From personal experience over this weekend:
Check the power cables to all your devices.  I had a power cable on one of
my hard drives wiggle it's way loose.  This would cause the computer to run
for a few minutes, then totally lock up (just as you describe.)  I went in
to the machine and made sure every cable was tight and the problem went
away.
YMMV

Cheers!

Tony Mayer


>I've had a problem with the computer freezing up for some time, but
>recently it's gotten worse.  At various intervals (from several minutes
>to many hours) the machine just locks up and nothing works, the display
>freezes, the mouse cursor freezes, etc even CTRL-ALT-DEL won't work, and
>the only way to recover is to switch it off and reboot - letting it run
>through Scan Disk, etc.  The machine is a 900 MHz Athlon with 256 MB, and
>running Windows Me.  I keep current a copy of Norton's A-V so don't think
>it's a virus.  I know there must be a zillion possible causes, but would
>be interested in suggestions as to the more obvious places to start
>looking.
>
>Lewis Emerson

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml