Computer freezes
 

It's been about a week and my computer freezes suddenly even if I'm only running a few programs. It also freezes when I'm starting up my computer too, it literally takes me 10 tries to get to my desktop. When I try to system restore, it doesn't work. Sometimes it freezes half way. Also, my screen just keeps on saying "System Restore is initializing," but I remember from previous attempts that it says system restore is restoring files or something like that.

Once when I was starting my computer, my screen read 'Operating System not found" in a black background.

I'm pretty sure it's a virus or malware. No new programs installed for the past month. Scanned using Ad-aware and Bitdefender. No improvements.

Really need some help with this one.

How old is the system?
Posted via RS Mobile

1.5 years.

Could be a corrupt OS?

What you running? XP? Vista?

I'm using Vista, Service Pack 2, all the most recent updates.

If it's the OS problem, what should I do?

Also, Windows Live Communications Platform stops working all the time, and I can't run messenger (I think they're related problems because the communications platform popup occurs whenever I try to open messenger). Windows Explorer stops working when I try to move any file.

And my web browser (Chrome) shuts down all of a sudden. Same with IE and FF.

Reformat your desktop... or better if your going to do that might as well upgrade to win 7.

i think its a hardware that is not properly seated in its slot

Your problem could be anything. That would include:
software
RAM
PS
motherboard.
For the hardware you need to swap parts with known good ones.
You can spend dozens of hours trying to find the problem.
Let us know how you solve your problem.

I am not tech savey at all. How do I check for these problems and how do I fix them?

Could be a fan problem too. When you start the computer see if all the fans inside are running. Make sure to check the one on the CPU cooler.

I use a laptop btw. I don't know why I said computer. The fans are all running.

Believe it or not, everything is fine now. Should I try system restore again?