Computer Keeps Freezing

[maxieblue]

I have an HP Pavilion Slimline computer just over two years old. Recently it has started freezing, so that the only way to do anything is to shut it off and reboot it. Each time I reboot it from this situation I run the diagnostics and it comes up as passed each time. I took it to a local guy who could find nothing wrong with it. Brought it back home on Tuesday and connected it all up, no problem. Yesterday it froze again, twice. I am at a loss to know what to do. Can anyone help please?

[woofgang]

is your virus scan running in the background?

[TTG]

Have you installed something new recently that could be causing the freeze up? What tasks are you performing when the computer freezes?

Start/Run msconfig. Select services and startup tabs. Search on the net for each "ticked" item and see if it can be unticked.

Download free program malwarebytes, update it and run in safe mode.

The only freezeup problem I've had in recent months has been with firefox. Sometimes "plugin container" gets itself in a twist so I've disabled it.

[society]

"Computer Keeps Freezing"
It's very cold, this should be expected. ;-)

What browser are you using? Many years ago when I used Explorer's this used to happen. Since I've switched browsers all freezing have disappeared.

[ChuckFickens]

If it truly is freezing randomly and you can't spot any patterns of "oh it normally freezes when I'm running X" then it's almost impossible to diagnose even when sitting in front of the computer.

You can try running a full scan with both your anti-virus and malware bytes, run a full check disk, upgrade all the systems drivers to the latest versions, make sure you are running the latest versions of any software you have installed and also make sure all windows updates are installed... (all of which should be done regularly anyhow and if the "local guy" if worth his salt he would have done all the above as a matter of course.)

But to be honest, with genuine random freezes the easiest option is normally to backup all your personal data and then run a system recovery back to factory state and then reinstall all the software you use and copy the backup of your personal data back onto the system.

At two years old giving it a restore back to factory settings is worth doing even if it wasn't freezing as it will get rid of loads of crud you don't need and make the whole system run better and faster anyhow

[maxieblue]

Thanks for your help guys. I use Firefox as my browser so it might be something to do with that. AVG is the anti-virus software I use and I know the pc runs slow when the scan is going, but this freeze can happen at any time.

[AlBags]

What devices do you physically have plugged into it?
Especially USB devices?
Have you checked Device Manager with 'show hidden devices' checked and looked for yellows or conflicts?
Check your running processes out.

[kloofnek]

how does one restore to factory state.please,system restore only takes me back two months