You've got a lot of strange processes running....you are badly in need of a program that identifies these rogue processes back to the executables: PRIO http://www.prnwatch.com
In researching this problem, I had read that it could be as simple as replacing your nic card....but I still believe you accidently deleted an important winsock file that your anti virus/spyware told you too....my computer is running better and faster now than when I first got it(single core pentium4 2.8)...trader.exe spikes up on loading but than runs at 00 to 03 during the day.
One last thing ... go to Control Panel> Admin Tools> Event Viewer and look under the logs for system and apps and see if there are specific error codes that correspond with the crashes/freezes.
While you're at it go to Control Panel>Java>General>Delete Temp Files. Reboot and test. If not successful go to Control Panel>Java>Update and update. Next ... Start>Run and type msconfig and OK. Go to Start Up tab and take a screenshot and then Services and take a screenshot.
Having run for long periods at a time OEC I learned to make sure you have the latest .Net patches. I had far fewer problems with OEC when I add .NET 2.0 to the mix and made sure that I had the lastest java.
I hate McAfee stuff. When they were new they had "automatic updates" that you could never access... One big, big step that PC users can take that is so easy, inexpensive, and rewarding as to be unbelievable, is to get Norton Backup and Restore and never install anything without making a restore point. Also, do a format and install and load all your software and then make a restore point just in case something really bad happens. It is so easy when a computer goes nuts to just go back to the previous restore point. At that time there might be additional things that need to be done as in updating software but typically it does not take much time at all and it works out great... Edit: Over the years the Windows backup and restore stuff has been unreliable, I would spend the $ on the Norton.
I kind of like the look and feel of Acronis better too. Is there a big downside to using Acronis over Norton?
Reading through this thread I'm not sure whether you have isolated your problem. If you do automatic updates for Windows read the following. If you dont, ignore. When you look at Task Manager is svchost.exe running. If so - Microsoft has long known of issues with svchost.exe â the process that runs services of DLLs (dynamic link libraries). There are many symptoms associated with the problem. Among the most common is a drastic slowdown of computer performance as svchost.exe consumes memory and CPU cycles. The cause of the issue turned out to be the service that provides Automatic Updates. In response, many users began disabling Microsoft Update, an enhanced version of the more-limited Windows Update. How do you know if you have this problem? If your system is experiencing a dramatic slowdown, try launching Windows Task Manager to see. To do this, right-click the Task Bar, the area to the right of the Start button, (or press Ctrl+Shift+Esc) and choose Task Manager. Make sure the Processes tab is active, and click Image Name to sort the list. You'll see one or more instances of svchost.exe. If the CPU column shows 100%, or the memory usage seems extraordinarily high, you may be experiencing this bug. Microsoft has detailed other symptoms in Knowledge Base article 927891. These include an access violation error in svchost.exe and unresponsive systems during update scans by Windows Update or Microsoft Update. Some users respond by selecting the memory-hogging svchost.exe in Task Manager's Processes tab and clicking End Process. Unfortunately, doing so can kill other services your system needs, such as audio. And, it won't prevent the problem from returning later. The bug affects users of XP (all versions, including XP Media Center), Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000. The stuff in italics is from a newsletter I get. For more go to: http://www.windowssecrets.com Do a search for svchost.exe using the site's search function. Jack