Computer freezes when i ask it to do multiple tasks at once

[sterman37167]

Hello,

I'm not very good with the inner workings of my computer. I apologise for that in advance. If you ask a specific question regarding motherboard, memory, or anything else inside, I can find out, but I won't have the answer available straight away.

Here's the issue:

My laptop freezes. Easy enough. Usually, it freezes when either: a) I have mulitple tabs open in Firefox; or b) I have multiple programs open.

Example- Last night, I had Firefox (one tab: Pandora) open and iTunes open. I know, I know, why do you need two music programs open? Don't fret, I don't like mixing classical with Bollywood. Now, I could open Firefox first, then iTunes, or vice versa, but either way my laptop would freeze within just a few minutes. Now, we're not talking about a "it'll-pull-itself-out-of-this" kind of freeze. We're talking a full on, everything stops, ctrl+alt+delete does nothing kind of freeze.

Whenever it hits that wall, I have no choice but to turn the laptop off by depressing the power button. I can then turn it immediately back on and it acts like nothing happened. Until it freezes again a little later and we have to go through the process again. Last night, this happened about 5 times in 15 minutes.

Here's what I can tell you: my computer is hot. I think that has something to do with all of this. But I certainly don't know.
Also, it's old. I don't know for sure, but it's probably pushing 5 years. Eeks. Just writing that scares me.
I have a feeling- and it is purely a feeling- that my processor is worn out. That's the only thing I can diagnose as a problem since it seems to have the most bad attitude when I ask it multitask.

So, what should I do?

Oh, it's also a Toshiba. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ask me for any specs you need, and I can get those for you later. (It might also be helpful if you want to give a little instruction on how I can find out any answers to your question.)

Thanks!

 

[PimpSmurf]

I would first check for malware sometimes this can lead to slow downs or even cause freezing or lock ups. If you have anti-virus software run that first see if it catches anything.

I would then run a disk clean up go to the C: drive in My Computer and right click on it and go to properties then go to "Disk Cleanup" see if there are see if there are files you can get rid of.

Then I would go to the "Tools" tab and run a disk defragmentation to clean up some of your files/sectors.

Laptops get hot that is normal but the sad truth is that it may be on its last legs I hope this helps.

 

[sterman37167]

Hey Pimpsmurf,

Thanks for the suggestions. I try to keep on top of those items. I run virus and malware scans frequently using Comodo. I also keep my registry and disk cleaned using... what is it... CCleaner. And I defrag on a fairly frequent basis. Maybe monthly? Usually as I remember. But those are the things I thought could be contributing, so I do those as part of my regular stuff.

 

[PimpSmurf]

Have you tried restarting and running PC in safe mode and then running antivirus/malware scan software sometimes you can catch malicous software in safe mode.

Could you tell me the Toshiba Latop Model and what OS you have I would assume Vista since the laptop is possibly 5 years old.

 

[sterman37167]

Ok, my apologies for it taking a little long to get you this information.

I have a Toshiba Satellite U205-S5034, running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.