When Your PC Freezes


by Driz Memok - Date: 2007-03-02 - Word Count: 473 Share This!

A PC freeze is certainly one of the most aggravating things because it usually happens in the middle of something. So, what can you do to end the freeze?

There is nothing more frustrating to the user of a personal computer than when it "freezes." Computer freeze usually refers to that state when the computer suddenly ceases to operate. In severe cases of computer freeze, nothing happens at all. The keyboard and mouse become inoperative, and whatever image is on the screen remains there. The computer is frozen.

New computer users have a tendency to want to give the monitor a few sharp smacks when this happens. They view the problem as a sort of log jam, and feel a good smack will break it up and get things rolling again. Actually, they are not completely wrong although there method of correction is flawed. In many cases, the cause of the freeze is a log jam. To put it another way, it is an overload of the processing system. This can be caused by having too many operations running at the same time. The processing unit has a limited amount of memory capacity.

The type of memory known as ROM memory has a much smaller capacity than the massive amount of storage in the hard drive. Since the processing unit is performing programmed instructions at such a fast rate, the fact that multiple programs are running at the same time is often unnoticed. The processor is actually skipping from program to program. It performs some instructions from one, and then moves on to the next. The user may be actually working on only one program and is unaware that others are actually being executed at the same time.

When the load becomes too much, the processor will be waiting for an instruction, and that instruction will never come. In some cases, the processor may go into a loop following a set of instructions that take it in a circle with no exit. When either of these things happens, the result is a computer freeze. The unit is not actually frozen. It is waiting for an instruction to move on, and that instruction is not being received.

Hitting the monitor is not going to help. It is also not going to help to frantically push buttons. Each keyboard stroke is sending another set of instructions to the processing unit. Since the processing unit is already overloaded, or not processing, sending more instructions will not help. It often will make the problem worse. The only keys that should be pressed are control, alt, and delete together. This will bring up a screen that will allow you to attempt to shut down some unneeded programs. This might result in the "unfreezing" of your computer. More than likely the unit will need to be shut done and rebooted to clear the processor.


Related Tags: computer, conflict, working, storage, pc, computing, freeze, personal computer, lock up, glitch

Driz Memok is with ComputerRepairServiceBusinesses.com - providing information on computer repairs.

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