@jun_aka_pekto: @howmakewood: @04dcarraher: My apologies on this one...I had long responses typed out to all of you, but out of nowhere I got yet ANOTHER blue screen and everything got shut down. Before you say "aha!", just letting you know, the freezing has been going on for years. The blue screen just started this year and it's been really bad since I reset my computer a month ago for some reason. But to sum everything up before I got shut down.....I ran a Dell system check and everything passed every test. Every driver they have was last updated about 3 or 4 years ago...nothing for this year or even last year. Not sure if I should still update anything, especially since I've been freezing up for a really long time now. By the way, I've been playing Bejeweled 3 like crazy today with no freezing. It's not gonna freeze on "weak" games like this. But don't let me try and start Dragon Age....geez!

Anyway, I'm in the process right now as we speak of transferring everything from my desktop to my hard drive because I'm about to do another system reset to see if it helps anything as far as the blue screens go. I'm pretty much giving up with the freezing, unless someone can figure this crap out.

@GTR12: Are you sure I can put together a PC that can do the things I listed before for only $1,000? I already feel like a dork for dishing out $4,000 for the laptop I have now, but like you said, lesson definitely learned. But only $1,000? I mean, I'm not asking for much, but that seems kind of low even for what I wanna be able to do (play games, convert / edit videos, multitask without freezing). I guess all I need to know now is what store or website do I have to go to to buy the parts, motherboard, and case, etc...

By the way, I've never had a case of my laptop freezing when I have multiple browser tabs open, and I've had up to about 25 at one time and downloading from each one with no problems outside of my internet slowing down (because Time Warner sucks major hippo nipples).

First off, thank you to everybody for responding....I really appreciate the help...

@GTR12: They (Dell) told me this thing was good for gaming. I told them to put something together for me that I wouldn't have to upgrade for at least 7 years, because I'm always dropping money on computers every year it seems like. So I wanted something on steroids to keep me going until it was no longer any good then I could move to something better. This laptop is still really good. But I learned the hard way that this is NOT a gaming laptop, unless you're playing something like The Sims 3, or Bejeweled 3. I've always been playing less demanding games right up until Prototype 2 came out...then I started noticing the freezing, but it wasn't bad. I read all over the place that it was because of overheating...okay...so i pointed my portable AC at the laptop while gaming. It seemed to work! No freezing. No anything. Then about a month later, AC and all, it started freezing again. I tried every trick I saw online and nothing worked. I took it to a tech shop, and they ran all types of tests. They told me there was nothing wrong with the laptop. No dust or anything. Now, things REALLY got bad when I tried to play Dragon Age Inquisition. I mean, every 2 to 5 minutes! The weird thing is, for every 100 times I play the game, it'll freeze 99 times. I still have yet to finish this game because of the freezing, and I'm fed up.

@beardmad: It's not possible for me to remove anything inside this thing without some tech shop doing it for me. As far as my budget goes. I am down to what's left in my savings. My limit for a PC is about $2,000..but I swear, I don't wanna spend that much because I really don't think I'm looking for anything special. All I wanna be able to do is edit / convert videos and multitask, and play heavy games without the freaking thing freezing on me. I have no interest in 3D, VR, or whatever the hell 4K is. None of that interests me, but if it ever DOES catch my attention (not 3D or VR), I wanna be able to open the case and swap out or add a part to make it easy for me to run something with that feature. I don't do anything special on a computer. I play games...simple games. I download movies, maybe convert them from WMV format to MP4 using either Windows Movie Maker or the usual software I always use. And I multitask with multiple windows open. Nothing special! That shouldn't cost $2,000. Oh, and I'm not gonna bother with a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. I already have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse that I've been using for the past 6 years. One huge question I have though is where do i buy these parts? What's the best place?

@jun_aka_pekto: I'm still using Windows 7 (I refuse to be bothered with 10). Windows Update for some reason isn't working anymore. I have that NVIDIA GeForce Experience thing installed and it keeps giving me game drivers to update. I don't know if those are the drivers you're referring to, but the ones NVIDIA gives me are updated almost 4 times a month. I'm not sure what drivers are needed for my video card, but I can try to look for them. I have a really strong feeling that it's not gonna matter, because I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I'm somehow overworking my laptop with Dragon Age Inquisition and other heavy games. That may or may not be the reason for the freezing...I have no idea. Now when it comes to the RAM sticks, or ANYTHING inside the laptop....this isn't one of those laptops that you can pop open on your own and swap something out. I think everything in here is permanent somehow. Something was telling me to get an Alienware rig from Dell, but I was too scared of the final price....then my dumb ass went and spent $4,000 on THIS ONE. Ugh! Please don't give me that face. I already know how stupid I am for that decision.

@GTR12: I'm fully aware of how old my laptop is. What I'm saying is that it's been doing this same thing since day one. Just telling me the age doesn't give me a REASON behind it. It still runs really good, and I don't have any of the typical "old computer" issues. I'm able to edit and convert videos, but as soon as I try to open a web browser or do ANYTHING ELSE for that matter while that's going on, it freezes. I play a game....especially Dragon Age Inquisition...it gives me about 2 minutes tops, then freezes. I need a REASON. I've come to the conclusion that the age of the laptop is probably a very small part of the problem. There has to be another reason, because it's been doing this back when it was new. And I've been using THE SAME editing and converting software the entire time. I never use anything different. And by the way, one editor / converter that i use is Windows Movie Maker that comes with the laptop. It even freezes with that.

