My PC freezes: 5 Solutions

Here we are going to list the most common causes that you can easily fix with our help. A “made in home” solution to prevent your computer from crashing!

Some are impossible to solve, and others are more common and easy to solve. In the latter group, faulty RAM modules, overheating from dirt, viruses, and an insufficiently powered power supply can put our PCs out of action.

We have all suffered the symptoms that something bad is about to happen to our computer. First, small “jerks” are observed, then something stops responding so that finally the application with which we are working freezes, a state that those who have suffered assure, generally occurs at the least opportune moment, leaving us without the possibility of continuing working , and in the worst case, that part of what we were doing with the PC is lost forever.

The scene ends after a few minutes of agony, when the dreaded BSOD , the blue screen of death, finally appears on the scene  ,  which indicates that our PC has just suffered a rather serious crash . Now it only remains to restart it and hope that the problem has disappeared without too many consequences.

The 5 most common problems for a PC to hang and how to solve them

As we mentioned,  there are many causes for a PC to crash,  and currently it becomes vital to know how and why they occur in order to be prepared and be able to avoid or face them. Many parts of a computer can fail and here we are going to try to recognize and repair it.

Faulty RAM

A faulty RAM module is one of the most important causes of problems,  and a major player in the production of blue screens at system boot. Fortunately, testing and troubleshooting RAM modules is straightforward, and should you run into problems, they are easy to replace.

To  check the proper functioning of a RAM module there is  nothing better than an application called  Memtest86 +,  which will analyze the memory banks in search of problems. In the event that it finds errors,  then it will be necessary to determine which module is producing them.

To do this, we must remove the cover of the PC cabinet and remove the RAM modules, leaving only one of them, the one located in slot 1, in case there are more than one. Next, we run Memtest86 +,  and if it does not indicate an error, it means that this RAM module does not observe problems.  In the event that we have more than one module, we repeat the procedure as many times as we have modules.

The performance and stability of RAM memories is of vital importance so that a computer does not freeze . If the memory modules are bad, we are likely to have a lot of problems.

Power supply with insufficient capacity

Thanks to the fact that currently we can have high-performance PC components at a reasonable price, it  is quite probable that our PC has very powerful CPUs, video cards or sound installed. It is also possible that we have made a touch of “Overclocking” to the processor,  since they come prepared for it.

But unfortunately all that power comes at a price, and it is the high amount of energy consumed by all those components, which can make the system unstable and freeze a computer many times a day  if we do not have a powerful enough power supply. like to power the whole PC efficiently.

To  know exactly the total energy consumption of the PC,  we will first have to add the consumption of each of the elements that compose it. This is not easy at all, since we will have to resort to the manuals or the manufacturers’ websites. But once this data is recovered, we will be able to compare it with the power that the power supply of our computer is capable of delivering.

In the event that we come to the conclusion  that the power supply is not capable of supplying the necessary power,  then it is time to replace it with a higher capacity one, since it can cause a PC to freeze and leave us without the possibility of finish what we were doing.

Generally, if we have a PC with components of good performance, but without exaggeration,  a power supply with at least 600 Watts will be sufficient.  But if we have non-standard configurations such  as two video cards connected by SLI or CrossFire, in  addition to many other cards, this power will not be enough, having to acquire one of at least 800 Watts.

Heat related problems

Inside a PC, whether desktop or laptop,  large amounts of heat are generated produced by the components  housed within the device. Even in those small Android tablets this problem happens.

If the heat inside the PC is not dissipated properly,  it can cause instability and cause accidents such as the PC freezing. Although some modern equipment has inside a series of sensors that allow you to measure the temperature  and turn off the equipment in case the allowed limit is exceeded,  the truth is that before this happens we should check a series of aspects related to fans and ventilation openings.

First of all, you need to make sure that all the PC fans are working properly. In the event that any of them does not work, or does it improperly, it  is best to replace it.

It will also be necessary to check the vents and openings to ensure that they are not being obstructed by elements that do not allow you to satisfactorily ventilate the equipment.

To get an idea of  what the operating temperature of some of the PC’s components is,  we can download and install a small free program called  “Open Hardware Monitor” , available at this link.

With this tool we can  monitor the temperature of the processor and other components of the PC, as  well as obtain other important data about the operation of the equipment.

Another problem related to temperature occurs when we change a processor,  since a bad application of thermal paste between the CPU and its heatsink  can cause it to overheat and freeze the computer.

To repair it, or take it into account for future updates, we only have to remove the heat sink located on the processor and clean the two surfaces, the heat sink and the processor,  with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol and place a single drop of thermal paste . The latter should be taken into account, since if too much or too little is applied, the heat dissipation is not adequate.

The usual suspects: Viruses and malware

Both viruses and malware  are usually one of the most common causes for a computer to freeze and cause crashes and blue screens.  Fortunately, getting rid of these nefarious tenants is fairly straightforward these days. We just have to use a good antivirus that is up-to-date and carry out a deep analysis of our computer.

In the event that the virus or malware have deactivated the antivirus, which is possible,  we must restart the PC in safe mode by pressing the F8 key during startup,  before the Windows startup screen appears.

This  will ensure that Windows does not load drivers or software that are not essential for its operation.  When Windows has started in safe mode, then if we do a full scan with our favorite antivirus.

Hardware conflicts

That a computer freezes and blue screens are displayed can also  be the result of conflicts between the hardware components of our PC.  One of the most common hardware conflict problems occurs when two devices  try to use the same IRQ.  Fortunately, in many of these cases, a solution is easy to find.

What is Hardware and Software? Enter the link above to understand more about this post.

To do this, we open the  Device Manager , where we will find the list of all the devices installed on the PC. In the event that we see  that a yellow triangle is shown on any of them,  then it means that that component has a problem, which can bring complications even to the hardware that depends on it, which will inevitably lead to the computer freezing.

Generally,  updating or reinstalling the component driver and a system reboot ends the problem. In the event that the problem persists, and the component that fails is of the removable type such as a storage unit, we can try to solve the problem by uninstalling it and reinstalling it.

conclusion

The best we can do in the event of a problem is to store as much information as possible about it,  which will allow us to make a more complete, accurate and quick diagnosis.  For this we can write down the data that appear on the blue screen or use an application such as  BlueScreenView  to help in the diagnosis, which we can download for free by clicking on this link.

It is also essential to be attentive to any situation that is not usual in computer behavior and that leads to it freezing, since if we ignore them we will only make the situation worse and it will be more difficult to face a solution later.