My PC is a Windows 7 that’s about 8 years old, and last October it started acting funny. It would randomly freeze, with me able to move my mouse cursor around but not click anything, and all my programs would crash and force me to restart. Later in December, I discovered this problem was a result of Microsoft Security Essentials suddenly deciding to not work, so I uninstalled it and got Avast instead.
Now I’m experiencing the same freezing problem, although instead of stopping after about 15 minutes of waiting, my PC will stay frozen (the longest time before a hard restart being an hour). It doesn’t do this during quick scans, only full ones. I’ve been unable to record where my scan stops because I can’t actually open the program to check, since all my scans are scheduled and I keep the program running in the background. The only other program that runs alongside Avast is SuperAntiSpyware, although tonight I’m gonna try disabling it and seeing if my PC is frozen when I wake up. I’ll also have various other programs (Steam, Battle.net, Gyazo) running as well, and they haven’t had conflicts before. This problem started for me last Tuesday.
The fixes I’ve tried (to no avail) include using the “repair” function in the program, uninstalling Malwarebytes (which I believe came with my PC), and performing a disc check in the command prompt, none of those fixed anything. I don’t want to end up hopping around from antivirus to antivirus while I watch them break my PC, I just want one to work. Why does my PC act like this? How do I fix it?