freezes, then completely dead for several hours

My IBM desktop has been freezing. Then, when I try to
restart it, nothing happens. The tower is silent, the
screen is black. If I let it set for a couple of hours,
most of the time it will restart. If I try to restart it
before the 2 hours is up there is a huge loud popping sound
emiting from the speakers. Sometimes that pop is followed
by a swooshing sound which becomes louder each time I
restart. All of these sounds coming from the speaker are
occuring when I have the sound turned off. The freeze
happens at various times. Sometimes it is after the
computer has been left on for more than 18 hours. But other
times it has only been on an hour or so. I had a fatal
exception error/blue screen of death at the end of the
Maintenance Wizard (which included the short scan). In
attempting to run the thorough scan, separate from the
maintenance wizard, it freezes part way through. If I shut
down and restart a couple of hours later, each time I start
the thorough scan it goes a bit farther than the previous
time before it freezes. I have yet to complete the scan.
Is this a hardware issue? The computer is 5 years old.
Thanks so much for your help! JJ

The pc is probably in need of a cleaning of the accumulated dust. It almost
sounds as if it is overheating. If you feel comfortable taking the cover off
the PC, (turning off the power at the powerstrip or unplugging from the wall
first) check that the fan on the cpu turns freely, and, that the metal
heatsink it is sitting on, is not clogged with dust,etc.
Check the fan on the power supply unit also. Usually a can of compressed air
will help blow the dust away.
If it hasn't been cleaned in five years, it most likely needs the cleaning
anyways.
While you're in there, check that all the cables connections are solid. I
would also remove and reseat the video card and the ram.
If you;re not comfortable doing it, ask a qualified friend or take it to a
shop.
Be careful of static electricity so that you don't fry an electronic
component in the PC.
Remember, the dust will fly everywhere, so you may even want to do it
outside.
Do use a vacuum cleaner as they tend to increase the chance of having static
electricity, which could cause problems, especially when using a brush
attachment.
It's also possible that the HardDiskDrive is failing and that it is causing
the clicking and whooshing sound.
If you have valuable data on the HDD, I would take it out and put it in
another PC as a slave and make a copy of the data you want to save.

"JJ" wrote in message
...
My IBM desktop has been freezing. Then, when I try to
restart it, nothing happens. The tower is silent, the
screen is black. If I let it set for a couple of hours,
most of the time it will restart. If I try to restart it
before the 2 hours is up there is a huge loud popping sound
emiting from the speakers. Sometimes that pop is followed
by a swooshing sound which becomes louder each time I
restart. All of these sounds coming from the speaker are
occuring when I have the sound turned off. The freeze
happens at various times. Sometimes it is after the
computer has been left on for more than 18 hours. But other
times it has only been on an hour or so. I had a fatal
exception error/blue screen of death at the end of the
Maintenance Wizard (which included the short scan). In
attempting to run the thorough scan, separate from the
maintenance wizard, it freezes part way through. If I shut
down and restart a couple of hours later, each time I start
the thorough scan it goes a bit farther than the previous
time before it freezes. I have yet to complete the scan.
Is this a hardware issue? The computer is 5 years old.
Thanks so much for your help! JJ