Laptop freezes then won't start up

About a week ago, I clicked something on my windows sidebar, and the computer froze. I waited for about twenty minutes, but no progress. The fan kept spinning, but the cursor wouldn't move, etc.

I decided to restart the comp manually, but after doing so, it said windows failed to start. I tried entering safe mode, which also failed. All of the auto repair options failed.

I thought my only option was to wipe the hard drive with my Toshiba Recovery and Applications/Drivers repair disk, which restores the machine to its 'fresh out the box' state. The computer froze during the last part of the installation.

I tried again, and it worked. Everything was back to its brand-new state. I could move the cursor, click; it all functioned. The computer needed to install some updates, so I let it restart. The machine booted up nicely. This lead me to believe the problem was no more, so I reinstalled Adobe CS4. ...The computer froze about 1/3 through the installation. So, I left for work, came back home, and it was still frozen. I manually restarted the machine, and of course, it wouldn't boot up.

I wiped the drive clean again. Everything was great. I wasn't installing anything. I told a friend about the problem, and he decided to send me a vista repair disk. He uploaded it through MegaUpload, and I tried downloading it. ...It froze.

I tried wiping the drive yet again...and it doesn't seem to be working.

It gets to the part where it's a black screen, and those little green bars move across, showing that things are starting up. And it says

(c) Microsoft Corporation beneath the bar.

And it's been on that for about half an hour now, still insinuating that it's loading up.

...I don't believe it

sounds like a hardware failure since you have reinstalled the o/s. start with the diagnostic app for your brand of harddrive from the makers site and scan the drive for errors. you can also try a memory test. also visually check inside for any excess dirt or dust, faulty parts etc. anything else to test will require some skill and other parts to swop in and test, eg psu.

Hello mcphersonline,
It does sound like a hardware problem, i think i would remove all the ram and try one stick at a time and see what happens.
Give this a try and post your results, good luck.

The cause of the freezing, or locking up, of your computer, is due to some either corrupted or missing files. And more specifically, missing or corrupted registry files. These are the files which tell everything on your how it is suppose to work. Basically, they are configuration files. And if these files get corrupted, or messed up, it can wreck havoc.
Sometimes the registry files end up missing. This can happen when you uninstall software from your computer. The software being uninstalled may remove registry files also associated with another program. There should be a message asking you whether or not you want to delete the files as they are associated with another program. Your best bet is to say NO to this and leave the files. If the files end up missing, then the program which needs them will stall, hang, or freeze the next time it tries to run. But there is a simple way to fix this.
By just running registry scan software on your computer, you can find these problems and fix them right away. It will let you know which files are bad, and will fix them to its original state. And it is this simple step which will show you how to fix your computer freezing.