Computer Keeps on Freezing

Hey Everyone,
I'm helping my house mate (I just moved in with him this week) ask this question because he's not too good with forums and just not too great with Internet-related things in general.  Anyway, he has Windows XP and his computer keeps on freezing at seemingly random times.  Sometimes it would freeze right at the Windows loading screen, sometimes when he's browsing through his Windows folder, sometimes when he's surfing the Internet, sometimes right after Windows loads (right when his desktop comes into view).

Three days ago I installed Service Pack 2 on his computer (before I installed SP2, he had no service pack at all) and for about two days, the computer did not freeze even once.  It usually freezes at random times - sometimes he could go on for days without it freezing, sometimes it freezes up to ten times in a row in a one-hour period.

Is there anything I can do to check out what's wrong or is there any way to fix this?  Also, any idea why this computer keeps on doing that?  It's a fairly new HP computer that he bought just about two years ago.  I scanned his computer with Ad-Aware SE, Spybot, and HijackThis and everything seemed fine.

Thanks in advance,
-=MaStA ViC

was sp 2 downloaded via the net? maybe it was a bad install you could remove it.. i would email m$oft and ask for the disk...how much ram have you got...

The problem has been going on for at least four or five months before I even installed Service Pack 2.  The computer has 256 RAM.

-=MaStA ViC

Do these things on a regular basis:

• Defragment
  
• clean redundant files
  
• clean registry
  
• Uninstall unnecessary or irrelevant programs.
  
• Scan for viruses, trojans and spyware
  

Also read through this article: Computer Cleanig Information

Perhaps the harddisk is ripe for a format?

The problem has been going on for at least four or five months before I even installed Service Pack 2.  The computer has 256 RAM.

-=MaStA ViC

Just right-click My Computer and open the properties box to see if the amount of RAM is reported as the full 256Mb, in case the video RAM is inclusive.

I find that 256Mb is too low and would suggest that you put in at least another 256Mb. This will make a world of difference. Whilst you are doing that just make sure that the original RAM module is properly seated by removing and replacing it as that is all too often the simple problem.

Have a read of this .pdf file and then visit the Crucial site. This is very often the cheapest way to improve overall computer performance.

http://images.crucial.com/pdf/dimm_install.pdf

http://www.crucial.com

Many Windows XP computers made specifically for XP Professional have four RAM slots in the motherboard for 4 x 1024Mb modules.

e.g. the ACER Veriton range.

Hm, this really sounds like a problem, I'm not for sure what I would do. Alot of the suggestions already here might be a good start though.

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[Moderator]

Congratulations...

You just bumped a Topic that's 6 years old...

Perhaps, but the response was intelligent, thoughtful, insightful, and adds a great deal to the forum.