved the computer an inch or two to hook up speakers to the back. The only way I can shut it off is to hold the start button until its off. I
Have a hp pavilion 780n pentium 4. Can it be fixed? JanDex.

We need more info, what version of Windows, how much RAM, what are you doing when it freezes. Do you get any error messages?

I'm using windows XP, and I have 512MB DDR SDRAM, 1.8GHZ, 120GB ULTRA DMA hard drive. I can do anything on my computer for about ten min.before it freezes. If I install something that takes longer it stops before the instalation is done. I have no error message, no keyboard or mouse response. I can open and close the DVD drives, but that is about all I can do. I can do a system recovery and it will complete that with no problem, I replaced the video and sound card last year. After a system recovery I can successfully install the software for the video card, but when I install the software for the sound card it freezes in the middle of installation.After I shut the power to it and restart, it will do anything but with only ten min. of use and then freeze. JanDex.

Have you done any virus or spyware scans? Have you done Error Checking or a Defrag recently (Right click on drive> Select Properties then Tools).

My system does not need to defrag, I have two spyware programs I use, but I have no virus program or firewall. I tried a Norton program a few years back but it caused a lot of conflicting problems with most of my software I use. I could never get it to run right so I uninstalles it. I tried a few others but I don't know enough about that type of software to have any luck with. JanDex.

I'll assume you're on broadband?

Have you tried disconnecting the machine from your internet connection? Does this make any difference to the ten minutes?

If you aren't behind any kind of Firewall, you need to get one quick. Do you have the Windows XP firewall on?

Do you have automatic updates turned on? This could be trying to download and install software automatically and failing at the same point every time. To check go to Start -> Control Panel -> automatic updates (classic view) and check the settings.

Also, to check the hardware side of things, do you have another boot disk you can use? If so boot to this disk and see if the machine stays responsive for longer than the ten minutes.