computer question

[Silver03SRT]

My laptop is starting to go crazy. Every time I try to open up a file it freezes up on me and then the whole screen goes black. I cant figure out why it is doing tihs. I think it may be a hardware issue but not sure. Any help would be appreciated.

[ND4SPD]

Needs to have a hard drive diagnostic done on it, along with a memory diagnostic. That's the only way you can start to rule out what may be wrong. If you have access to a friends computer (and are fairly computer literate) see if you can get ahold of a CD image of the Ultimate Boot CD. It self-boots when start the computer up with it. It has several hard drive diagnostic tools (use DFT "drive fitness test") and Memory Diagnostic programs (use MemTest86+). Otherwise PM me and I'll give you an estimate to look at it myself.