For the last several weeks, my computer will intermittently freeze up for about 10 seconds. This happens about once a minute. The whole screen will freeze, except for the cursor. If I am typing something the screen will freeze, and when it unfreezes all the letters I typed will suddenly appear. If I'm playing an mp3, it will pause while the screen is frozen. Each time this happens, I hear a faint click. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Check the fan on your power supply and CPU. In particular, if the fan on the CPU is seized or if you have the computer near a heating duct (ie it's getting too hot) the computer will suspend or slow down the CPU until it reaches operational temperature again. So have a look, this is something that is often overlooked and yet it is vital to keep your computer's CPU at operational temp. Raa

Windows 98? Run > MSCONFIG > Startup Tab If you see FindFast, unselect it If you are running Norton Windoctor, unselect it and run it manually at regular intervals. If neither of these are present, start unselecting until you find it. Always leave ScanRegistry, Systray, your av and your firewall.

Find Fast is the most likely cause...

probably overheating or maybe loose memory chips?

Unless you, or some program, set FastFind to run once per minute--which is how often you say this freeze up occurs--I would discount FastFind as a likely culprit. Something like this happened to a friend who set her WP program to autosave once per minute or so. She disabled it and the problem went away. (She normally had her word processor minimized in the task bar when she wasn't using it, so it was always running in the background, autosaving, and interfering with her other programs--or so she claimed.) In any event, not knowing what programs you have running in the background, what your system specs are, how long you've had your PC, whether you've recently added or removed programs, whether you regularly run ScanDisk or DeFrag; or use an up to date virus checker, at best I could only guess. If you haven't done it in awhile, I'd suggest you clean out any temp files and run a thorough ScanDisk and Defrag. If the problem persists, then try disabling all of your background programs--one at a time--via CTRL+ALT+DEL (Except Explorer and Systray) and see if any might be the cause. As noted above, it could also have something to do with overheating. (When's the last time you blew all the dust out of your PC?) Lots to consider. Good Luck.

I am having this exact same problem. Among the "fixes" suggested were checking the fan and blowing dust out of the computer. How does one "check" a fan (i.e., know if it is working properly?) I hear my fan alternating on and off quite frequently (this started about the same time as my computer began freezing). Also, is it sufficient to just open up the case and blow dust -- or is there a technique to this? Thanks for the help!