laptop freezes randomly

[wfbberzerker]

for the last month or so, my mom's laptop will randomly freeze and can only be restored with a hard power-off (holding button for 5 seconds). it seems to occur randomly (she said it happened once while she was playing solitaire, another time while writing a document in word; sometimes she'll leave it alone on the desktop for awhile, and when she comes back it's freezing).

i ran memtest for several loops, and it passed without any errors.
i also ran the hitachi endurance test from here, and it also ran for several loops with no problems. virus scan (kaspersky), ad-aware, and spybot all ran without any problems.

any clue as to why its randomly freezing? its a compaq r3000 (pentium4) thats about a year old.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Is it overheating? Have you tried a clean install?

 

[wfbberzerker]

i don't think it's overheating, as there aren't any problems with the fans, theres nothing blocking the vents, and it will often freeze within a few minutes of windows starting up. any one else have any clues?

 

[wfbberzerker]

bump

 

[pkme2]

Have you checked in intake vents on the laptop for clogging.

You can use compressed air to blow out vents for dust buildup.

 

[Old Hippie]

theres nothing blocking the vents

Definately sounds like an overheating problem. Just because the visible vents aren't clogged, doesn't mean there's no problem internally. Cat, critter and cootie hair will clog the innerds.

At least that's the easy fix.

Good Luck!

 

[wfbberzerker]

ok, i'll check the vents, but if it were to turn out that it's not overheating, is there any other possible culprit?