I just purchased a used laptop (dell). When I surf the web for awhile everything freezes and I have to turn it off and restart it. This doesnt happen if I delete files/cookies every five minutes or so. First thing I tried was restoring settings to defualt. I have looked through all the settings and I am not good with computers so I have no idea what to do. btw, it has windows xp home edition. Anyone have any ideas?

 

reformat the drive and install a non-win32 platform

 

http://support.dell.com/ there are forums (dont look anywhere else, just in the "Dell Talk Forums") with useful information here. post there, and there could be something specific to the factory installed software which is causing the lockups. or it could even be a specific driver that is unrelated to the net. either way.. give it a try.

 

I'd also check for updates for your machine.

1. Click "Start"
2. Click "Windows Update"
3. Follow instructions on your screen.

This really shouldn't be happening (obviously), but that might do the trick. Also, try disabling cookies - it will inhibit you from staying logged in to certain sites, but it might keep you from hanging...