Odd problem

[Stew M]

A friends computer is playing up and I can not source the problem.

Problem is:
Sometimes XP does not load up (locks up)
stalls / freezes when trying to use explorer
sometimes once the computer has booted up you just need to double click on a
icon and they all disapair or nothing happens!
double clicking on mpegs to play them the computer seems to lock up, except
Ctrl - alt - Del does work to bring up the windows task manager and once you
end task on explorer it returns back to normal.

No bugs found at all, and have reinstalled over the top and still have the
same problem. Surface scanned hard drive and it is o.k.

any ideas apart from formatting? :-]

Thanks in advance.

[Malke]

Stew M wrote:

> A friends computer is playing up and I can not source the problem.
>
> Problem is:
> Sometimes XP does not load up (locks up)
> stalls / freezes when trying to use explorer
> sometimes once the computer has booted up you just need to double
> click on a icon and they all disapair or nothing happens!
> double clicking on mpegs to play them the computer seems to lock up,
> except Ctrl - alt - Del does work to bring up the windows task manager
> and once you end task on explorer it returns back to normal.
>
> No bugs found at all, and have reinstalled over the top and still have
> the same problem. Surface scanned hard drive and it is o.k.
>

I assume by "no bugs found at all" you mean that you've thoroughly
scanned the computer for viruses/malware. Since I don't know what
you've done, here is a link to check your procedures against:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

If you are quite sure the computer is clean, then the random nature of
the problem indicates hardware issues. Here are some general hardware
troubleshooting steps:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Troubleshooting

I would start by checking for overheating, bad RAM, power supply before
testing the hard drive.

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a professional
computer repair shop (not your local equivalent of BigStoreUSA).

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User