John writes:

<<I start Windows Media Player and it plays for awhile the locks up my =
computer>>

1. Media Player is well-known to be buggy on older computers.
2. Depends what you're playing and running at the time.  More details would
be helpful.
3. May be a memory problem. Try increasing virtual memory settings (Control
Panel/System/Performance/Virtual memory. Max out to 3 times physical RAM
and see what happens (provided you have enough HD free space).
4. Close down all other background stuff.
5. Reboot while holding down Shift, which should bypass all your startup
programs. Then run MP and see if any improvement.  If yes, then there's a
conflict with one or more of your startup programs. This is NOT the same as
par.4 above. Closing programs does not necessarily unload everything out of
memory.
6. Try an alternative program. Irfanview will run a surprising number of
media stuff.

I don't use Media Player myself, so sorry I can't be more specific. These
are just general things to try whenever you have freeze problems. Perhaps
others may have specific advice.

  Maybe you are pushing your computer resources beyond their limits. (eg
streaming video I  believe needs lots of buffer space).

Don Penlington
Free computer tutorials at: http://www.geocities.com/donaldpen/
Also Fractal Galleries,  free icons,  poetry,  and beautiful Queensland beaches.

      "Hold No Punches.." Rode brings you great shareware/freeware
        programs with his honest opinions in this weekly column.
                       http://freepctech.com/rode