Sat down at my PC this morning to find my screen saver ACTING weird. It was frozen in a frame but the picture wasn't completely static. It was making a repeated attempt to operate but couldn't. Sort of like a needle stuck on a record (dating my self much?) that needs a little push to get going.

I powered off by pushing the button on the tower and then restarted. Seems to be working fine now. Obviously something isn't right. What operates the screen saver? Is it part of the OS on my harddrive? I started another thread last week about my brand new harddrive making weird scratching noises. It stopped making those noises but I wonder if these two PROBLEMS are connected? Thanks.It is very difficult to deal with a problem that isn't. If it returns then we can try to determine it's origins.Often the problem GOES away if the computer is rebooted.Why was it necessary for you to power down the computer in the manner you did?Was the computer frozen?Could you not access the start shutdown option? The problem at the time could be related to a RAM module (failing) or that there was insufficient RAM to deal with the demands of all the processes that might have been running. If you don't have all the RAM the computer can handle you might want to consider adding more. Did you try a control/alt/delete before you did the shutdown from the power switch?truenorthYes, the computer was frozen and I could not get to the start button. I did not try ctrl/alt/delete. I replaced my ram earlier this year when one of my two sticks failed. Put in the same as I removed.

One other thing I just remembered. When I installed my new harddrive last month, I was asked what percentage of CPU do I want to use during updates (or something like that). I remember changing it from close to 100% to something less. Could that be a contributing factor? Since this is a brand new problem I am assuming and hoping it has something to do with the harddrive installation as opposed to some other part of the computer beginning to fail"I remember changing it from close to 100% to something less". Well in the event that an actual update was occurring (or multiple updates) then i suppose it could as the amount of RAM being accessed would be affected. However i doubt that.Something that i do that gives the user more control over the update process is whenever possible i do NOT permit automatic updates. I am advised of the available update and CHOSE whether or not and when to do it. Notwithstanding the fact that this may occur again i am going to suggest a long established highly technical user function to hopefully prevent the recurrence=cross your fingers that it doesn't return. Many factors beyond my earlier observation can cause a computer to freeze not limited to RAM/virus infection/hardrive issues/programs misbehaving/unintentional user initiated functions/heating issues (sometimes solvable by cleaning the computer interior)/Hardware components not being seated properly/etc.  truenorthThanks Truenorth. The CPU SETTING did not have anything to do with it, I think, because it is related the the weekly scan by MS Essentials which is scheduled for Monday night and the freeze-up happened on Thurs or Fri.  I did change it back to 100%. Don't know why I ever changed it to 80% because I am not entirely sure what the implications of changing it are.It simply means that if the scan runs when say you are working with the PC it will not allocate all resources to the scan...
Personally i have mine running at 4 AM every day so i never notice...except rarely.