strange PC lockups

[Sashswash]

My PC has been acting very strange lately. Games run great, and i never have a problem with any of them. But when doing random things, like viewing some web page, just writing a text document in Word, or flipping through the channels on TV, my PC will go stone dead. The red light on my Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 just turns right off when this happens. Occasionally, this is accompanied by a strange "crackling" noise from my speakers. The noise isn't loud, but noticable. And sometimes, after it's locked up, i notice a strange yellow "hue" around text. My setup is-

Intel D845PESV
2.8 P4 w/ 533 Mhz FSB
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro
1024 Megs PC-2100 RAM
Audigy 2 Soundcard w/ 6.1 speakers

Any ideas? I have the Omega ATI drivers installed. I've used the ATI ones, but they've been less stable than these...any help would be great. Thanks!

 

[RandomPING]

Its a total shot in the dark, but 90% of the time when i talk to people with computer issues like this it's either bad drivers, spyware, or a virus. It may not be directly related to your video card. Have you tried a virus scan or an adware purge? (adware cleaning software is at http://www.lavasoft.de/)

 

[Sashswash]

actually, i just rebooted my PC (b/c it locked up), and my Norton Antivirus detected a trojan, and cleaned it out. It hasn't locked up since...im gonna try some things that made it lock up just to see though....

 

[|SwE|FishStick]

well... that should be a relief

 

[RandomPING]

Hmmm no no, that's far too easy! There's got to be a more complicated method.

 

[Sashswash]

yeah...lockups have stopped so far!