display problem / 4-6 second freezes

I have an HP pavilion, 1.6 GHz, 512MB ram, with integrated Intel 82810E Graphics Controller and integrated (but disabled) sound. [using a Sound Blaster Live! card]...

1) I believe I am having trouble with my graphics in XP pro. occasionally, (always while the computer is displaying one of the many fade-in context menus in windows xp or IE, OR when im in the middle of switching windows and the computer freezes before the contents of the switched-to window is displayed) the computer completely freezes. I can’t ctrl + alt + delete, I can’t move the mouse or click anywhere. I have to manually shut down the computer then restart it to recover. now I also believe its a hardware problem because when I run Knoppix (cheap CD distribution of Linux), the event occurs even more often, but still always while the computer is doing something that stresses the display (context menus, switching windows, scrolling through web pages). Where do I begin to start diagnosing exactly what is wrong? I already have the newest version of the Intel 82810E graphics controller.

2) I have also recently been experiencing another problem, although I'm not as sure its graphics related. I get little bursts of no response from the computer when starting a program or trying to access a website. The hard drive light blinks once or twice a second, there is a tiny bit of drive activity, and the cursor is usually an hourglass. This lasts for 4-6 seconds and then the computer continues executing whatever command I issued. If I am browsing a website for the first time through IE, the wait seems to be a little longer, around 7-9 seconds. How can I begin troubleshooting this?

Thanks in advance for any insight on either of these frustrating problems

 

Based on Problem #2 cropping up, Problem #1 might not be the graphics controller after all.

The first thing I recommend you do is go through XP's services to shut down those you don't need to remove anything that might be unecessarily taking up resources.

I used the guide on Black Viper's site and just by using the settings in the "Safe" column, I got a noticeable performance boost.

If that doesn't do much good...or even if it does, since this next approach is just good computer maintenance...download, install, immediately update and run Spybot and/or AdAware (I use them both.) Let them clean up any spyware they find.

Once you've eliminated the resource-using stuff you don't need or want, troubleshooting the display problem might be easier.

 

clean of spyware.. still experiencing problems. i believe its graphics because after the freeze happens, and i reboot xp, i get a message saying something like the following piece of hardware has made the system stop responding and it said Intel Graphics. im not sure exactly how it was worded but it was something ot that effect

 

it happened again.. and i took screen shots of the messages i was talking about in my previous post. heres what they look like:

picture 1

picture 2