There a several reasons why your computer is freezing. First question is when was the last time you cleaned your registry. Having a corrupted registry can cause a whole host of errors and problems. Freezing up is one of them. If you have a lot of unnecessary registry keys that are hogging up your computer resources. Your computer is bound to choke. Scan your registry with a good registry cleaner. If you pull up more than 20 errors or duplication, clean your registry. The page below will ge you a list of programs that offer free scans.
http://www.delete-computer-history.com/w...

2. Depending on your RAM specs and your computer usage. This could also be a the issue. Having an insufficient amount of free space does not allow your RAM to function properly. If you are using a lot of RAM by net surfing or other activities without enough empty space your will get freezes. You don't need to buy new RAM but you should increase your free space by removing unnecessary data and perhaps increasing your virtual memory. The below link will show you how.

3. Spyware could be the culprit, so do a scan and see if your computer is infected.

4. That last area is a hardware drivers. This could be the problem if new hardware has been added to the system. So, the drivers should still be up to date. So try the first two suggestion and see if you can get your computer to stop freezing.
Check your drivers. Hope this helps.
2 years ago

Back up all your material on a hard drive and do a clean install.

I just did this (because of a nasty trojan/virus) and OMG! what a difference! I had no idea how much sludge I had on my computer. What is really amazing is how few of the files I had to "save" I've actually needed since my clean install. I'm glad I saved them, but it's nice to have a clean computer.

This is a lot of work, but the overall improvement is amazing.

Freezing is 100% busy. try to read: Why my computer slow? from http://yefimsanswers.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-my-computer-slow.html

Since the computer is several years old the only answer that will be of any help (without being able to have hands on time with the computer or a personal conversation with you) would be to backup your data and to a re-install of Windows. Over the years Windows has a build up of random junk (thanks to the registery that you might hear about) along with spyware and other malware. The only way to know for sure that you have removed these kind of things is to do a reinstall.

The reinstall will take your system back to the way it was when you first started using it. I personally do this about every 6 months because of how much quicker it makes everything run.

Have you tried kicking it? I always try that first, adapting the strength of my kick to both the fragility of the object malfunctioning and the level of my frustration with it. It works surprisingly often, and even when it doesn't, at least I feel a little better.

Hopefully lots of tech geeks (compliment not insult) will give you actual helpful advice.

Best option is to get a new computer, that one is old enough that it will continue to have problems running newer software.

Failing that, I agree with the idea to back up your data (a USB thumb drive is a convenient way to do this) and resinstall the operating system.

If you don't want to take such a drastic step, try a registry cleaner like CCleaner (www.ccleaner.com) and hope for the best.