Wayne writes in with a troubleshooting question:
Q. My computer keeps crashing while playing games or just signing on to AOL. It takes forever to load. We've deleting unused software to help speed up start up. Defragging starts then stops midway through. So does Norton Anti-Virus. We attempted to go back to a Restore Point. After attempting XP says can not restore.
A. There are many reasons that you computer could be freezing up. It can be hardware or software related. The first thing we recommend is to check for spyware. Check out this page for details on how to download the free AdAware and Spybot if you don't have them.
Make sure to update them as well. I suggest running them in Safe Mode to assure better results.
Another thing you can do is go to Control Panel to Add/Remove Programs and look for other programs you haven't removed that look suspicious such as toolbars or shopping related programs etc.
Next you can clear out programs from starting every time you boot your computer. Lots of spyware and viruses tend to place themselves in your startup items so they will load every time you start your computer. Look here for more details.
We also suggest running your virus scan in Safe Mode after making sure its up to date of course.
If worse comes to worse you can try a Windows repair install. Make sure to backup your important data first just in case something doesn't go right.
If none of the above seems to work then there is a chance it may be hardware related. Bad memory or a bad processor could cause random lockups and are hard to diagnose without replacing parts.
