Can I debug a laptop? It's freezing and playing up

[newbiefrugalgal]

I have a Sony pavilion g6 laptop, about 2-3 years old.
It's starting to play up.
Freezing mainly and applications not working.
Any idea or suggestions on this?
Can I buy/run a program to tidy it up?
Get rid of bugs or something similar?

Sorry not a tech head so basically have no idea, just want it to to start working properly again

The first thing I would do is make sure the Windows Updates are up to date. Assuming it's running Windows 7 click on the start button and type Windows Update into the search bar. Click on the Windows Update link and then follow the steps to make sure you have got all the recent updates. (Start with Check for Updates and then install any Important updates - don't bother with the optional ones).

Then I would do a full antivirus scan, using whatever antivirus you have installed. It's worth checking you haven't got any viruses before trying anything else.

There are a number of things that you could try:

i)If it has only just started playing up try doing a System Restore to a time before when it worked fine (On WIN7 Start>All Programs>Accessories>SystemTools>System Restore).......you can skip this step if it is a slow gradual deterioration, rather than a sudden problem.

ii) Make sure your Antivirus / Spyware software is up-to-date and then run a full scan (if necessary, use a secondary online scanner after disabling your installed one, such as at www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/virus-removal-tool.aspx)

iii) Check that important system files are OK using a System File Check (in Win7 Start>All Programs>Accessories> then right click on Command Prompt, select Run as Administrator and then enter this command sfc /scannow

iv) Uninstall Programs you don't use, clear out junk, & (if you feel like it) disable unnecessary Start Up Programs. You can do all this through the Control Panel or through System Tools, but if I were you I'd download CCleaner from www.piriform.com/ which has Tools that make all this much easier (nb this is a very popular, free & safe tool to use)

v) Also from within CCleaner run the Registry cleaner which should help (nb though this is usually safe to do, make a back up where prompted, before using this one tool).

Hope this helps....

Thanks culture, any antivirus recommendations?

Panda antivirus is a decent free anti-virus.

if you want a new, free & low resource permanent Antivirus solution then try www.cloudantivirus.com/en/

If you haven't got an antivirus installed currently, I would use the Sophos tool that Zorin had linked to to do an initial sweep for viruses. Then install a decent free antivirus for now eg Avira Free Antivirus or AVG.

Also, presuming the above gets the laptop working OK again, it would then be a good idea to do the following:

i) Check the disk for errors. Start>Computer> then right click on C: drive and select Properties> then click the Tools Tab and click on Check Now under Error Checking

&

ii) Defragment the hard drive, as above, but select Defragment Now under Defragmentation in the Tools section

Download and run the Sophos tool suggested already. If it won't download it's a sign of infection, in which case download it to a clean machine and transfer to a USB stick and start your lappy in safe mode and install the program and run it.

Then, download and run MBAM, the free version and let it run. Then, go to FileHippo and get CCleaner, the best free tool on the internet. It will free up disc space and you'll think you're running a new machine.

I recommend Avast Free antivirus. I used it for the last four years on XP and got no infections. I'm a bit safer now I run a Linux distro.

this is just what I was looking for. thanks for this thread