I’m finishing a computer repair for an HP Pavilion Elite e9120y that was freezing/locking up for the customer.  The owner assumed that it was a virus causing the problem and I told her I would be glad to take a look at it.

Unfortunately, after some diagnostic work, I determined that it was not a virus causing the computer to freeze/lock up, but rather a defective motherboard (M2N78-LA).  One of the chips had overheated  (see picture).

I was able to recover the customer’s files and replaced the motherboard with a new Gigabyte brand motherboard and reinstalled Windows.

In the end, this solution was much cheaper than buying a new computer and the customer’s computer is as good as new!