Now, as far as my preference on which system type to build...I want it to be a PC this time. Mainly because the computer geeks in my old school laughed at me when I told them I had a laptop and we were talking gaming at the time. The literally laughed at me. They told me that if I wanted to do any real gaming I would need a PC and not a laptop. What I'm looking for is a reason why my system keeps freezing when I do these things so that I can know what kind of parts to add to my future PC so that I never have to worry about another system freeze again while doing what should be simple things.

I have Malwarebytes, Avast, and Spybot installed. I've already run scans and nothing comes up. I've even exited each one of them and ran the game and it still freezes my entire computer. Wait, maybe I'm not describing it clear enough. When I say "freeze", I'm not talking about a slow down or a stop and go kind of thing. I'm talking about a complete shut down. Just look at your screen playing a video for a example...then out of nowhere everything just STOPS. The entire computer locks in place. No sound, no motion, keyboard and mouse are shut down, every single thing is unresponsive. The game itself runs perfectly for me. This isn't a case of lowering settings, because I've done that already. It's not the game freezing. The entire computer shuts down and I have to hold the power button to shut it off and wait for about a half hour to be able to turn it back on again, because it won't come back on right after shut down.

Hopefully that clears it up better.

Anyway, all I wanna do is be able to play games on the top settings and edit and convert videos, and multitask without ANY fear what-so-ever of my computer freezing up. Like I said before, I have no use, need, or interest in anything 3D, and I still don't know what 4K is, so i don't know if I need that or not. But I'm just asking for something that SOUNDS simple enough, but apparently must not be because no one seems to know what is making my laptop freeze each and every time I play a game or edit and convert videos. Not even computer repair stores....that by itself is sad.....and infuriating.

I'm willing to build a PC from scratch, but I am on a very tight budget. The first thing I need to know is about the motherboard. I need one that I won't need to replace anytime soon. Something powerful....even though I have no idea how these things work.

Okay, I am VERY NEW to all of this...actually, I've never done it before....but apparently, this seems to be the way for me to go in order to get the PC I need. Here's my issue in a nutshell....

I bought my laptop from Dell (got screwed) in 2010....

Core i7 Q840 @ 1.87 GHz 1.87GHz....8GB RAM....64 Bit system....GeForce GT 445M

I have no idea what ANY of that stuff means.

Anyway, this thing can still run with the best of them in my opinion, but when it comes to running games or video editing and multitasking, there's a HUGE problem....IT FREAKING FREEZES!! Now, this wouldn't be a problem if it happened once in a blue moon...but it happens every single time I try to edit videos, even with Windows Movie Maker that came with the damn thing. When I try to convert large videos to a different format, and I'm dumb enough to open any web browser, the entire system freezes and I have to hold the power button to shut down and then wait a long time before I can turn it back on again. When I try to play games....sigh....lets say, I'll try to play a game for more than 5 minutes 100 times...it'll completely freeze on me 99 of the 100. Not the game itself...I'm talking the entire laptop. Once again forcing me to hold the power button.

Does anybody know why this is happening? And before you answer...no, it's not an issue with overheating. I've tried unplugging my USB devices, exiting my virus and malware software...nothing. It all ends up with me holding that damn power button. Can somebody PLEASE help me with this. Because NOBODY has been able to tell me why this thing keeps freezing.

Now, when it comes to building a gaming rig...

I'm assuming I need to spend thousands of dollars to build one because all i wanna do is be able to play games and multitask and edit and convert videos (not all at once obviously) without the damn thing freezing on me. Can anybody tell me if this "cheap" gaming rig they have here will work for what I'm asking? My main thing right now is trying to play Dragon Age Inquisition. I'll never get to finish the damn game because literally every minute and a half my laptop freezes. So I need some real help here from someone with patience.

Oh yeah, and I'm not trying to spend an arm and a leg either. I don't care about 3D. I'm not interested in that. I have no idea what 4K is. And I already have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so that doesn't factor in. And I plan on using a projector, so monitors are pointless for me. Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanx in advance guys

This is getting ridiculous....

During the prologue, After the guards throw the smoke bombs at you and you walk into that room where the guy with you first tells you to "keep your head down", you're crawling along on your stomach and you get the message for the button you press to go "prone" (whatever the hell that means). You crawl right into the doorway of the first room you go into and there's a cut scene.

NOW HERE'S THE PROBLEM WITH THIS GAME!!!!

I crawl to the doorway, and there's NO CUT SCENE!! Instead, he crawls to the doorway and just sits there on his belly. The game is STILL active somehow. I can move the camera, click on the left analog (getting that sound like I did something wrong), but I can't move...AT ALL. I can go to the menu screen, but that's about it. He's just lying there doing nothing. So instead of going right to the cut scene, he's just sitting there.

When I exit the game, NOTHING on my computer works and I have to completely reboot.

HOW MANY FREAKING ISSUES DOES THIS GAME HAVE!?!

Can anybody help me with this?