Computer crashes

I wish I could be more specific but...

I have a ME computer, estimated 4-5 years old, that my daughter uses mostly
for AOL IMing but also for internet sites and WORD and EXCEL. It crashes
often, like three of four times a session. Simple things like going to
start, documents, and then trying to select a recent document can be enough
to cause it to freeze. Sometimes, you can hit ctrl-alt-delete several times
and get it to respond after closing things out. But mostly, it freezes and
you have to manually turn off and then back on. It does have a bunch of
programs that I don't really recognize. Can someone help me, i.e., tell me
what to post to help you help me?

Though I don't think it's related (because the computer crashes even when
its quieter), it seems that, occasionally, the ambient noise level of the
machine is louder than normal. Perhaps a fan on its way out? I assume the
crashing is more likely to be software than hardware related, though I don't
know, since it is an older machine.

Thanks!
Dean

You may have a virus/spyware hijack

download the Stinger from here and run it to make sure that A-V-disabling
viruses are not present on your PC
http://download.nai.com/products/mca...rt/stinger.exe

- update your virus scanner and run a full system scan of all files.

Reboot to Safe Mode and run CWShredder - to remove variants of the
CoolWebSearch hijacker.
http://www.merijn.org/cwschronicles.html

Use CWShredder, the removal tool:
http://www.merijn.org/files/cwshredder.zip
http://www.merijn.org/files/CWShredder.exe
http://www.spywareinfo.com/downloads...CWShredder.exe
http://www.zerosrealm.com/downloads/CWShredder.zip

download AdAware from www.lavasoftusa.com, install, update, and run it to
remove spyware, adware,
and other such nasties from your system.


--
Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.btinternet.com/~winnoel/millsrpch.htm
http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

"Grace" wrote in message
...
I wish I could be more specific but...

I have a ME computer, estimated 4-5 years old, that my daughter uses
mostly
for AOL IMing but also for internet sites and WORD and EXCEL. It crashes
often, like three of four times a session. Simple things like going to
start, documents, and then trying to select a recent document can be
enough
to cause it to freeze. Sometimes, you can hit ctrl-alt-delete several
times
and get it to respond after closing things out. But mostly, it freezes
and
you have to manually turn off and then back on. It does have a bunch of
programs that I don't really recognize. Can someone help me, i.e., tell
me
what to post to help you help me?

Though I don't think it's related (because the computer crashes even when
its quieter), it seems that, occasionally, the ambient noise level of the
machine is louder than normal. Perhaps a fan on its way out? I assume
the
crashing is more likely to be software than hardware related, though I
don't
know, since it is an older machine.

Thanks!
Dean