Computer crashing

[Rook]

This isn't my computer, rather moms old computer she's using going on 6 years old.

1.8ghz sempron
2gb ddr
ati x1300

Anyways programs started crashing on this beast recently--and when you click don't send error report or the X usually the computer will just freeze. Usually this will happen in Firefox or a AVG scan, sometimes when she'll be playing WoW.

I tried to search google and it gave stuff about viruses and I'm sure it's not that. I'm so confident it's not that because swapped out the hdd with another (clean) hard drive that is in the cage already and it did the same thing.

Any ideas? v:maddowns:v

[annihilation]

It seems as though you are running hungry programs there.
It may be over heating.
I suggest you check all your hardware.
Check your fans to make sure they're working properly.
Check your RAM and make sure it is not starting to fail.

[Rook]

Turns out one of the sticks of ram were bad, kinda weird considering we had to buy that outdated DDR ram for like $50 maybe 6 months ago. 2GB down to 1GB isn't gonna kill that old computer anyway...

[Ganon]

RAM has a life span comparable to the millenium falcon's hyperdrive

[Cortexian]

RAM has a life span comparable to the millenium falcon's hyperdrive
So really long then? After all the Falcon gets a brand spankin' new Hyperdrive near the end of the events of the Yuuzhan Vong series of books. Plus he has an entire private maintenance crew to work on the Falcon, gosh do some research.

Also, all the RAM I've ever bought or used in my PC's still works. I've got a computer running 7+ year old memory just fine.

[Matooba]

Yah i used mem test to find that same problem.
http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

I had to run 4 at the same time for each 4 gig ddr2