What To Do When Your Computer Freezes Up

Does your computer randomly freeze and prevent you from performing any action? Slow computers that freeze up often are a common problem among PC users today. Many times when your computer freezes, it displays an error, many times it does not. The task of troubleshooting the problem when an error is generated is usually easier than when no error is generated.

Sep 16, 2007 11:57 AM

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Computer freezes can occur at any time your computer is operational—during system startup, while you are working on it, and during system shutdown. Some of the common causes of computer problems are too many programs loading at system start up, display problems, driver, and software conflicts, overheating of system components, hardware conflicts, malware infections, and registry errors.

In case your system invariably freezes at system startup, it usually implies that there are way too many programs loading at startup. Therefore, to fix these errors, you will have to stop unnecessary programs from loading during the startup process. To do this, first check the Start > All Programs > Startup folder. If you see any unwanted programs listed here, right-click and select Delete, to remove them. Next, open the System Configuration utility by running “msconfig” from Start > Run. On the Startup tab, clear the checkboxes of the programs that you do not want to load during system startup. Select Apply and click OK to implement the changes and restart your PC.

If your computer randomly freezes while you are working on your PC and an error message is generated, then you can fix the problem based on this message. However, if there is no error message, then the most likely cause is probably overheated components or conflicting devices. If you feel that your PC is freezing up due to overheating, you must immediately turn it off and let it cool down for an hour before you start it again.

Computer freezes due to hardware, generally occur when different hardware devices try to access the same resources on your Windows system at the same time. You will usually encounter these errors when you have too many devices attached to your PC, and your system allocates the same set of resources to multiple devices. The problems may also occur if the device driver of a particular device is erroneous. You can resolve these errors with the help of the Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager.) In Device Manager, locate the faulty device—depicted with a yellow triangle containing a yellow exclamation mark, right-click on it, and select properties. Here, on the Resources tab, you can manually modify the resource allocation of the conflicting device, and on the Drivers tab you can perform various actions to resolve the driver-related errors.

Problems in the Plug-and-Play Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) are a major cause of computer freezes during system shutdown. You can fix BIOS-related problems by updating the BIOS by downloading the latest updates from the website of the manufacturer of your computer or motherboard. Updating the BIOS not only enables you to fix many bugs but also enhances the capabilities of your motherboard. You may also prevent shutdown freezes by modifying the Power Management settings of your computer. To do this, open Control Panel, and select Power Options. Here, change Power Schemes to “Always On” and all other settings to “Never.” Sometimes, software errors during shutdown may also cause system freezes. To prevent these, open Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and close all programs that are consuming a high amount of system resources. Additionally, uninstall any application that you do not need and prevent unnecessary clutter on your hard disk and system registry.

Registry problems are also a major cause of system errors and freezes. To prevent the registry from hampering the normal operation of your PC, you must use a reliable registry cleaner utility to regularly scan the registry for obsolete, invalid, and malicious information and remove them. You must also defragment the registry regularly to make it compact and contiguous.

Last but not least, keep your PC free from malware, such as viruses and spyware. Always keep your antivirus and antispyware programs updated with the latest definitions and run regular scans to weed out any malicious information from your PC.