Here is the frustrating problem. I experience these lockups about once a
week, and only with the Windows Spider Solitaire game. I hear a "click" from
the computer, and then--the mouse pointer is frozen. No keyboard. Nothing to
do but power off the computer.
I should also note that when the Spider Solitaire game begins, the screen
"flickers" a bit, sometimes more than once.
With the regular Solitaire game, I get cards that are supposed to move, but
don't move. The space is supposed to be open, but a card remains and no
other card can be placed there. Often a small "corner" or edge of a card
remains visible under a stack or in the middle of the rows.
I understand that the video driver is the "usual suspect," but note that for
more than two years we used the generic Windows-supplied video driver with
no problems. When these problems began (several months ago) I downloaded and
installed the latest driver package from Nvidia. The problems continue.
I also note that we are heavy users of Internet Explorer, Outlook Express,
Office, and Media Player. And we never have problems with those
applications. Only with the above-mentioned games.
Is it far-fetched to think that uninstalling and re-installing the Windows
games might help? Spider Solitaire has been played literally thousands of
times. Is that at all possible? ...