Weird crash freeze zonk onMouseDrag

I thought this had something to do with Microsoft Office, since that's what I was using when this started, it was the only thing I had changed for many months, and I was having other weird problems with Word, but now it happens in Firefox and Windows also. So now I am wondering if it is hardware related. Here is what happens:

1: Each time I remember clearly, it happened when I was dragging the mouse, usually on a vertical scrollbar. I think once I was dragging a file in Windows. It may have happened when right-clicking for a context menu, also?
2: The computer screen freezes, mouse disappears, but disk activity continues to sound normal. I usually find RAMpage shows somewhat low memory, most often 10-20% free.
3: I press Ctrl+Alt+Del. Nothing happens except that disk activity stops after short access.
4: I press Ctrl+Alt+Del again. After quick disk access, nothing.
5: I press Ctrl+Alt+Del a third time. Computer usually reboots, otherwise I hold Ctrl+Alt and press Del repeatedly until it reboots.
6: BIOS starts, sometimes Windows startup screen comes up. Blank screen. Reboot fails. I must turn it completely off, wait a few seconds, then turn back on.
7: If I don't leave it off long enough, a repeat of #6, otherwise loads Windows, sometimes in safe mode from which I just restart again, or if it gives me the boot menu, I choose Normal Mode.
8: Windows loads as normal, but usually gives a message of the display adapter type is incorrect, and I need to adjust settings, but it only has the minimum choice possible to choose. I just press Cancel, then restart again. I seem to be able to avoid this by pressing Ctrl at a certain time during Windows startup, but it's a bit hard to time correctly.
9: Windows loads perfectly, and I continue as if nothing happened for a long time. (Unless it happens immediately again, rarely up to three times in a row.)

There are no blue screens or any messages of any kind except those mentioned. This entire sequence has sometimes happened twice in one day (not including immediate re-crashes within 5 minutes or so.) I remember only one occurance of it happening thrice in one day before today. I was testing today, and succeeded in causing this error 3 times by using the mouse a lot. It usually happens once every other day on average. There are, of course, a few other crashes, but I just restart and their effects are gone.

I have had that display adapter problem before, when having trouble with a different machine suspending in a mode the Operating System didn't seem to fully support. I doubt that is the problem here, since suspending works, and it is not trying to suspend when it crashes, but it may crash in a similar manner?

I try to use the keyboard instead of dragging, which seems to work. I have tried a different mouse, and using the scroll wheel instead of moving the mouse, but it still happens. This is very weird. I was thinking of putting another fan in my case, since the CPU doesn't look like it has as good a path to be cooled as in other cases, thinking it may just possibly be a coincidence that I was using the mouse each of the dozens of times this has happened. :confused Memory checks out ok. I tried other RAM sticks and it happens with them also. Also took out all cards, except replaced the internal modem with a network card and then that one with another NIC that has a different kind of board connector (PCI). The problem still occurs, of course. Any other ideas?

One more thing, in case it's related: The motherboard has 2 COM ports, but 3 show up in device manager. 1 has a ! icon meaning resource conflict of IRQs 3 or 4 and the troubleshooter recommends either disabling one COM port, or physically removing the other, which seems impossible. I haven't tested the ports to see which ones are working, since I don't currently need them.

 

you might have some overheating issues, that may seem coincidental by moving your mouse....get a program like hwmonitor to keep track of your temps...Do you have the correct drivers installed for your video card?

 

Yup, correct drivers for monitor and video card. That message only comes up when this happens. I cancel, restart, and it doesn't mention video problems until this happens again. When that happened with the other machine, I installed the latest drivers, but it kept happening until I started tweaking suspend settings.
I have NextSensor, but it isn't able to read temperature sensors on this computer. The box is old, and has nonstandard, incomplete sensor technology. Carefully using a temperature probe with case on after running for 2 hours: Room temp=73F/19C, main fan exhaust=78F/22C, inside case near PCIs=75F/20C, inside case above CPU=78F/22C, quick open case to place probe on CPU center top=92-93F(depending where I touch: heatsink, socket part, etc.)/30C After sitting with the case off about 5 minutes, idling, the CPU heatsink rose to 95F/32C, so it must be cooled some by the current setup.
I know this is definitely not as good as a built-in sensor, but it's all I could think of.
The RAM is next to the main fan, so I'm not so worried about it, but the CPU is on the other side of the case.

Something weird happened while I was typing this: I pressed the context menu button in Firefox with the cursor over a misspelled word, and the scroll bar (and browser page) went up and down over and over, about 20 or 30 times, before settling down again. It didn't jam, I tried the Start Menu and Firefox was still vibrating in the background. I had run virus scanners on it, but maybe I should update and try again? Or, maybe this is an unrelated bug. I'll ask about it in the software area.

BTW, I'm using a PS/2 mouse, not a COM mouse. I haven't tried a COM mouse because of the COM port problem mentioned at the end of my previous post, but maybe I should.

 

I am trying a serial mouse instead of one with a mini DIN. Only one of the two serial ports works. I still don't know why, but I don't think it's related. I'll start a seperate thread about it if I can't find anything. The box hasn't crashed the same way since. It crashed worse, just now. RAMpage said I had 14MB free RAM. Ctrl+Alt+Del wouldn't work at all. I turned it off, than back on, and it didn't recoginze 14MB of RAM. I don't have any 14MB RAM sticks, of course. I turned it off again, and back on while praying, and it worked like always, recognizing all RAM, running scandisk for improper shutdown. I just replaced the RAM before my last post, so now I'm wondering if it's the motherboard or if the RAM is the part overheating or something.

 

I found that I hadn't removed a non-Plug and Play modem from the device list after replacing it, which I think was the cause of the COM problem. Both ports work now. I'm still not sure about the main problem.

 

I think it's fixed now. It hasn't crashed since my last post. I just had to replace the CMOS battery, but I don't think that had anything to do with it? I still won't use a PS/2 mini din mouse on it, though, since that seems to be the problem (probably on or near the motherboard connector.)

 

I spoke too soon. It just happened again when I was scrolling in a WYSIWYG textarea when writing a post to another forum. It didn't recognize all the RAM and wouldn't boot. I turned it off for awhile and it's working now, but it had very much more than usual disk activity when Windows started. It also gave display errors again. Anyway, I guess I'll end up having to replace it. Just can't win. lol