System freezing issues

So I've got this Dell Inspiron 5520, it's about 3 years old now, and I've been dealing with this incredibly annoying issue lately where the whole thing just freezes up randomly. Then, after maybe 20 or 30 seconds—who even knows how long—it suddenly unfreezes itself. And man, it happens way too often...
I'm honestly stumped on what's causing this. I did a fresh install of Windows 10 relatively recently, so I really don't think the OS is the culprit, and there's no way this machine is underpowered because it's actually a pretty solid laptop.
I've already run some diagnostics using HD Tune, memtest86 and HDSentinel, but absolutely nothing is flagging an error. Everything looks fine according to those tools.
Could it be a driver issue? Like, maybe I messed something up during the installation process? I don't want to believe I screwed up, but is there any way to actually test for that?
Also, it just hit me—this thing is probably filthy. Like I said, I've had this laptop for about 3 years and I haven't cleaned out the dust once. Could that actually be causing these kinds of freezes? It feels a little weird that dust would cause a total system hang like this, especially since I haven't noticed it getting insanely hot or anything...

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas or advice on what I should try next?

PS: Here are the specs:

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10 Education 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 @ 2.20GHz 55 °C
Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM
6,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0XWH1P (U3E1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1366x768@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Dell)
1024MB AMD Radeon HD 7600M Series (Dell)
Hard Drives
Drives 699 GB Western Digital WDC WD7500BPVT-75HXZT3 (SATA) 41 °C
Optical Drives
PLDS DVD+-RW DS-8A8SH
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

restlessbison40 said:I have a Dell Inspiron 5520 laptop, about 3 years old now, and I’ve been dealing with this issue for a while where it just randomly freezes up. Then, after maybe 20 or 30 seconds—who knows how long, really—it unfreezes. It’s happening way too often...
I’m not sure what the root cause is. I did a relatively recent clean installation of Windows 10, so I doubt it's a Windows issue, nor should it be a matter of the laptop being underpowered, since this is actually a very solid machine.
I’ve already run HD Tune, memtest86, and HDSentinel, and none of them reported any errors.
Could it be a driver issue? Maybe I messed something up during the install, though I don't think so. Is there a way to verify that?
It also occurred to me that dust might be a factor. Like I mentioned, the laptop is roughly 3 years old and I haven't cleaned the dust out of it once. Could that be the culprit? It seems strange that dust alone would cause these kinds of hangs, though. Besides, I haven't noticed any excessive overheating...

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas or advice?

PS: Laptop specs:

Operating System
Microsoft Windows 10 Education 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 @ 2.20 GHz 55 ° C Ivy Bridge 22
Ivy Bridge 22nm Technology
RAM
6,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 798MHz (11-11-11-28)
Motherboard
Dell Inc. 0 XWH1P (U3E1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1366x768@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 4000 (Dell)
1024MB AMD Radeon HD 7600M Series (Dell)
Hard Drives
Drives 699 GB Western Digital WDC WD7500BPVT-75HXZT3 (SATA) 41 °C
Optical Drives
PLDS DVD+-RW DS-8A8SH
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

You could try a Windows refresh (reinstall) to see if that fixes things. If it doesn't help, you're probably looking at a hardware failure.

Windows 8.1 and 10 can be incredibly temperamental, especially if you aren't running a legitimate license. Sometimes you just have to cycle through a few different versions before you finally land on one that actually works. goldenviper13 gave you some solid advice there. Give that a shot, and if things are still acting up, you might want to check your hardware or give the laptop a good cleaning to get the dust out.

Edit: Swap out the thermal paste while you're at it.

If your laptop isn't overheating, there's zero reason to bother cleaning it out, let alone messing around with repasting. Windows isn't some wild animal; the guy clearly wrote Educational...

Unfortunately, Dell didn't really bother updating support for Windows 10 on this specific series, which is why users are running into all sorts of headaches.

http://en.community.dell.com/support...997/t/19647835

Sometimes you can fix things by just installing the 8.1 drivers after you've moved to 10. Honestly, you need to figure out what’s actually causing the trouble first. It could be anything—the CPU, one of those system utilities (Intel Rapid start Technology Utility, Intel Turbo boost Technology monitor software...), the integrated or discrete graphics, or even the hard drive...

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/...ivers/advanced

Grab your drivers directly from their official site, and don't forget that once you install system-level stuff, you absolutely have to restart the laptop for everything to actually kick in.