Computer Hangs a lot

[inutelinside]

Hello,

I have a computer that is quite old. Pentium 4 2.0ghz, 768 MB SDRAM, 80gig HD.

It started to hang a lot starting last month. What could be the problem? What should I look into in order to fix my problem.

 

[inutelinside]

By the way, Windows XP is installed on my machine. In addition, not only does it hang but sometimes automatically cold-reboots.

 

[garebo]

That could be a symptom of many different issues, power supply, hard drive, malware\virus\trojan, and ram.
To get malware out of the way go to one of the online scan places and have them take care of that. Your antivirus alone isnt good enough these days. One place is trend-micro, go to the housecall section. Here it is:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

You have to follow the instructions and let them download and install a small prog to your pc. Only go with the "A" scan, not all 3, especially not the third where it checks and adds microsoft updates, we should always do those ourselves.

You can google and run memtest on one stick of ram at a time to test your ram. Ram can do what you are describing.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

If that doesnt do it then you want to check your cmos battery, make sure its 3 volts.
Next would be to test the power supply, either swapping another power supply into your pc or by actual testing of the ps you already have running. For this you need a digital or analog multimeter that you can buy for as low as $5. Theres a good tut for checking all the lines on your power supply, and this is the only way to test it properly, go to techrepublic.com, join up and see their tutorial.
Good luck and let us know!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips