Freezing problems

[labratt]

Greetings,

Everyday my parents ask me to fix their pc and not every time I succeed. I've done scandisk, defrag, even formatting, and I have edited the registry. Still this is what happens: They try to use IE v6 and when they do, it freezes. I have disabled/enabled cookies, +/- cookies, and removed cookies cache several times. Sometimes when running Word the program freezes. Excel, Works, Word, Quickbooks; they all freeze on them. I have begged my parents to buy a new system but they say the dont want to lose information on their pc. I telll them that they can transfer it but they dont want me or a professional to do this. So, please tell me alternate means to fix this problem. I have also ran mcafee, norton, spy bot, and adware scans.
I think it also maybe a hardware problem but not sure.
System specs
OS: Win 98
RAM/ROM: 128 mb/ 12 gb

Thankyou.

[redwench]

if a format doesnt help, theres not a lot to be said, its either in some weird setting or its a hardware problem. but run windows update, and disable anything thats not needed. youll need a seperate program to view the real task list, there are a few running around.
also running a registry cleaner might be a better idea than editing it randomly. just out of curiosity, what data do they think they will lose? youve already formatted the drive.

[labratt]

I forgot to add its a dsl connection. I have ran windows update and security. I did format once and did not know I had ereased all their precious data. I had to reinstall all their data into spreadsheets and what not.youll need a seperate program to view the real task list What software can I get that will show me what the task list is really giving.

[Antti2004]

It could be hard driver failure, if you had a program like Norton DiscDoctor you could scan the surface of your hard driver.
If you found lots of bad sectors/clusters then that is it.
:)

[redwench]

he already said he ran a scandisk.

since answers that work seems to have gone commercial, try downloading the trial version of advanced administrative tools.

[INeedHelp]

bad ram possibily? www.memtest.org

[IceBreaker]

Labratt> does IE6 freeze EVERY time they use it?


=> and does IE6 also freeze when (while offline) they try to open a (local) htm file??

[labratt]

The memory is good. It freezes when on/off line. Im thinking about just writing a little add on in C++ to try and fix the problem. If all else fails theres always a sledge hammer.