Why does my computer keep freezing?

Question

I have a basic Dell Laptop with the Windows Vista Basic edition. For some reason, my computer randomly freezes, usually once a day (sometimes more or less). There is no apparent sign of this happening, and both my dad and sister use the same version of Vista as I do, and neither of them have this problem. I've tried clearing out old files, scanning my computer, and updating it all the time, but it doesn't affect my the freezing at all. When my computer freezes, the screen goes black and a tiny square of colorful lines appears in a random spot. It is really weird. If you know how to fix my problem, or know a website that does, please let me know. Thank you.

Answer 1

try an updated version of antivirus

need more info,what do u do when it freezes,do u restart it?

anyway, maybe you're computer is not sufficient enough for vista

as well, try the consumer services

good luck

Answer 2

Have you considered a corrupt BIOS? Try flashing it. Also, did it work well for a long time and then it took the dump? If so, I would start like this:

1) Power supply. Borrow a known good one and see if that cures it. If it does... do not return the power supply(the cat ate it is a good excuse).

2)RAM. Check 1 stick at a time, or 2 at a time if you have three. Or... if you can borrow some known good RAM...

3)I don't think it is the HDD since you were able to do the install but you might try the aforementioned technique.

4)I also doubt it is the proc, but you never know, Soooo....

5)Lat thing I would check is the MoBo since the cards required to test them are quite expensive, HOWEVER, since you are getting your A+, you will be needing one of these sooner or later.

Last question: Do you have a cat?

Answer 3

video card might be mess up, ram but be to low for what you do

more then likely is your video card though

but you might want to try system tools and go to disk clean-up and disk frag.

but really it's probably your video-card it probably has a defect which would explain the colorful lines

if it was ram it would generally just crash the computer and sometimes fry it

i recommand a new graphic cards, and i hope you have warranty

good luck with your problem :D

Answer 4

I would suspect a hardware fault - my first suspicion would be the ram - download a ram diagnostic utility

Answer 5

---Seeing as how this is happening on a laptop and laptops are known not to efficiently cool the CPU, let alone be able to cool both the CPU and the graphics card, I would be inclined to think that your graphics card may be overheating.

---If it doesn't happen when anyone else is using it, take a look at the difference in user habits. Are you running more intense graphics programs or using media player while browsing where they aren't? Are you playing games, using shockwave or something else that would be more power consuming and intense? Do you stay on it longer than they do?

---As for the black screen with colored lines, try hooking the laptop up to an external monitor and see if it happens then. If not, it is a problem with your LCD connection. Check this link http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/sy... (or the shortened link in case the server won't show the full link http://tinyurl.com/5jqwy7 ) and when you get to step #9, pull straight out on the blue pull tab and then carefully slip it back in place... just like reseating any hardware in its slot. Put it all back together and try again.

---If it's more in depth than this and it's under warranty, take it in... but back up all programs and such on an external because more than likely when you get it back, the nice people at Dell will have set your HDD back to original configuration for you.