No need to say I did a search, but I did. This problem has me completely exhausted, as I have searched extensively (all over the internet), and can't seem to find this exact problem.
I'd start with computer specs, but that's half the problem of solving this. The problem occurs on two different computers, and they have absolutely nothing in common besides some basic software. One computer is running WinXP, one is running Win7-RC. They share no parts in common except for having Realtek sound chips on the motherboard. If it comes to where somebody has an idea that might relate to some kind of hardware/software, I'll certainly dig up the specs to share.
The problem is as stated, a hard freeze. As in, absolutely nothing responds unless I do a manual shutdown by holding down the power button. The problem *usually* occurs while playing FFXI (but has also happened on occasion with YouTube videos). It comes out of nowhere and has no set timing to it (in FFXI, it tends to happen between 5-15 minutes of starting to play). I searched various FFXI forums just in case it's a FFXI problem, but haven't found anybody else reporting any kind of problem like this. Not to mention that when it started happening, there had been no update to the game at all (or *anything* new to justify this kind of thing suddenly happening). And it happening on occasion with YouTube videos just makes things even more confusing.
Things to try (most of these I tried on the Win7 computer). I adjusted all power management features all the way up, and completely off. I turned off the Cool and Quiet feature of the processor. I uninstalled Nero 9 completely (the only change I had made to the computer when this started happening). I tried playing the game in the monitor's native resolution (apparently nVIDIA + MMO has been known to cause issues when not playing in native resolution). I updated the graphics drivers to the latest version. I reverted them back to the default Win7 drivers. I might've done a couple other things, but at this point it's hard to keep track.
Nothing I've done has seemed to have any impact on the problem. If I avoid YouTube and FFXI, the computers can run indefinitely without any problems. The only software they have in common that is running when this happens is ESET Smart Security 4. And I've tried disabling that completely too, with no effect. The Event Viewer shows nothing out of the ordinary before the freezes.
Does anybody have any idea what could be causing this, or maybe a general suggestion for possibly fixing it? I really don't want to reformat and reinstall Windows, but then again, I don't think that would help anyway, as I certainly didn't make any common changes to both computers to provide a cause for this problem. And of course, that would solve the problem without knowing what caused it (which isn't helpful if it comes up again).
