Consistant crashes and freezes

Hi guys,

I'm having a lot problems with my PC. It is 2 years old and just out of warranty, which is annoying. The best way I can describe the problem is to tell you what has started to happen with the programmes I regularly use:

Internet explorer - computer freezes for a few seconds, 'bleeps' and resets, without fail, some 2-5 minutes into using the programme. Have uninstalled and re-installed to no avail.

Firefox - as above, exactly the same - I tried this when IE started playing up.

Safari - totally fine - one of the few programmes that works without a hitch, though is occasionally very slow!

Sims 2 - Ok, so this is bug-ridden and used to crash occasionally anyway, but now, I get constant graphics errors and regular freezes and crashes to desktop. Longest recent playing time is about 40 minutes. Usually 10-20 mins.

Power Director 8 - regular crashes to desktop, sometimes within a few minutes of loading. Can usually manage 20 mins- 1/2 hour before it crashes.

Civilization V - same applies as with Sims - buggy as hell, but crashes all the time now and is often full of graphics errors.

Sibelius 3 - Occasional crash to desktop. Very odd - low resource usage programme that has never crashed on me before, and I use it A LOT!

Outlook Express, Microsoft Word & Excel, iTunes, Photoshop, Power Audio Editor - all work ok. Internet explorer is the biggest puzzle.

Having said that, I do get occasional brief freezes and slow-downs with all programmes, and the occasional odd memory-related error message (can't remember details, sorry). Sometimes the programme will even carry on running after one of those errors.


Right, here is what I have done to try and fix the problem:

- Run complete virus scan with Norton - clean
- Run a spyware remover (Spybot). Found a little, but made no difference
- Ran JV16 Power Tools to clean up registry, remove unused software remenants, clean up system generally and stop most of the programmes which loaded to system tray on bootup and ate memory. Made a noticeable difference to boot-up time but didn't fix problems.
- Physically cleaned the inside of my computer - it was very dusty!
- Ran SpeedFan to check the temperature of my graphics card - all ok
- Ran memCheck to see if it was a memory problem (reading up on the internet seemed to suggest that it might be). This FOUND a problem - the inability to copy between two address - so...
- Bought two new, fully compatible, 2GB chips to replace the potentially faulty 1GB chips I previously had. This made no difference - still all of the above problems.

There we go. I have been reading up all over the internet and can't think of anything else I can try, so i am posting here to ask you guys for help. This has been going on for about 6 months now and I am seriously considering just buying a new computer, but obviously would rather save myself £600 or £700! I have read things that have suggested it could be a motherboard problem, but how do I find out?

Many thanks in advance for you help, and please let me know what else you need to know.

Thanks,
Lee
 
First, from here on out please stay away from any and all registry fixes. We here at TechSpot have found them to cause a whole lot of problems and very few fixes.

Second, this sounds like you may very well have a deep infection. Go to our Virus and Malware Removal forum, read the 8 Step sticky and follow the advice as given.
 
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