At first it sounded like you downloaded a virus, but since you checked that already, I'm leaning towards a power supply failure. Not sure about the scan disk though. Maybe the cmos battery too.

 

WHat do your available system resources look like? How much free RAM, hard drive space are available? How many processes are running in the background...go to start > run and enter msinfo32. What items are currently running? Might just need some cleaning up.

 

When you shut down, how does your computer react? Does it shut down really fast?? Your problem might be with the shutdown, check Windows help files if it is.

 

When I go to shut down my computer it usually shuts down ok.
I was looking at the back of my computer at the fan (didn't take it apart, just looking from what I can see from outside of the computer) and it looks pretty dusty and dirty on the fan. Would it act like that if it needed to be cleaned up inside?

Thanks!

Chloe

 

Find out the brand name of your hard disk and go to their support page, download the diagnostic tool and check your hard drive. You might have to replace it.

 

Thanks for the reply. I just had to get the hard drive replaced last year. It was only 2 mon. old & the hard drive gave out on it. If I have another bad hard drive - well Systemax is not a very good brand in my book!
How do I find out what brand of hard disk it is?
I was looking under the Device Manager and under the MPU-401 compatible MIDI Device is a Yellow Mark. It said device is either not present or not working properly, or does not have all the drivers installed. I clicked on it to update the driver but it said that it had the best driver installed on it already.
Could the MPU-401 Compatible MIDI Device cause it to hang and freeze and cause problems??

Thanks,
Chloe

 

Just to confirm.....did you update your virus definitions before you did the scan?

if not, then go here and run a free online scan

If your computer is "pretty dusty and dirty" it might be getting hot also. Open the case up and blow all the dust and dirt out with some compressed air. Also neaten up your cables to improve airflow.

If you have a newer motherboard you can boot into your bios (del, f1, whatever it says to enter setup) and see what the CPU temperature is when it starts to lock up on you.

 

Here you can download diagnose software. You even don't have to install, only run aida. And it's freeware.