My computer is freezing, Help!?

Question

I have an XP computer with pentium 4 and 2 GB RAM. The problem is that on average once per day it freezes. By freezing I mean, that the image on the screen becomes like frozen. The mouse will not move and no program will work. I also see that it doesn't read the hard drive after it becomes frozen. And then my only option is to do a hard shutdown. It never unfreezes without hard shutdown and restart.

And then after I turn it back on again after the shut down sometimes the desktop background becomes white and says that there was a problem with my active desktop and then I just change the screen background to something else and then back to my normal background.

Anyways. Do any of you have this problem. Do you know what is causing it. Please don't just say that its a virus. I mean if you actually had this problem and you found out that a virus was causing it you can say that, but if you are just guessing that its a virus then please don't answer. Because that is no help to me.

Answer 1

if your system is freezing up. it can be a lot of different things.



i'm going to assume the computer is somewhat old. which means...you should treat your computer like an older pet.



First off. make sure the computer is clean. dirt, dust, and funk build up around the fans... which are normally on the back, or sides of the computer. you'll either need some canned air. Or some sort of compressed spray. If all else fails. use a vaccume, or hand duster, or you fingers/hands to get the dust/dirt off.



The canned air is best, because it'll blow the dust off the fans, and loosen and remove dirt from inside the machine.



If you feel confident, open the computer case, and blow out the dust from inside the computer. Dust... and dirt. clogging up the computer contribute to heat build up.



Heat... and over heating. Is one of the main things that cause a computer to crash ...or freeze.



A computer needs air flow... over the CPU (chip) Hard drive, and system board... to ensure the temperature stays at a decent/safe level.



Also... while you're cleaning the fans, and computer... make sure the fans work. If they're not. That's a reason heat is building up too.



Now... if the computer is cleaned. And it's not heat that's killing your comp. It's some hardware that's failed... or fails... or is failling while you're trying to use it.



For older computers... the power supply might be the first thing to go. Computers need specific amounts of power to run different parts. Different voltage amounts to run correctly, or whatever...at if the power supply can't meet that amount... the system may freeze or crash.



If the power supply is bad. you're only option is to replace it. by buying a new one.



If it's not the power supply... suspect the Hard Drive. Bad sectors or corrupted information tend to lead to stubborn and problematic Hard drives. You can try and run virus scanners, spyware scanners, the windows Defrag program, disk clean up program etc.



if all else fails... you can completely delete/wipe the hard drive... and reinstall a fresh copy of windows. basically... starting over.



You'd need to back up your data first. So you don't loose anything. But the best way to fix a hard drive... is to reset it to zero... by erasing everything, and starting over.



If not the hard drive... your ram may be shot. you can go online... and download or find ram testing programs. that'll determine if your ram is failed, or failing at certain lvls.



If not the Ram... maybe the CPU ... too much heat... over time can cause the CPU to be utterly frak'd.



for any of that stuff... you'd probably have to just replace it.





So...really.





Clean the machine. get some canned air. $5 or so... it's really the best thing you can do. blow out all the dust, and crap off the fans, and the internal parts.



And then, either really cut down on the junk on your computer (old programs... toolbars, old files, porn, stolen music, old games, redundant programs... multiple chat programs. AOL when you don't use it. Limewire, and several other torrent programs, anything that's "free" that you don't use... delete old clunky anti-virus software for more modern low load software ...etc etc etc) and or completely wipe your HD and reinstall windows.



Your system freezes. either when you do something your computer can't handle, or something on your computer fails. Typically heat is the culprit. or a failing hardware component.



But also...as a side note. If your computer is older... you can't try and play the most current video games, or run office 2007 on a machine built in 05 etc. etc.





hope that helps somewhat.

Answer 2

Try disabling active desktop. I never use that buggy software.



Open the Control Panel.

Open the Display icon.

Click the Desktop tab.

Click the Customize Desktop button.

Click the Web tab in the Desktop Items window.



If you wish to disable Active Desktop, make sure all checkboxes in this window are un-checked.



If you wish to re-enable the Active Desktop later, check "My Current Home Page". Add your current home page into your desktop or click New to add another web page and/or other Active Desktop features. To update the content, click the Synchronize button.

Answer 3

1: Try starting your system in safe mode, if it doesn't lock up, then it's probably a software/driver issue but if it's lock up then it's a hardware issue.

2: Also check your event viewer to see what windows reports.

3: may be your psu is getting weak.open your one side of system unit and then run your system for a while.if problem doesn't persists then it means that heat was building inside your system unit.check your hardware connections.

Answer 4

it is a trojan or malware, if you don't have install SUPERAntispyware, and malwarebytes anti-malwere. know reboot your pc in safe modeF8 then run the superantispyware and everything it finds you delete in safe mode, then run the malwarebytes and if it finds also something delete it in the some way. now you reboot in safe mode again but choose the last good start. know you can run anti virus if you like but your problems all ready finished.

Answer 5

all i did was opened my computer make sure all componits are conected to my mother bourd then i cleaned the fans out put it back together, turned computer on opended in safe mode(when computer turns on keep pressing f8 untill you see system options enter into safe mode login or just enter...)then i use like that for a day and necst day it was fixed!!!hope it works...sory for sppelling im in hurry