Gaming My computer keeps freezing after everything is loaded

[Feels Good Man]

Hey guys. I'm in need of some help : (

Well recently my computer started acting up and I have no idea what happened. Well the problem goes a little something like this:

I turn on the computer and I load my account. Everything seems normal and loading as usual but then after everything has loaded, it just says it's loading and doesnt stop loading (the orange loading light just stays on). I could move the mouse cursor for a while then it just freezes. I could run the computer on Safe Mode w/o it freezing or doing the above things.

I dont think it's spyware or a virus because i ran a scan of safe mode and it came up with nothing.

Any ideas on how to fix this guys? I dont really want to try reformatting my HDD as I have important files I dont want to erase.

Im using
Windows XP SP2 (if I remember right)
1028 MB RAM
1.7 GHZ CPU

I kinda forgot the specifics for my specs. Sorry >__<

Anyway, thanks : )

 

[Psyfira]

No need for a reformat / reinstall just yet, most people are far too quick to recommend that because they either don't know what they're doing or can't be bothered to try finding out what the real problem is first

Because it doesn't freeze in Safe mode, it sounds like the problem is software related, most likely with a program that's running in the background when Windows starts. Doesn't nessasarily mean it's a virus, even legit programs have bugs, hiccups and broken updates sometimes.

Have you installed anything new recently, or updated anything? (think back to when this started). If so uninstall it / roll back the update and see if it fixes the problem.

Otherwise, you need to identify the program that's causing the problem.

First thing to try; go to Start > Run and type in eventvwr. This will open an error log called the Event Viewer, see if there's any errors listed in there around the time when your computer last crashed (they'll have a big red cross beside it)

Second option; Load windows normally, log in and while your desktop loads up hit ctrl+alt+delete. It might take a while to open, but if taskmanager comes up before your PC freezes then go to the Processes tab and click the titles to sort by highest memory or CPU usage and see if any program has an unusually high number beside it. This might help you identify which program is causing the problem.

If nothing looks unusual in that list or you can't get that far before freezing, here's option 3. You can temporarily turn off the programs that run during a normal windows startup, then turn them back on one by one, rebooting each time, until you know which one is causing the problem. Start in safe mode, go to Start > Run and type msconfig. There's instructions for using it here, might be useful to have another computer to hand so you can Google the names of anything in the list that you can't identify. Turn off anything that's not essential to windows, then reboot, let normal windows load and see if it freezes. If it doesn't freeze, turn things back on one at a time and reboot until you find the culprit.

If all else fails, use System Restore to get back to roll your computer back to a time before the crashing started.

 

[MicShadow]

What Psyfira said. Also, when in msconfig, go to the services tab, and click hide microsoft services. Diable any that arent needed for drivers, and then restart. Services are a large culprit in these things as well as startup items