New Computer Freezing Up

[Vince]

So I just ordered a new Dell XPS system (2.8 GHz Dual Core Processor, 1 GB DDR Ram, GeForce 6800 video card), and I love it. However, now that I've put a few programs on it, it tends to freeze up upon starting up. It'll load up, get to my desktop, and then freeze. No response from the mouse nor from the keyboard. It usually freezes again on a restart, but on the third try will work fine. Any ideas?

Here are the programs I've installed, though I can't see how this would affect the computer:

Firefox
FOF 2004
BBCF
OOTP 6 & 6.5
Half-Life 2
Silent Storm
Trillian
mIRC
iTunes
Neverwinter Nights Platinum Edition
Civilization 4
D&D Online: Stormreach


I've also updated the drivers for my graphics card.

[Noble_Platypus]

I have the same system and I havent had any problems. Did you notice when it started, like before you loaded some of the programs you listed but after others?

[Captain2711]

I would do a troubleshoot by restoring the computer to the factory settings and then adding the programs one by one and see if any particular one is giving you the freezing issue

[Franklinnoble]

Check to make sure the memory and processor are firmly seated. Check all the little cables to make sure they're snug. Make sure your heat sink fan is working.

[Vince]

I guess I'm going to have to restore factory settings...I installed a bunch of things at the same time, or rather one after the other, so I am not sure if any of them individually is the problem. I'll check the cables too.

[Vince]

Now that I think about it, however, the first I noticed it was after I left the computer on overnight, downloading the D&D Online 7 day free trial. When I woke up, the computer had somehow restarted and frozen up (after finishing the download). Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

[chinaski]

those new dells come with soooo much shit crammed into the startup folder. go to start menu->programs->startup = delete everything in here. its very rare something NEEDS to be there. youll see a huge difference.

[Vince]

those new dells come with soooo much shit crammed into the startup folder. go to start menu->programs->startup = delete everything in here. its very rare something NEEDS to be there. youll see a huge difference.

That was one of the first things I did, but there's nothing in the Startup folder to delete. I want to get rid of the Google Desktop and Corel Photo Downloader, among other things, but I can't seem to find a place to remove them.

[chinaski]

That was one of the first things I did, but there's nothing in the Startup folder to delete. I want to get rid of the Google Desktop and Corel Photo Downloader, among other things, but I can't seem to find a place to remove them.

i assume youve checked the add/remove programs in the control panel? That google desktop thing can do crazy things while indexing your system. Ive seen it lock up computers before. Im pretty sure ive unistalled both of those from the control panel (i cleanup a lot of new Dells).

[gstelmack]

Silent Storm

Which includes everybody's favorite devil Starforce...

[Vince]

i assume youve checked the add/remove programs in the control panel? That google desktop thing can do crazy things while indexing your system. Ive seen it lock up computers before. Im pretty sure ive unistalled both of those from the control panel (i cleanup a lot of new Dells).

Man am I a maroon. We'll see if getting rid of a lot of this garbage through Add/Remove programs will help.

[Vince]

Well, getting rid of Wild Tangent, Corel, Dell Games Launcher and the Google Desktop seems to have done the trick...my computer booted up faster as well. Hopefully this holds -- thanks chinaski for pointing out the blatantly obvious...I think I'm just too pissed off at my manager to think straight lately.