Updated: May 13th, 2012
Wondering why your laptop keeps freezing? If so, then this post is going to provide you with all of the necessary troubleshooting tips to fix your laptop.
If you are looking for a piece of software that might be able to fix the problem for you then using a reputable registry cleaner might be able to really help your laptop out.
If you feel like you’d rather try and do some troubleshooting on your own, then try our Online Troubleshooter which will ask some questions about your laptop problem and then give you recommended fixes.
The top 3 causes of laptop freezes are:
- Watching Movies/Videos or Playing Games
- Corrupt Operating System files
- Overheating
Laptops are a great tool, especially if you have one for the right reasons. By that I mean if you are a person who requires portability then I am sure you are getting the most out of your laptop.
Due to the fact that laptops are portable, means they take more of a beating and are used in many different types of environments. This can ultimately be the source of why your laptop keeps freezing.
There are several factors that need to be considered if your laptop keeps freezing. A few that come to mind are:
- Age of the laptop
- How badly have you ‘abused’ it
- What Operating System are you using
With that being said, there are a whole host of other reasons that could cause your laptop to freeze up, so these should be mentioned as well.
Other Reasons That Cause Laptop Freezes
- Virus/Spyware/Malware
- Corrupt System Files
- Corrupt/Out-dated Drivers
- Bad Hard Drive
- Corrupt Startup File
- Windows Updates
We will be provided troubleshooting steps for all of the above causes because our goal is to help you fix your laptop.
Hey, I have a Dell Latitude D830 and about 2 minutes after start up it flickers then freezes.I recently got it back from overstock.com because i had other problems in the past, but this is an all new problem. I was in the middle of restoring my system and it did it. I can see everything that was on the screen but nothing moved. Also I am using Windows 7
1. Is the laptop brand new? If so, it should still be under Dell’s warranty. Try calling their support.
2. I would runt the Dell Diags that come preloaded on their laptops: http://www.fixmypcadvisor.com/guides/diagnose-and-fix-a-bad-hard-drive/2/ (instructions)
Hi! My laptop freezes after I open my web browser. After an error msge came on my screen saying “A Script in Chrome may cause your computer to become unresponsive, stop script?” After I said yes I assumed Chrome was the problem so I uninstalled it, then I installed Firefox but the problem persisted, especially after watching a video on youtube it would freeze.
I’ve tried other solutions; deleted a bunch of programs that were running in the background or I had no need for, cleared it of any viruses I could find, etc, but it persists. Help!
Sounds like you may need to install and run Malwarebytes. Here is a link to a full step-by-step guide: http://computerfreezes.net/malwarebytes-download-install-update-and-run/
Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron and I have had it about 4 years now. First of all it kept freezing after about 10 mins of it being on and every time I turned it on it came up with writing saying it recommends doing a file check or something so I did it. After I did it once I didn’t do it again, now when I turn it on it starts up and goes to the logging on bit but says “update 3 of 3″ and it just stays on 0% and then restarts again and keeps going around in that cycle. I was wondering whether I had to get a new hard drive or something I can do? Or is my laptop completely broke?
A system restore should fix you up! System Restore Instructions
It does sound like though that the HD may be starting to fail, so just a heads up there.
Hi. I have a Acer Aspire 5532 laptop. while I watch videos and now recently when I play games, it freezes. The mouse no longer moves, but after a while, it un freezes and I can resume whatever I was doing. The temps. are at a considerable heat, but I don’t think its a overheating problem as I am on a flat surface. Could this be that maybe I don’t have updated windows updates? or a bad hard drive? Any help would be much appreciated.
Sound like overheating.
Try providing more airflow, and possibly some cooler air to the laptop to test.
So I have this problem with my HP Envy 17 where it will randomly freeze when I play games, or sometimes when I’m watching videos on YouTube. I first had some freezes where the computer would lock itself up, req. a hard reset, but that problem only appeared sometimes when I was playing GTA IV, in 201. Now for the last month I’ve had some random freezes. It used to only happen on Dota 2. But now it happens on all the other games I play. I’ve opened up the laptop to clean the fan. Uninstalled all my graphics drivers and re-installed new ones, up to date. I’ve cleaned the registry and done defrag on all my drivers, nothing has seemed to work and I’m getting lock-ups more frequently now than before. I’ve considered resetting the laptop to factory conditions, but I doubt that’ll work.
Also when it freezes I don’t get audio fuzz or loop like many other with Envy 17 have described. Please help.
This sounds like it could be an overheating problem. Many times, when a computer or laptop does something intensive such as playing a game or streaming a video, it can cause the CPU to over heat.
Try propping up your laptop, or even using a fan to try and keep it cool. If it doesn’t freeze, then you know it’s an overheating issue.
