Computer Keeps on Freezing

[MaStAViC]

Hey Everyone,
I'm helping my house mate (I just moved in with him this week) ask this question because he's not too good with forums and just not too great with Internet-related things in general. Anyway, he has Windows XP and his computer keeps on freezing at seemingly random times. Sometimes it would freeze right at the Windows loading screen, sometimes when he's browsing through his Windows folder, sometimes when he's surfing the Internet, sometimes right after Windows loads (right when his desktop comes into view).

Three days ago I installed Service Pack 2 on his computer (before I installed SP2, he had no service pack at all) and for about two days, the computer did not freeze even once. It usually freezes at random times - sometimes he could go on for days without it freezing, sometimes it freezes up to ten times in a row in a one-hour period.

Is there anything I can do to check out what's wrong or is there any way to fix this? Also, any idea why this computer keeps on doing that? It's a fairly new HP computer that he bought just about two years ago. I scanned his computer with Ad-Aware SE, Spybot, and HijackThis and everything seemed fine.

Thanks in advance,
-=MaStA ViC

[AnnMarie]

Hi MaStAViC, have a look in Event Viewer (rightclick on My Computer and choose Manage) and look for Events that co-incide with the freezes. This may provide you with some insight into what the problem may be.

[MaStAViC]

Originally Posted by AnnMarie

Hi MaStAViC, have a look in Event Viewer (rightclick on My Computer and choose Manage) and look for Events that co-incide with the freezes. This may provide you with some insight into what the problem may be.

Thanks for replying =) How can I tell which events which co-incide with each other though? Sorry, I'm not that advanced of a computer user.

Thanks again,
-=MaStA ViC

[AnnMarie]

Do you know the approximate date of the last time this happened? Check the logs, all events are dated. If you see an error, doublclick on it and you will get more information.

[MaStAViC]

Originally Posted by AnnMarie

Do you know the approximate date of the last time this happened? Check the logs, all events are dated. If you see an error, doublclick on it and you will get more information.

My house mate doesn't know the exact date, but he said that it was near the end of last semester of college, which means it's been going on for a good four or five months. I'll check his log later on.

thanks for the suggestions. if you have any more ideas, feel free to post them.
-=MaStA ViC