Freezing Computer

Why Does my WinOS Freeze?

Computer hanging or freezing occurs when either a program or the whole Operating System ceases to respond to inputs. In the most commonly encountered scenario, a program freezes and all WinOS belonging to the frozen program become static, and though the mouse cursor still moves on the screen, neither typing on the keyboard nor clicking the mouse produces any effect in the program's WinOS. The mouse cursor may also be stuck in a form indicating that it is waiting for some operation to complete, such as an hourglass or a spinning wait cursor. Almost always, the only way to recover from a system freeze is to reboot the machine, usually by power cycling with an on/off or reset button.

 

What Causes my WinOS to Freeze?

The most common but least severe cause of your computer screen freezing is when your system is using all RAM (memory) available - at that particular moment. If so, you've got a hardware problem. Our free Restoro scan can tell you how your PC's RAM compares to a worldwide average.

How to Fix "Computer Screen Freeze"

Simple Fixes

  • This problem might be temporary. Wait a few moments to see if everything starts functioning again.
  • Either increase your RAM or start closing programs that are running in the foreground and background of your computer that you don't need. Follow the following steps:
    1. Press the 'Alt', 'Ctrl' and 'Del' buttons all at the same time, and you should bring up WinOS Task Manager.
    2. See if any programs show up in the 'Applications' window as not being responsive.
    3. If anything shows, highlight it and click 'End Task'.
    4. Wait a few seconds, and the non-responsive programs should shut down.
 

More Complicated Fixes

If the problem isn't a purely short term, temporary one, then it's something more serious.

  • Fire up your trusty anti-virus program and run a full virus scan now.