Lenovo computer crashing

Sounds like your Video card is going out. Which im assuming is an onboard graphics card, which means your motherboard probably needs to be replaced.

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thanks for the quick response.  Actually we're not using an onboard graphics card.  Is there a way to confirm it's the graphics card before I replace it?  

The graphics card could be overheating. If there is a fan on it, make sure it's working and clean the cooling fins.

post the minidump for more info (at windows\minidumps)
if you are unable to boot, try booting from a live cd like knoppix to post it here :  ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V6.4.4CD-2011-01-30-EN.iso

Thanks for all the advice so far.  We are now running on the onboard graphics, and so far, so good.  
Attached is the minidump from yesterday's crash. Mini032111-02.dmp

If you guys are running ok using the onboard graphics than the issue probably is with the graphics card or the PCI connection on your motherboard. If possible you should try testing another known good graphics card in the machine.

We were crashing several times per week, so we are not certain if we are in the clear yet.  Any tests we should run, or should we just wait?

Yah i would give it a bit and see if you have any other issues.

the dump refers to IMAGE_NAME:  nv4_mini.sys   PROCESS_NAME:  csrss.exe


THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M (100000ea)
The device driver is spinning in an infinite loop, most likely waiting for
hardware to become idle. This usually indicates problem with the hardware
itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly.
If the kernel debugger is connected and running when watchdog detects a
timeout condition then DbgBreakPoint() will be called instead of KeBugCheckEx()
and detailed message including bugcheck arguments will be printed to the
debugger. This way we can identify an offending thread, set breakpoints in it,
and hit go to return to the spinning code to debug it further. Because
KeBugCheckEx() is not called the .bugcheck directive will not return bugcheck
information in this case. The arguments are already printed out to the kernel
debugger. You can also retrieve them from a global variable via
"dd watchdog!g_WdBugCheckData l5" (use dq on NT64).
On MP machines it is possible to hit a timeout when the spinning thread is
interrupted by hardware interrupt and ISR or DPC routine is running at the time
of the bugcheck (this is because the timeout's work item can be delivered and
handled on the second CPU and the same time). If this is the case you will have
to look deeper at the offending thread's stack (e.g. using dds) to determine
spinning code which caused the timeout to occur.

 nv4_mini.sys is part of the NVIDIA driver software
 nv4_mini.sys is located in the folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers. Known file sizes on Windows XP are 3,650,368 bytes (7% of all occurrence), 2,826,944 bytes, 1,897,408 bytes, 3,958,496 bytes, 3,198,560 bytes, 3,536,768 bytes, 3,994,688 bytes, 3,994,624 bytes, 3,530,432 bytes, 3,983,680 bytes, 2,459,968 bytes, 3,645,600 bytes, 1,312,555 bytes, 891,711 bytes, 3,988,384 bytes, 7,435,648 bytes, 3,642,784 bytes, 3,959,712 bytes, 1,329,723 bytes, 3,532,928 bytes, 909,501 bytes, 3,198,368 bytes, 2,830,688 bytes, 2,743,840 bytes, 1,550,043 bytes, 3,662,944 bytes, 6,727,136 bytes, 3,650,336 bytes, 1,618,939 bytes, 7,433,504 bytes, 3,329,504 bytes, 3,532,544 bytes, 10,232,128 bytes, 3,210,400 bytes, 3,919,264 bytes, 6,853,088 bytes, 7,435,136 bytes, 3,954,912 bytes, 3,655,712 bytes, 1,897,696 bytes, 6,555,168 bytes, 3,652,128 bytes, 1,878,432 bytes, 2,738,400 bytes, 3,199,616 bytes, 3,535,680 bytes, 6,738,432 bytes, 7,655,872 bytes, 1,371,740 bytes, 7,741,664 bytes, 3,964,256 bytes, 6,131,968 bytes, 3,925,920 bytes, 3,493,984 bytes, 3,528,000 bytes, 1,330,172 bytes, 6,554,496 bytes, 5,758,432 bytes, 6,097,536 bytes, 6,807,328 bytes, 3,454,144 bytes, 8,087,712 bytes, 3,095,680 bytes, 3,640,608 bytes, 3,958,272 bytes, 3,992,608 bytes, 1,341,339 bytes, 3,199,328 bytes, 1,347,036 bytes, 3,580,480 bytes, 6,852,032 bytes.
The driver can be started or stopped from Services in the Control Panel or by other programs. nv4_mini.sys is a Windows core system file. The program is not visible. The service has no detailed description. nv4_mini.sys is a Microsoft signed file. nv4_mini.sys seems to be a compressed file. Therefore the technical security rating is 14% dangerous, however also read the users reviews.

 Csrss  info :
This is the user-mode portion of the Win32 subsystem; Win32.sys is the kernel-mode portion. Csrss stands for Client/Server Run-Time Subsystem, and is an essential subsystem that must be running at all times. Csrss is responsible for console windows, creating and/or deleting threads, and implementing some portions of the 16-bit virtual MS-DOS environment.  

so either try updating the video driver -  or try replacing the video card

nobus -  a very long winded way of saying what I and most others have said from teh start.
It's NOT driver problems... the author said that it was coming up with artifacting on the lenovo logo (on POST) which is pre-OS.

Confirm the faulty card by testing with another known good VGA expansion card.
Replace the faulty card.

(or if the fan has seized, you could service the card and get maybe another few weeks out of it, but it's unlikely)

reecem - all of you guessed it was the card, and i agree it looks like that; but i confirmed it is  a bad card (or possible driver)

not to argue on someone else's problem, but it can't be drivers if it artifacting outside the OS.  (NinEliAbe - "It freezes for a little bit, then it will restart.  The lenovo logo will come up, but it will be pixelated with red dots.")
I'd wager that if he took the HDD out, the problem would still persist.

Thanks for all the help.  I really appreciate everyone's responsiveness and time.  We switched over to the onboard graphics in the bios, but for some reason it didn't drive the monitor until we also physically removed the graphics card.  It has run without problems for 4 days, and I think the problem is solved.  The graphics card uses cooling fins only, and appeared clean.  I didn't do further testing because the problem is solved and life can go on.