Oh No! Not another 'freeze' issue !!

Hi. This is my first post, please be patient! I've looked through the other posts about freezing, but none seem to match exactly. I recently bought an Acer aspire M1640 (cheap and cheerful) with Vista installed. I tried very hard to get on with it, having come through from 3.1, etc. To no avail, it was awful: freezing, crashing, etc. I had my local 'friendly' computer shop replace it with XP pro. No other changes were made. From the start it was randomly freezing, and I mean random (hot/cold...under load/idle....2 mins/10 hours). I have done my best to update all the drivers I can think of, regular use of registry mechanic, windows error-check, defrags. It doesn't happen often, and I can almost live with it, but the most annoying thing is that the 'Labtec webcam pro' will freeze after a couple of minutes. I tried downloading the latest software from the Labtec site, but it was worse! As I type I have 'CPU stability test 6.0' running (6.5 hours now, no problem). Living in Portugal with the kids in UK and phone calls costing the earth, this is really the only way of 'face-to-face' contact. My missis is doin her nut !! Can anyone help ??
Thank you in advance for your time.

Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2200 @ 2.20GHz (2199 MHz).
Windows XP 32-bit Service pack 3
GeForce 7050/NVIDIA nForce 620i, driver 178.24
Eset smart security 3.0.645.0
Realtek HD Audio

 

Could be a memory(or lack of) problem.How much RAM is installed in this machine?

 

It has 2.75 GB of ram, apparently

 

Just re-read your first post and saw that you use Registry Mechanic. I personally stay far away from anything that claims to improve the registry. They usually do more harm than good.
What programs are starting up with Windows? Too many programs think they are "important" and are installed on the startup list without your knowing. Download WinPatrol and check to see what is running. I keep mine limited to my AV, Firewall, and antispyware programs.:wave

 

Thanks for your time hrlow2. (AV ? ) Today I downloaded 'Quick access' (from this site) which puts an info bubble next to all processes in task manager. There are 42 running ! Is this normal ? The computer is running fast and I havn't had any memory issues that I know of. I don't think there is anything sapping the memory. I will install and run Winpatrol and see what is what !

 

AV is Anti Virus.
I have only 29 running processes at this time,according to Task Manager.

 

How the hell do you know what to disable/remove ? Is it a case of trial and error, can I do any damage ? Is there a way of making them come in 'on demand' then turn off again ? If not, why not ? .........LOL

 

If using WinPatrol, shows name of company. If the name belongs to a program or service that you want to run,ignore it. Remove any that are not needed at startup, like copiers, photo programs, faxing. Leave just the types mentioned and the ones for your internet connection.

 

Thanks guys. I'm working my way through bit by bit. I did delve into Nvidia and found that it was set up for multiple screens, could this have affected it ? Strangely, it hasn't frozen since I posted my original message ! :confused.
Perhaps I've already found the problem. Once again Thank you.