My dell computer keeps freezing??

Question

I have a Dell inspirion laptop, which was purchased July 2004. It's awlays worked pretty good. Lately, its been freezing up, the screen turning black, and the lights all lit up on the panel. It wont react to anything except, unplugging the power cord and taking out and re inserting the battery.

I've noticed this happens frequentyl when I unplug or plug any USB cords in/out. But sometimes, it happens when nothing...is bothering it. I run virus scans and doesnt detect anything. Does anyone know what many be causing this?

Since my computer is older, my warranty is up, and I'm not gonna bother sending it back to dell to be fixed, I'd prefer to buy a new one but that will take more time. So does anyone have any ideas about what may be causing this?

Answer 1

Toshiba is a much better laptop company. Dell only makes good computers, though the monitors are of cheap quality.

Answer 2

If you have too Many tabs opened at the same time the computer doesn't know what to do because it is busy trying to get out of the opened tabs so it will freeze up and some time shut down on its own. close out the sites if there are too many open
The computer will become unstable ....
and if you want you can check your hard drive . it will scan it and tell you of any hard drive errors...
and sometimes not ALL viruses are found by using a virus scan the major viruses are not always found..

Answer 3

My first guess is the battery.
See if you can buy a new battery for it since you can always take it back if it is not the problem.

Answer 4

If your computer is not working properly while you are working on it, it could be a problem with device drivers, hardware or software.
Detailed instructions at http://tinyurl.com/yk5zpr

Answer 5

my ibm laptop does pretty much the same thing and i've narrowed it down to the hard drive going bad but i cant say if thats whats wrong with yours

Answer 6

Keep freezing computers out of the freezer. That usually works.