Hi. My laptop (hp pavilion g62) keeps freezing at random times. When it freezes, i can’t do anything, even the mouse stops moving. I know for a fact that I have no viruses (just checked 4 times..), that it doesn’t overheat, because I’ve had an extra cooling fan for a few months and it hasn’t been a problem since then, so I’m guessing maybe it’s a driver problem.. Alas, I have no idea how to fix that. Thanks for the help, if you can provide it
I would recommend going to HP’s website and downloading the latest drivers for your laptop. (Video, Audio, Network, etc)
Here is a link to their site: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support-drivers.html
hi my laptop is a asus xsdc and some times when i am using it normally and then it just freezes and the mouse or nothing moves then i have to hold down the power button till the laptop closes and i have to do that every time it freezes please can you help me why it is doing this thank you
The first thing you should check for is to make sure your laptop is not overheating. Here are a few questions I would ask:
1. Does the laptop freeze if you just turn it on and let it sit for a specific period of time?
2. Does it freeze while doing something that is intensive on the laptop such as streaming a movie or playing a game?
Try propping up the back end of the laptop to allow more airflow and see if this helps.
If the above doesn’t describe your problems at all, then it may be software related. Here are a few questions regarding software:
1. Does the laptop freeze when doing a specific task or using a certain program? (such as surfing the web)
2. Do you have antivirus software on your laptop? If not, you should.
Please report back and we can continue to help!
Hi, my laptop keeps freezing after 5 seconds of logging in and only the mouse works. I’ve formatted the hard drive and installed a completely new version of windows but I still get the same problem. Not sure what to do.
If you have freshly installed Windows and are still having the exact problem, then your best bet is that it is hardware related.
Is the laptop fan working properly? Try propping the laptop up a bit so there is more airflow around it…because it could be overheating.
I’d also run the manufacturer diagnostics on it as well.
Hi,
I needed some advice as to whether or not I need a new hard drive. My computer started freezing 5 mins after start up…I’m not that great with computers so I would restart restart. That stopped working then I did an out of the box recovery…worked fine for 3 weeks then started freezing again. I started going on website and tried start up repair…check disk…3 more out of box recoveries and tried the fan because i thought it was over heating. Nothing works. Now it is just blue screening and crashing…I did another out of box recovery (because I’m taking a class and have very little disposable income) and it worked for a few days and is now freezing again. It has gotten dropped a few times (I deployed with it a bunch and had to check it a lot). Would buying a new hard drive help I wonder. Thanks so much….you have great info on this site.
Rora:
Sorry for the delayed reply here, but let’s try to see how we can help you out.
1. When you ran a check disk, did it find any errors? It could definitely be a hard drive going bad.
2. Is your computer a brand name PC such as HP or Dell? If so, they should have built in diagnostics that you can run that would test all of the hardware including the diagnostics. Here is a great guide you can follow: http://www.fixmypcadvisor.com/guides/diagnose-and-fix-a-bad-hard-drive/. If you see any disk errors in the event viewer (that link explains how to do that), then it’s a pretty safe bet that your HD is going bad.
3. I see you noted that it’s blue-screening, so that leaves me to believe that it is software or hard drive related.
Anyways, check out those few things and report back.
I hope this helps!
Hi,
Four days ago I purchased a brand new Asus NV-56 (i7 – 610QM quad core 2.3GHz, 16GB ram) and it keeps crashing, not blue screening but the display just goes, freezes and shakes. It sometimes makes a really loud noise too. Some of the windows updates have failed too, so I wonder if it has anything to do with that? It’s under warranty but I need to be able to use it and so don’t want to send it off. Any help would be much appreciated thanks.
Sounds like this could be either overheating or a system file is screwed up. Try these two things.
1. Do a System Restore – http://computerfreezes.net/how-to-restore-computer/ – Maybe back to the first or second day you got it.
If that doesn’t help
2. Try to keep the laptop as cool as possible. Try elevating it or blowing a fan into it to see if that helps.
I would most certainly make time to get support on the line to get things fixed up.
Hey, I bought my Alienware M14x just last year, it was fine until about a month ago were it randomly started freezing. At first I just put it down to overheating and restarted it after it had time to cool off. But recently it has started freezing 5 minutes after I start it up. It has become very consistent at this now. It doesn’t matter how long I leave it as soon as I start it up I have roughly 5 minutes before everything freezes. Please any advice would be welcomed.
This does sound like classic symptoms for overheating. Here are a couple of things you could try:
1. Make sure ALL internal fans are working. (CPU, Case, Power supply and Graphics card)
2. Leave the side of the case off while running the computer to see if that helps
3. When you start your computer, you should be able to start pressing F8 and that should give you a menu to run the Manufacture diagnostics. I would also recommend this.
