Laptop freezes

Hello, when I leave my laptop unattended for a few min., I come back and It's frozen! Ctrl,Alt,Del. does not work with this. I have to push the off button and re-start It over again. I do have a screen saver but that does not kick In to help. I have windows XP Home. I am sure It's just a matter of adjusting something but don't know where to start.
Thanks

 

Check the settings on your screen saver- right click on an open area of the screen > desk properties > screen saver


Check what the power saving features of your bios are set to

Here is a list of keystrokes to get into the bios setup panel.
At the worst if you cause yourself trouble just set it to "factory defaults" and save. With the laptop you cannot do to much damage with that.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

 

Do you have a wireless keyboard and/or mouse attached?

Are you using any of these programs?:
1. Ehtray.exe.
2. DVDLauncher.exe
3. Power DVD
4. PCM service.
5. Dell Media software.

If you need advice how to check, please advise. There should be roughly similar sounding entries in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs to identify them.