Slow performance after freeze

I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software problem, so I was not sure where to post this. I was watching a DVD one day on WMP when the computer froze all of a sudden, and the screen went blank. After reboot, everything worked fine except for a very noticeable slowed down performance. Longer reboot, choppy video, etc. I have run a Dell made hardware diagnostics program which passed with no errors. I have also tried turning all non-necessary drivers off and running the comp to see if one had gone corrupt. This also did not solve the problem. There are no non-critical processes firing up after startup that I can see. Virus/spyware/malware programs have found nothing. I am stumped!

Dell Latitude Laptop
1.7GHz 512mb RAM
Win XP Pro sp2

 

Possibly you overworked the computer, and partially fried something? Such as the processor or the motherboard.