Starting 2 days ago, my computer has been VERY slow and freezes up literally every minute. If I click on an icon, it freezes and I have to restart the computer or restart the program through the start menu. Internet Explorer is working extremely slowly, and the websites take forever to load. Instant messager constantly shuts down. I have XP and I also have virus software and spyware software. I can't get the virus software to run at this time, but the spyware deleted a couple of things (which is normal). Is my computer getting ready to crash or what? I really need some advice on what I can try myself or if I just need to take it to a shop. Another thing, there are a lot of pop up windows also causing freezing. They are a constant bother on my computer. Could that have anything to do with this? Just to clarify, the computer just doesn't freeze when I'm on the internet, it freezes as soon as the computer comes on and I try to click on anything. PLEASE HELP ME!!!

sarah,
When you first push the button to turn your computer on, wait for the self-test beep, then push the F8 button at least three times one after the other till you get the boot menu, and boot into safe mode, when in safe mode, run anti-virus scans, and spyware scans, delete temporary internet files, cookies and so forth. This can be done by opening Internet Explorer, clicking the Tools tab, then clicking Internet Options, and clicking the Delete Temporary Internet files, cookies, etc. You may also want to run defrag while in safe mode too. After you've done all this, restart your computer, and see if it made any difference. If not, you may want to take the cover off the side of the computer, and see if all the fans are running that you can see, especially the one on the processor, which should be the fan sticking out the farthest from the motherboard, over a grate-looking piece of metal. If all fans are running well, look for any dirt and dust on the inside, and get some compressed air to blow it out with.
There are a number of different things that can cause a pc to run very slow, and freeze. Please post back if none of this helps any! Good luck!

chris

One other thing you could check to see is if your computer is actually running at the speed it is supposed to. Sometimes, if your bios battery is low or has been changed and your bios has not been reset, your computer's clock speed may reset to the lowest setting available.... in the case of my own computers, 100Mhz/100Mhz instead of 133Mhz/133Mhz, resulting in a computer that is running 25% slower than it should be and also causing instability in the system.

cswchan,
How do I know how fast the computer is running? I know I can look in the manual and find out how fast it is supposed to be going, but how do I find out how fast it is working?

What we want to find out is how much "baggage" /programs the computer is running at the moment. We cut down on these then the efficiency of the processor will rise sharply
OK This is what I want you to do.(easy!)
Right-click on the bottom border of the Page
select Task Manager from the Menu
Write down how many programs are running in the Applications Window OK? 2)look at the bottom of the Window there are 3 boxes with Numbers Processes/CPU Usage/ and Commit Charge
The 2nd 2 may flicker slightly but jot down what the numbers are...
Also there is a colored square icon appears near the clock what color is it? or is it flickering between colors?
Post these numbers thanks.
Shouldn't take you a minute to do this.
Then we can tell you what to do next.
Ps Download and run the Belarc Advisor program scan (Pinned topic in Beginners Issues) We might need some information from that listing thanks.

You can download and install a program like SiSoft to query your processor's speed among other things. You can then, compare that with what your processor's speed is supposed to be. Here is a link for the program.
SISOFT

This might help. Make sure you "remove start-up items"(on down the page some). That is what makes my computer run slow.