win/xp hang. need assistance diagnosing

My win/xp occasionally hangs. The hang is complete; no functions work, the start key is inactive, and ctrl+alt+del will not bring up the task manager. The mouse cursor and keyboard are both inop. This only seems to happen when I have a firefox browser open. The only recourse is a hard reset to reboot.

I run m/s one care virus and three versions of spyware detection. I'm reasonably certain I don't have a virus or malware, but of course, that's always a possibility. One factor which I'm currently investigating is a bios alarm on a hot cpu. It has only occurred once, but I'm trying to determine if that might be the culprit.

I've tried googling for various combinations of hang, diagnose, win/xp, firefox, etc. to no avail. What I really need is a method to get some diagnostic information after the failure. The system logs show no unusual activity.

I presume there must be a way to connect a diagnostic system to my main system to figure out where the problem resides. Any thoughts appreciated.

 

High temperatures, especially at CPU, are often responsible for such cases. Check out your CPU's temperature when you're running a program through Speedfan or Everest (both are very good programs).
The paradox is that if it is temperatures to blame, it should happen with every heavy program you run (such as a game)...so does it happen only when you run Firefox? (As far as I know, Firefox was accused for using much memory and stress the CPU but I don't know if this has changed with the latest version)

 

Have you looked in Event Viewer to see if you can find the problem?

Control Panel/Admin. Tools/Event Viewer

 

Yes, I've checked event viewer and there is nothing in there worthwhile and nothing that alarms at or near the time of the hang. I suspect the event logger is also inop at the time of the hang.

I'll try the suggested fan monitors and also plan to install a couple of new fans after I clean out the dust bunnies.

 

The mystery continues. I fixed the fan and heat issue to the point that the system temperature is now well within normal limits. Dust bunnies have been banished.

I've rerun all the virus and spyware scans and all come up empty.

So I set up the computer with just the temperature monitor and firefox opened and left. Within 45 minutes it was locked up. Nothing whatsoever in the logs.

I'm back to my original question of how to debug this. I seem to recall it is possible to attach another pc as a diagnostic aid but I've no idea how to go about this. Pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.