My computer keeps lagging and freezing and crashing?

Question

It took about 10 minutes to ask this question because my computer is so d**n slow!!! My computer is an HP pavilion running Windows XP and I bought it in 2003. In the first few years the computer kept crashing every day and we had to keep fixing it. The problems stopped in 2005 and it went really fast(we have broadband)but recently in the past two months or so the computer suddenly got worse!! It is so fricken slow with broadband internet connection it should be faster. Right now when I go on Firefox it freezes every few seconds I am lucky if it loads a page correctly in under 1 minute when I watch youtube videos it lags and freezes like every 10 seconds and Windows Movie Maker 2 crashes every single time i open it what is wrong with my computer the CPU is at 50-100 percent no matter what I do and Firefox uses about 300,000 KB memory and it is not memory efficient at all Firefox is supposed to keep the memory usage at a steady level but it is eating up the memory on my system what is going on with my computer my parents said they're going to think about buying a new computer in 1 year what can I do to keep it working until then??

Answer 1

there are two things that you can do in this situation. either buy a new computer (which you said may happen) or reformat the one you have.  since you have to wait the year reformatting is your option. what it sounds like is happening is you have too many applications open (or a virus that's eating up all you ram).  reformatting will get rid of all the useless applications that you may or may not have installed on purpose and should get rid of the virus. reformatting will also allow you to start from scratch and do what you want to your computer, no pre-installed mumbo-jumbo that hp would have installed.  it's like having a new computer.

Answer 2

It could be one of a number of things, so lets play detective.

Eliminate the suspects one by one. Try removing the ram 1 stick at a time, if you only have 1 stick beg/borrow/buy 1 to try this out.

Next try the same with your power supply unit. If that doesn't work try removing any cards you may have.

Last but not least if you have more than 1 hard drive, try unplugging 1 at a time.

If you have had no luck then we check to see how much available space we have on the hard drive. Clean out your temporary files. Run  disk defragmenter. Run your anti-virus with a complete scan of all your files, firstly making sure your anti-virus is up to date. Give your PC a complete clean on the inside (very carefully).

If none of this achieves anything you may need to call a tech to check it out. This may not be cheap so make sure the tech is reputable.

Good luck.

Answer 3

There are several primary reasons could cause your computer to be slow and also some softwares you can download to speed up it.

First,Corruption and Errors within your registry.The registry is a main part of your computer's Operating System. With time, as you use Windows and install and uninstall programs, your registry will get congested and full of errors. So your computer could slow down. So, if you can clean it up this problem can be solved.Sometimes you can speed computer up by 300%. To clean up registry,You can download a software called regsitry cleaner---Clean registry,remnant,corrupt files and temp files,history,cookies,etc.. This site:

http://www.speed-up-your-pc.com/index.ph...

lists top 5 registry cleaner,you can download and scan for free.

Second,Your computer is loaded with spyware/adware.spyware/adware hamper your computer's performance.It use system resources and slow your computer down.

So, to speed up your slow computer, use a registry cleaner software and clean your registry files first. It will make all the difference, and provide you with the immediate fix you need for your slow computer.Then,download a good anti-spyware to get rid of spyware/adware in your computer.

Answer 4

Do a system clean. First clean your c drive and remove unnecessary files then check error on your disk space then defragment your c: drive. You can do all of this by: Start > My Computer > right click C: Drive > Properties > Disk Clean Up. After you've performed all of these cleaning then you can go and install a lavasoft adaware to remove any spyware you have (yes you do have spyware installed. Then go to www.superantispyware.com then install and run this software (make sure you update the definition) then go to Dr.Webcureit (just google it) and run this application. lastly, find ATF-Cleaner (just google it) and run it on your pc this will clean your internet browser.

Answer 5

Check http://www.pcoptimizerprodownload.com

With pc optimizer pro you can safely clean, repair and optimize your computer.

It will help improve your system performance.

Answer 6

I would suggest scanning for any kind of viruses or spyware. A great spyware scanner is Adaware, which can be downloaded for free off of download.com. Next, you should upgrade your RAM. More RAM will allow you to use applications more smoothly and it will drop your CPU usage down. After that, you should defragment your hard drive. You can find this by clicking start>all programs>acessories>system tools>disk defragmenter. Good luck.