What To Do When My Computer Freezes? - 7 Things You Should Do When Your Computer Freezes Or Becomes Unresponsive

Date First Published: 11th March 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Article Type: Computer Questions & Answers

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn about what to do when your computer freezes in this article.

It can be annoying when your computer unexpectedly freezes and becomes unresponsive when you're in the middle of something or have unsaved work. There are all sorts of things that can cause a computer to freeze. Your computer could run out of available RAM, too many programs or browser tabs could be open, it could be overheating, have incompatible hardware, etc. This article explores what you should do if your computer freezes.

1. Give Your Computer Some Time

At first, if your computer has become frozen, you should give it some time to process everything. Sometimes, if you are using up a lot of RAM or your computer is busy processing a CPU-intensive instruction, it will look like everything you are doing is being delayed and make you think that your computer won't respond, even though it might do in a few minutes. Occasionally, certain tasks can use up nearly all of the available RAM and within a few seconds, those tasks are cleared and your computer starts responding again. Give your computer at least five minutes to process everything before assuming that your computer is permanently frozen and can only be fixed by restarting it.

2. Make Sure That Connected Devices Are Functioning Properly

Sometimes, if a basic device, like a mouse or a keyboard gets disconnected or the batteries run out, this might make you think that your computer is totally frozen, when it really isn't. Before you start troubleshooting, make sure that the keyboard and mouse are properly connected and are working properly. This is often not the cause of a frozen computer, but it can make your computer look like it is frozen.

3. Force The Unresponsive Program To Close

If it has been longer than five minutes and your computer is still frozen, you should try and find the program that might be causing your computer to freeze. Use the keyboard shortcut 'Ctrl + Alt + Del' to open the Windows Task Manager. This will show you a list of running programs. Find the program that is not responding and click on 'End task' to force it to close. It could still take 10-20 seconds for the unresponsive program to close. As soon as you have closed the program, your computer should now start responding and speed up.

4. Restart The Computer

If your computer is so unresponsive that Task Manager won't even open, then your computer has gone completely frozen. In that case, you should restart your computer. To do this, press and hold down the power button until your computer turns off and then wait a few seconds and press the power button again to turn it back on.

Any unsaved work is lost when a frozen computer is restarted, unless your work is autosaved by the program. If your computer was frozen whilst you had unsaved work, you might be able to recover it, depending on the program. It might not be possible to recover your unsaved work, but it is worth trying and researching instructions on whatever program crashed. If it is not possible to recover your unsaved work, you will unfortunately, have to start that work all over again.

5. Fix Hardware Or Device Driver Issues

If you have restarted your computer and the problem is still not fixed, an issue with a hard drive, video card, stick of RAM, or device driver might be causing your computer to freeze. If a device driver is outdated, fails to work properly, or conflicts with another driver, it can cause a computer to freeze. If there are issues with the hardware, you should replace it as soon as possible. If there are problems with a device driver, you should download and install the latest driver before the computer freezes.

6. Start The Computer In Safe Mode

If you have determined that there is a problem with a device driver and can't download and install it before the computer freezes, you should start the computer in safe mode. Safe mode only uses the absolutely necessary files to load your computer to prevent problems that interfere with the normal operation of your computer from happening. Once in safe mode, you can access 'Device Manager' and uninstall the hardware device for the device driver that is not working properly. Afterwards, restart the computer and load Windows normally. Windows should then detect the hardware you uninstalled and try to reinstall the device driver.

This should fix any issues with device drivers and prevent any more freezes from happening. At this point, you should also install the latest driver to ensure that you are using the up-to-date version.

7. Get Professional Help

If you have tried everything above and have done everything you can to try and resolve the problems, and your computer is still continuously freezing, we recommend that you get professional help. If your computer is still under warranty, you should contact the manufacturer. If it has expired, you should find a computer repair shop in your area. They might be able to fix the problem. If you can't afford it, then it is best to completely replace the computer.

Causes Of A Frozen Computer

Below are some common things that can cause a computer to continuously freeze.

• Lack of available RAM - Using up all of the available RAM will greatly slow down a computer and make it work less efficiently since the computer does not have enough temporary storage to perform tasks. The computer will start to use the hard drive space as ‘virtual memory’ to compensate for the insufficient amount of RAM. When programs are loaded from the hard drive, they will load much slower than the RAM. This can cause a computer to freeze due to a lack of system resources.
• Too many programs running at once or too many browser tabs open. Running too many programs or opening too many browser tabs at the same time can slow down a computer and reduce its performance. Every tab and program takes up a certain amount of space on the RAM and uses up a certain amount of CPU. If the computer does not have enough RAM to run these programs, it will become unresponsive. If you are constantly experiencing this issue, you might need to install more RAM on your computer.
• CPU overheating. Overheating of the CPU can cause instabilities in the processing of computer instructions and even destroy it. Components can shut down when overheated and the motherboard temperature sensor instructs hardware, such as the hard drive and CPU to slow down to avoid further damage, which will cause your computer to freeze.
• Corrupt operating system files. If the operating system files are corrupt, this will lead to errors, such as the computer responding very slowly and even completely freezing. To fix this issue, consider restoring Windows to a time when the problem was not happening.
• Viruses and malware. If a computer constantly freezes, it can be a sign of a virus or malware infection. This is because it often uses up a lot of system resources, such as CPU, RAM, and network. This can be resolved by removing the virus or malware.
• Outdated drivers. Outdated drivers can cause a number of computer problems, such as system crashes, malfunctioning devices, and a slow computer response time.
• Too many startup programs. Every startup program uses up a certain amount of RAM and having too many of these programs will increase the time it takes to boot a computer and could cause it to freeze.
• Failing hard drive. A hard drive that is malfunctioning can cause a computer to freeze as files are transferred or retrieved.
• Lack of free disk space. If your computer has little or no free hard disk space, this will slow it down because the operating system does not have enough free space to properly work. Operating systems need some free space to create temporary files and for virtual memory. If a hard drive is full up, it might slow down and sometimes cause a computer to freeze as files are transferred or retrieved.

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