Given the experiences you have had, I would suspect a thermal problem, which shows up periodically. Most likely a hairline crack in the motherboard or one of the circuit traces. The fact that it seems to work best after you open up the case and "touch" the hardware, adds likelihood to this as a cause. Either that, or the CPU has an intermittant fault. On Sun, 23 Mar 2008 05:43:07 -0700

    Will be much indebted if a good techie/soul could give me useful insights as to these endless hang ups/lock ups from my HP Pavilion 524w ... because I just can't function; PC is my CentCom.  Believe or not, have been putting up with this crap for nearly three (3) months now.  Argh!      SYMPTOMS  » The first sign of future hang ups --though these may still be hours ahead-- is that

    Will be much indebted if a good techie/soul could give me useful insights as to these endless hang ups/lock ups from my HP Pavilion 524w ... because I just can't function; PC is my CentCom.  Believe or not, have been putting up with this crap for nearly three (3) months now.  Argh!      SYMPTOMS  » The first sign of future hang ups --though these may still be hours ahead-- is that