Report back and we can move to troubleshoot this further.
hi, i bought a sony vaio long time ago, VGN-NS240D, and i was using it and the sound wouldnt work, when i plugged in my headphones it does but without them it doesnt, Whats the problem? do i need to get a new hardrive, from where?
I tried going in the sony website and entering the model number and downloading some stuff relating to sound, but even that didnt work, when i go in device manager it shows an error sign on ‘ base system design’ and on the action centre it says to download and install sony firmware extension praser, i am running windows 7 professional currently. When i bought the laptop, it came with windows vista premium. Please tell me what i should do,and another thing, my laptop keeps freezing after every second, and it wouldnt unfreeze, so the only thing i do is i shut it down and then restart but it still is the same, when i start up, it says windows has to check local disk c for consistency, and i allow it, but it keeps asking now whenever i open it :/ its really weird. Please help me quickly.Thanks!
From what you have stated, this sounds like the speakers in the laptop are no longer working. If the laptop is old, then I am sure it is not worth putting the money into it in order to fix them.
You may consider getting a small, portable set of speakers you can plugin to the headphone jack.
I have recently switched over to use a new Dell E5520 Latitude laptop. It works great when plugged into my wall outlet, but when I am just using the internal battery, it seems to randomly freeze up. It could freeze up before I even log into Windows, or it might freeze up in 5 minutes or 2 hours. There seems to be no tell tale sign as to what causes the freeze ups. I can have one program open or many or not even be logged in yet and it will freeze.
It may be coincidental, but each time, the computer freezes up when I look into the event log viewer in Windows 7, there is WMI error which says: Event filter with query “SELECT * FROM __InstanceModificationEvent WITHIN 60 WHERE TargetInstance ISA “Win32_Processor” AND TargetInstance.LoadPercentage > 99″ could not be reactivated in namespace “//./root/CIMV2″ because of error 0×80041003. Events cannot be delivered through this filter until the problem is corrected.
It is Event ID 10.
I am not sure if this is related, or not, but it is there each time after a freeze up occurs.
Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas as to what might cause something like this? It is a brand new laptop that my company has given me to work with. If I just run it while I have it plugged into the wall outlet, I have no problems, no freeze ups at all.
Could this be a sign of a battery issue or something worse?
Thanks for your time and consideration!
Most certainly a very weird problem you have here and one that is hard to pinpoint.
Here are my thoughts!
1. I do not think this Event Error is the cause of the problem, but merely shows up on every reboot. However, I did go out and find a Fix for you from Microsoft. Just run their ‘Fix it Now’. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545227
2. Are there any other errors in your event log? Possibly for Audio or Video?
3. The battery any of the components associated with the battery could be the cause of the issue. Especially if you have narrowed it down to only happening when using the laptop on battery.
I would recommend either calling Dell Support or taking it into your companies IT dept. to have them take a closer look at it.
Hi!
I have a problem that I’d really like to solve..
Okay, so heres the dealio; I’m no computer whiz but I’m pretty sure it might be overheating because it works fine if I’m sitting in front of a fan. (Haha) plus it shut down a few times while in Safe Mode and told me it shut down because of overheating.
Anyway.. I’m on a HP G56 105SA, OS Windows 7 (64 bit)
The problem is that it keeps freezing on me, and I usually have to wait until it’s cooled down before I can boot it back up.
Before you say it, I have cleaned it out and there wasn’t actually that much dust there!
I’ve managed to boot up with and without the battery in, with and without the charger etc etc.. All with the same outcome.
System Restore isn’t working either (not entirely sure why)
Any tips? Thanks~
First, very good troubleshooting skills!!
I would suspect this being a hardware problem from the information you have given me. So no need to mess with any software fixes.
Laptops are a whole different monster when it comes to fixing overheating issues. Just due to the fact that they are not easily taken apart and put back together.
1. Can you hear the internal fan running? If you put your hand in front of the vent, can you feel air? It is possible that one of the fans is not working which in turn is causing the processor to overheat.
2. Have you run the HP diagnostics yet? Reboot your laptop and start pressing F2 right away. This should give you an option to run diagnostics.
3. Any possibility this laptop is still under manufacture warranty? I would highly recommend calling in to HP support.
I hope these 3 tips might help you out!
Thanks for the help~
probably the most help I’ve had the past month lol
The fan is running and everything. As for the warranty, I was actualy offered a ‘renewek’ recently because it ran out.. Silly me didn’t think I’d need it. :/ I know better now though.
Haven’t tried HP diagnostics yet but my dad is taking it to his friend who works with computers because, as a computer geek himself, he’s actually stumped as to what the crap is going on especially seeing as the laptop isn’t even getting ‘that’ hot when it freezes up.
