Computer Keeps Freezing

[DarkMan_X]

Alright, lately my computer has been freezing up. I can't think of anything too drastic that would have caused this. I did have a problem with a hijacking, and I did have to do a system restore last month and had to recover my files. I first noticed it while playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. It would let me play for 15 - 30 minutes and would freeze making a high pitched squeal come out of my speakers. In the past few days I've tried to use WinRAR to compress a file only to have my comp freeze at 10%. And tonight I tried converting an AVI to an MPEG and no matter what program I use, Windows seems to completely lock up. Specifically, I'll first lose control of my mouse and then my keyboard stops responding. I just reloaded Windows at the beginning of the year, so I'd like to not resort to that. Any suggestions on what I should do?

 

[Narcon]

It could be a few things causing your problem...Is your hard drive full or are there a few gigs free? Are alot of your games/ software cracked? Ram? I would also ctrl-alt-del when you notice this starting to happen and check to see if anything under CPU has a value greater than 90.

 

[WinXP2004]

Hi DarkMan_X,

Do these in order below:

During a boot, tap the F8 key or go to Start/Run/Msconfig/Boot.ini and check off /SafeBoot/Apply, reboot.

Scan - Disk

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Scan Disk/Thorough


Defragmentation - Disk

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter


Scan - Disk

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Scan Disk/Standard

 

[rude]

Just a thought,but have you thought about disabling startup items that you don't need to start on bootup.Having too much stuff in there can slow your system down dramatically.The only things I allow to start on bootup on my machine are my anti virus and firewall.

Also go here:http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
and check out the service configurations,there are a lot of services that you can disable to help your system run better and faster