Low system specs will never make the computer freeze - it'll just run more slowly.
If it freezes outright, checking the fans is in order.
If the fans are all spinning, try running a memory test program - you can get a very good one for free at http://www.memtest86.com/ (you'll have to burn it to a CD and restart your computer to run it). If the test program shows a long list of red-colored error codes on the bottom of the screen when you let it run for a while, you've got a bad RAM stick. You'll want to talk to your local computer shop about that.
If all that checks out, it's time to check your hard drive. This can be a little more challenging than other things, since you have to find out the brand of hard drive your computer is using first.
Open the case. You'll see a big circuit board with a whole lot of stuff hanging off of it. Toward the front of the computer, there will be several gray ribbon cables connecting to the rear of your DVD drive, your floppy drive if you have one, and part that doesn't face outside the system at all. The drive that sits all the way inside is your hard drive.
Look on the hard drive for the brand name. It's probably made by either Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor, although sometimes it can also be Fujitsu, Quantum, or JTS.
Google for the brand name of the hard drive, plus the word "diagnostics" (if the brand is Quantum, search for Maxtor. They're the same company now). That should give you a program that you can burn to a CD to test your hard drive.
Whew! If everything else is fine, your hard drive is probably going to fail this test. Problem located.
If it passes, you've got something more diabolical entirely, and you'd better call your genius nephew over to wave a dead chicken over it.
QuantumBeep, June 2007
