slow computer need help

[RainbowTiara]

hello, i have been experiencing freezes, slowness and general crahses on my internet and other programs that i run on my computer. When i try to download or run programs they dont load and i get alerts saying errors, also things have been deleting themselves such as flash player.

I called a computer repair place and they want $50 just to look at it, and $80 per hour after that.

If I can get some help on how to fix it myself I would be very thankful.

 

[johnb35]

Have you done any general maintenance on the machine at all lately? Have you scanned for malware/viruses? Freezing, crashing could be a bad hard drive. Have you tried booting to safe mode to see if it still happens? How old is the computer?

 

[alexripper13]

check your hardrive space left?(start>computer and it shows your harddrive space)
it can possible be full?
maybe defrag your computer?
or check for bad sectors
try this
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/maintenance/speed.aspx