Help diagnos a problem with my Lappy please

[mjolnir2k]

Hi All,
Would someone have any advice on what might be causing random lock up's on my laptop. It will lock up 2-3 times per day with seemingly no cause. I will be surfing on the web or have 2 application windows open at the same time (word and excel) and it will just lock up cold, requiring a hard boot to get going again.

I have eliminated Hardware from being a cause, other than the HDD (I swapped my HDD to a new Lappy and still getting lock up's on the new lappy)

Any thoughts on diagnostics I can use to find the issue? I am guessing it is software related, but not sure what the best method for tracking down the offending program.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Cheers,
Mj2k

Here are the spec's:
IBM Thinkpad T20
PIII 700
512 MB Ram
20 GB HDD
DVD Rom
Win XP Pro

 

[oldman420]

check your temps sounds to me like its iether that or a bad hdd.
also check for spyware and viruses

 

[Abhi]

What the old man said... specially the CPU temperature...

Check the memory too..