ADN

For the last couple days my computer has repeatedly frozen up. I can't move the mouse, use ctrl/alt/delete. There's no pattern to it that I can see. It froze one night when I was asleep. It just froze on me a few minutes ago when I was pasting articles into Word.

At first I thought it was because I installed a trial version of Nero from a site, but I uninstalled Nero yesterday, so I don't think it's that... Any ideas? I've done almost a dozen scans with Ad-Aware, Spybot, Norton, and AVG, and they've all found nothing...

Doesn't sound like a software issue, me thinks hardware..
You checked your IDE/SATA connection to the HDD..?

Could you dumb that down a shade for us non-technical folk? lol

When it freezes or locks up, how do you turn it off..?

Power bottom. It's the only way because ctrl/alt/delete doesn't work.

Before that seems like a dumb question, lol, let me clarify...

Usually when my comp freezes, I have to hold the power button down for a long, long time before it finally shuts down...But if I don't kill the power to the PSU, when I turn it back on, it won't post...That usually means that it was a software lockup...

But, if when it locks up, and you hit the the power button and it shuts right off, that may indeed be hardware, or if you have to hold the button down, but not kill the power, it could be an issue...

I hold the power button for about 5-7 seconds before it shuts down.

Do you get any error messages when you boot your PC back up..? Cause if not, you may have a legit hardware issue, less I am forgetting something crucial...Unless you have apps that are running whenever the machine crashes that could be to blame...

Nah. It shuts down. I wait a second or two. Press the power button, and it starts back up fine.

Kramer, now, before you follow my instructions, either make sure the warranty on your PC is already void if its one of those HP/Dell style machines, otherwise, I'd send it in to get checked.

Alright, first open up your PC's case by unscrewing the 4 or 2 hex-like "star"-head screws (probably not Philips-head).
Now, locate your HDD and its IDE cable by using the image below, lol:



Unplug the cable, and put it in again - FIRMLY! Don't be afraid to pull it out hard, just make sure you don't tug on the actual cables themselves..
Then, just screw up the PC, and see if it makes a difference..

You can also try running a bootable CD of LiveLinux, like Ubuntu or Knoppix, and see if that also "hangs".. if it doesn, it ain't the HDD or Windows, lol