Ask A Geek

Q: I have a Dell XPS 400 desktop and recently it has started to freezes up for no apparent reason. It is running Windows XP and I have tried everything I could think off including reinstalling windows, but again it froze up during installation. I would really like some help.

A: The first thing I would recommend is to run an anti-virus software program like AVG to make sure that your machine has not been infected. If you are virus free, then I would suggest downloading an anti-spyware program like Ad-Aware. If that is not the problem then the next step would be downloading and installing a free program, called HijackThis.

Unfortunately if none of these solve the problem, and they might not due to the fact that your computer froze during reinstall, then the problem might be related to your hardware in the computer. Maybe the CPU fan is not working anymore causing the computer to over heat and freeze up. Maybe the video card fan is not working anymore causing the computer to over heat and freeze up. So you will want to check all the fans in the system and maybe even try running your computer with the cover off and see if that helps a little bit.

Getting in your computer with a vacuum might even help to get the dust out that seems to always built up inside of a computer causing air to not travel as easily.