Maybe not relevant, but I am on XP SP2 and have started experiencing both freeze and crash problems in the last few weeks and other odd happenings. The Microsoft advice is that the cause usually lies in a recently installed driver that is flawed or unsuitable for the Windows version, so its recommends disabling the last new software/hardware installed to check the result. In my case this was an automatic connectivity update from aol. Aol has behaved oddly ever since, but their support people deny it is anything to do with them as it is still possible for me to connect. Computer problems that come out of the blue are very frustrating, solutions hard to find. In may case, aol may not be the guilty party, but I am strongly considering binning it just in case.