computer always freezing now

since last night windows xp has frozen up on me every time i've been on the computer, i have always had to turn my pc off by holding down the power button and this has happened 15+ times. i don't think it was anything i've downloaded lately because this just started happening last night and i didn't download anything last night and i had just run a full mcafee scan and a quick malware scan before the problems started happening and they found nothing. i have tried to boot in safe mode and scan just in case but my pc is also freezing in safe mode and i can't get through a full scan before it does. it freezes weird, like i'll be able to click on different programs and they'll come up but they themselves have completely locked up and will not respond and hitting ctrl alt del to bring up the task manager doesn't work so i'll have to hard power down. maybe it is a virus though because now my mcafee keeps saying its not protected (wasn't last night, this all started once i went into safe mode) and it can't fix itself because of an error. im in the process of reinstalling it now. i'm not sure what to do besides that and i would appreciate any help anyone can give me.

 

You are in the process of re-installing windows? In that case, there isn't any other options to try because you are already destroying your original Windows XP installation. If you finish the Windows XP installation and it works, you're good. If you continue having problems, post back here and we will see what we can do.

 

oh sorry that was vague i meant im in the process of reinstalling mcafee

edit: but actually, my pc froze again while using the consumer removal tool thing and now that tool will no longer run because it says "cleanup failed, cleanup is already running"

 

thanks domluc, but what do i do if i cannot even get through a full scan before my pc freezes? i went through the guide you posted for me and i had gotten to the SuperAntiSpyware Scan when my PC froze again. I'm not sure what do to about this