I got a laptop from a friend to fix it. She said that's it's freezing all the time, and that you basically cannot do anything with it anymore.

So I was firing it up, and indeed, after 1-5 minutes, it beeps once, and then everything is locked, mouse does not move, keys won't react, you must switch it off by holding down the power button.

I only saw that in the startup of the system configuration is a massive list. I already tried to stop several several services or programs that launch with Windows start, but at some point, it locks itself again, and I have to reboot.

I'm also not able to run anti virus or anti malware software. So I booted it in safe mode, but not all of the services or programs are present, and it doesn't let me install stuff, as I'm not logged in as administrator.

So I booted with the Hiren's CD in mini XP mode and let now run Spybot, which was the only utility I could run, as others refuse by telling me that you cannot run them in mini XP mode.

Spybot found 227 entries and fixed them, didn't restart the PC yet in normal mode to see if it changes anything.

Is there a way I could try to keep the system alive to optimize it, and remove the garbage on it?

To be honest, it's an older Dell Inspiron, and if it would be mine, I would recover music, photos and stuff, and then do a fresh install.
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If it were mine, I would recover music, photos and stuff, and then jump up and down on it. But hey..

It freezes with a beep, that's a signal from the BIOS that there's something wrong hardware-wise, isn't it? Sounds like an overheating issue by the way it behaves. Actually my previous system did something very similar when it's chip fan stopped working. That would be the one cooling the BIOS chip on the motherboard. Changed it for a heatsink which solved my problem, of course that will be hard to do on a laptop.
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I think if it would be an overheating problem, it would also beep and freeze in safe or mini XP mode, but it's now running for 20 hours in mini XP mode with Spybot scanning files.
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I see. I don't have any other suggestions then.
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If it was a heating problem, would it freeze (everything locked) in only 5 minutes??? How hi the temperature goes in only 5 minutes?
I had similar problems of heating, but it wuld only crash after 20 minutes or more.
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It could be faulty ram... in the full OS it will be utilising and stressing the ram much more than in safe mode or from a disc booted mini OS.

It could also be heat related. Again in safe more or other booted environments it won't be stressing the system as much, but in Windows it could be using the gpu more which would cause a single beep error and freeze like this. If possible try to run Prime95 to test the ram. If that passes then its a heating issue for sure, probably a fan has stopped working, or a heatsink come lose. Only way to really check that is to take the laptop apart, clean everything inside and run it without the case on to check fans are spinning up etc...

If all hardware seems OK then the last resort has to be a format and clean install. Its the only solution to rule out a messed up OS.
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I managed to fix it last week, worked 3 days on it. A clean install would have been the best option, but as she gave me the laptop before going to holiday, I didn't know which files to backup, nor I had her original Windows CD, nor I had her permission.

Mainly I was running anti malware applications to remove a lot of malware, and there was quite a lot. Then I installed Avast to get rid of loads of viruses, as her McAfee already expired in 2007!!!!, so it wasn't updated since 3 years. Also had to install SP3 on XP, as that wasn't also updated since a long time. There was also still remains of Symantec software which I removed with the Norton Removal Tool, and also removed completely McAfee with a McAfee removal tool.

Then I updated software and drivers with DriverCure (great program btw), and also managed to get the wireless working again. There was some Dell software blocking Windows to establish it's own wireless connection, took quite some time to find that out though.

I also stopped like 40 programs starting with Windows, and 80% of them I didn't even know what it was, had to check on internet. Did also a registry clean, Registry Mechanic found over 1300 obsolete entries.
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Sounds like that system was quite a mess. Did you install a new security suite on the there? Comodo or something similar. Definitely sounds like she needs one!
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Only installed Avast, but perhaps I should also install another firewall than the Windows one, although I don't have problems on my main PC without any other firewall.
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