Computer freezes! Possible hardware problem?

[Strider]

First of all, please forgive this long post. I want to give details of my dilema, in hopes of getting an accurate response from someone who might be able to help.

I use normal and fairly decent surfing habbits, using Firefox as my browser, along with AdAware and Spybot for for spyware, and Norton Corporate for virus protection. I also update the definition files almost daily. My freezing problem hit right away. I left my PC on, and came home from work about a week ago to find it locked up. Upon reboot, things were behaving very strangely. The clock was set back to a 2004 date, certain programs wouldn't run, and even when I tried to uninstall them for a fresh install, I would get an error box with "error X file could not be found" or "fatal error durring uninstallation". This made me think that somehow there was a virus infection that slipped by, maybe hitting some serious .dll or registry files. I figured the best thing to do for such a serious problem is to do a fresh XP install and start from scratch.

So today I went out and bought a new hard drive, and proceeded with a new install. Only to find that even with my old drive disconnected completely, the freezes still occur. Not only that, but they happened durring the XP install and even in the BIOS config screen. This really makes me think there is a hardware problem. Could it be possible that a power spike or surge could have fried a motherboard component? Being stupid, I didn't have my system hooked up to any type of surge protection. Even stranger, is that everything works fine for about 45 minutes to an hour and a half, then the freezes happen and keep occuring along with the BIOS warning beeps until I power everything down and let it rest for a while.

I'm completely out of ideas as to what the problem can be. I know hardly anything when it comes to hardware malfunction, and if anyone has anything to imput or any ideas to point me in the right direction, I'd really appreciate it.

Sorry for the long story, and thanks in advance!

~Strider

[garg]

I don't know if your dll file errors and the freezing is related or not.

Does your bios have a processor temperature reading? It seems like your computer might be over heating. Check to see if your processor fan is still working.

Also the 2004 date is strange. See if your motherboard battery is in properly. the round silver disk type battery. it will look like this:

[img]http://www.geekstogo.com/misc/battery.jpg[/img]

Though usually it won't just go back one year..

everything works fine for about 45 minutes to an hour and a half, then the freezes happen

^^ that just screaaams over heating to me. Check the temperature in your bios settings (if thats an option) and see if all the fans are working. and then let us know :)

[Strider]

Yeah I thought that was the problem at first, but I'm almost sure its not. I checked all my case and processor fans, and all are running fine. I set my BIOS settings to shut down in the event that the CPU gets too hot, but I've also been keeping a close eye on the temp too, which usually never goes above 55 C. I did replace the CMOS battery on the motherboard, and date, time, etc all seem to be working fine. Don't think that was the issue. I'm leaning towards some kind of problem with the processor chip or motherboard.

[dvr]

if you have extra ram around change it out or ask a friend if they have some you could try or even try a new processor.