Sooner or later it happens to everyone – you’re working away at the computer when suddenly it freezes, and no matter what key you press or what you click with the mouse there’s no response. Many users react by just pulling the plug and attempting to restart the machine, but doing that can cause other problems. Read on to learn more about why your computer might freeze, how to make a freeze less likely, and the best way to respond when it happens.
Why Computers Freeze
Determining the cause of a computer freeze is usually difficult, if not impossible, because there are so many potential culprits and most of them don’t leave any clues behind. The possible causes include:
- the computer has been left on for too many days or weeks at a time, which tends to make it more unstable
- a newly installed application, or a recent update to an application or Windows itself, included a bug
- the computer is infested with a virus or other malware
- a hardware component is wearing out and starting to fail
- the computer has overheated, possibly due to a clogged ventilation fan or blocked fan vents
- a voltage spike or dip occurred in the circuit the machine is plugged into
In the end, the reason a particular computer froze at a particular time is usually as inscrutable as the reason your cat decided to race across your bed in the middle of the night. And most of the time, it doesn’t really matter WHY it happened (unless it keeps happening). What’s more important is how you respond to it.
What To Do First
In many cases, a freeze affects only the particular application you were working with at the time, and not other running applications or Windows itself. In that case, the only thing you may need to do is to shut down the frozen application. You can then just re-start that application and continue with what you were doing, or move on to something else. In addition to saving the time it would take to shut down and restart the machine, this approach also avoids the loss of any unsaved work in other applications.
You can shut down a frozen application using Task Manager (see Task Manager Is Your Friend – Take a Minute to Get Acquainted for detailed instructions).
Plan B: An Orderly Shutdown
If you can’t access Task Manager, or the computer still seems unstable or unresponsive after shutting down the frozen application, you should probably shut down the machine completely and then make a fresh start. But HOW you do it matters; just pulling the plug out of the wall socket can cause multiple problems, including loss of unsaved data in the applications that are still running, file corruption (which could lead to loss of saved data and applications no longer working properly), and a longer wait to restart (as the machine tries to determine why it was not shut down properly). For the best results, try the following steps, in the order shown.
- First use Alt-Esc, Alt-Tab or Ctrl-Alt-Tab to switch to each application that’s still running (see Shortcut Keys Every Windows User Should Know for details on how to use these and other important Windows shortcut keys). In each application, save any unsaved work and then shut the application down in the usual way (or use Task Manager, but only if necessary).
- Shut down the computer:
- First attempt to shut the computer down in the normal way, by clicking the Start button and then choosing Shut Down and responding to any further prompts you may see.
- If you can’t shut the machine down in the normal way, try holding the power button down for 5 or 10 seconds, which will usually force a shutdown.
- If holding the power button down doesn’t work, the last resort is to cut the power. For a desktop machine, you’ll just need to disconnect the power cord. For a laptop or notebook or any other machine that has a battery, you must both disconnect the power cord AND then disconnect the battery. Many newer laptops have a non-removable battery, in which case there is a special procedure for disconnecting it. For example, on some Lenovo laptops you can disconnect the battery temporarily by inserting a straightened paper clip into the reset hole on the bottom of the case. Consult the documentation for your laptop for specific instructions.
Preventing Freezes and Minimizing Their Impact
Occasional freezes are a fact of life, and as a practical matter you can’t completely avoid them. However, there are some good computing practices which can go a long way toward making freezes few and far between, and minimizing their impact when they do occur, including the following.
- Make a habit of restarting your computer at least once or twice per week. The longer a computer goes without restarting, the more unstable it becomes and the more likely it is to either freeze or just become sluggish.
- Minimize the number of applications and windows you have open at any one time. The more things you have open, the more the system’s resources are stretched thin, which will eventually lead to instability, sluggishness and a possible freeze.
- Save your work frequently, especially when you’re doing a lot of editing or data entry or are working on an important project. The more frequently you save your work, the less you’ll have to reconstruct from scratch if the machine freezes.
- Use a surge protector to help shield your computer from voltage spikes and dips. If you have frequent power surges, brownouts or outages, consider getting an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which uses a storage battery and special circuitry to provide steady power to the computer.
- When buying a new computer, get the fastest processor and the most memory you can afford. Doing so will make the machine less likely to freeze, and will help to keep it from becoming obsolete for as long as possible.
- Be selective in what applications and browser add-ons you choose to install, particularly if they don’t come from well known companies. Browser add-ons are a special concern, as many of them have a significant performance impact and may even be borderline malware.
- While occasional freezes are normal, frequent ones definitely are not. If your machine is freezing repeatedly, you need to do some troubleshooting to identify the cause and correct it. While a thorough discussion of such troubleshooting is beyond the scope of this article, the possible causes to look at include:
- newly installed hardware or software
- newly installed updates to Windows or applications
- possible infestation by a virus or other malware
- clogged fans or vents (which can lead to overheating and possible freezes)
- loose or worn power cables