Janie -

A bad phone line could cause a "freeze" if a program requests a reply that should come from the phone line and nothing comes back. This sometimes shows as a "waiting for reply" if you go to Task Manager, but shouldn't give you a "black screen" or the infamous BSOD unless something else is wrong.

Since you've already got - and got current - AdAware and Spybot, for future reference I'd suggest downloading the free version of "HijackThis." This program is intended for solving spyware problems, but can be generally useful for a lot of computer problems. It makes a logfile of the running processes on your machine. You can give the logfile to experts (by posting to appropriate websites) who can often use the information to provide quick (and complete) fixes.

If you make a "clean" logfile when the machine is running properly, you can often find things yourself by comparing a new one - when there's a clinker - to the clean one made earlier. Anything "new" is a suspect, but not necessarily guilty. The program uses a default filename for the save, so it will overwrite any older ones unless you change the filename of the one you want to save. I usually just add the date (e.g. 050930_ for today) to the front of the hijackthis.log default. (050930_hijackthis.log)

The program allows you to "fix" things by just putting a check mark in a box in front of the item, but this can be dangerous to the health of your machine, so you should NOT try to use it that way without competent advice on specific things to check. The "fix" will delete the file and any references to it in your System Registry, which can really mess you up if it's a file that's needed. Your use would be just to make a logfile of what's running when things are right, for comparison when things go wrong.

Not something to worry about until you get the machine/setup working.

John