So yeah, fingers crossed I don’t have to buy a new one! lol
Thank you for the kind words.
I wish you the best!
Matt.
hi, my laptop isnt even a year old yet (aspire 5250) and when i go to defrag hard drive, or connect my phone, or just clear cookies n stuff it freezes i have left it over night i the hope it would change buy morning and it didnt do i thing … so i had to force it to switch off (i know u shouldnt but i couldnt make it do anything) i have ran avg the no threats were found. I have also deleted any software (that i uploaded my self) incase there was to much. i can only run the net, media player and avg without freezing pleas can u help me
Jordan: Start with these 2 troubleshooting steps. I have included links to instructions.
1. Start your laptop in Safe Mode – http://computerfreezes.net/how-to-start-computer-in-safe-mode/
2. Run a Check Disk on the hard drive (I suspect it might be going bad) – http://computerfreezes.net/how-a-hard-drive-thats-going-bad-can-cause-computer-freezes/
Also, go to the following link and look for the paragraph where I talk about WD Diags. I would download that and run it to further test the hard drive.
One more thing. If your laptop isn’t a year old, you should be able to call Acer support and everything should still be under warranty.
I hope this helps.
I have a Toshiba satellite L635 and when i login it works fine but like 2 or 3 mins it freeze and makes a loud noise if i have music or sometimes it just freeze then it stop freezing then it works but go’s slow. So i use safe mode . when i was in safemode for a long time it worked fine .then like 2 days later it stared the same way again . i tried restoring but it freeze s.And once when i turned off the laptop it said something about checking disc something .
It sounds like you could have 2 possible problems here.
1. Your laptop may be overheating. Try propping it up a bit in the back to that air can pass underneath of the laptop and make sure all of the vents in the laptop are clear of dirt and dust.
2. Your laptop hard drive may be failing. Go to this post and follow the steps for testing your hard drive.
Hi!
Thanks for your tips. I have an hp paviliion dv2700 and just recently, I installed some applications ( utorrent,real player and a .mkv to avi converter). 2 days ago, my laptop started freezing 5-10 minutes after starting it up. ctrl+alt+del is not working. I also noticed that everytime i use it, my laptop seems hotter than usual. Could it be an overheating problem or is it because of the applications?
Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Thanks Pam!
I would definitely recommend a System Restore back to a date before those apps were installed.
Here’s instructions for using System Restore.
Hello CFreeze,
Thanks for your tips. I really appreciate you actually reply everyone’s comments here. So I have a Acer Aspire 5738Z laptop and it freezes a couple of times per week and the cursor is locked (Ctrl-Alt-Del not working – which means i just have to push the power button for a while to restart) My computer is a bit more than 2 years ago. This symptom is fairly new as I remember this happened about 1 week ago. It randomly freezes and I don’t know how to prevent this.
I admit that I’ve been installing and deleting lots of programs.. but I also realized that it could be also overheating problem because I burn my laps when I put the laptop on my laps.
My computer geek friend tells me I shouldn’t mess my computer with registry cleaning program and I am pretty scared of ruining my program as I am not as knowledgeable as him.
I am still unsure of figuring out why my computer is not working. How can I narrow down the source of my computer’s problem? How can I troubleshoot?
Thanks for the kind words.
If your unsure on working with the registry, then it is best to stand clear.
I would recommend 2 options for you:
1. Try restoring your computer with System Restore to a date before the freezing began. System Restore Instructions
2. Trying running a Windows Repair on your operating system.
To rule out overheating, try using your laptop on a firm table with it actually propped up so air can flow underneath the laptop. If no freezing occurs while doing this, then it could definitely be overheating.
I have a hp laptop , don’t know what make and that but I can’t even disk defragment or do mcafrees update or anything plus I carnt even shut my laptop down as it just freezes at that aswell so basically freezes at anything, my laptop went slower and slower and now is at this state and I have had it nearly 2 years I think . Please help ASAP
Does it boot into safe mode? Start your computer and press F8 to bring up the menu for safe mode.
If it has been getting slower and slower, you may want to test the hard drive to make sure it is not failing.
hi my laptop is toshiba satellite L655. i have been using it for an year and a half now. if was in great condition until couple of months back it started to freeze oneday. that same day it froze twice or something before it came to a complete sleep. when it freeze sometimes it makes a scratching noise. well after that whenever i turn on it come to startup and worked few minutes and freeze. it works fine in safe mood. after that day safe mode was the only way of turning my laptop on. so i didn’t use my lap for couple of weeks just shut it down and kept till my exams are over so i can give it a shop. well by the time i on the laptop again after 2 weeks it worked fine. but it had funny motorbike noise coming from inside when i run. and the fan seems sometimes to stop. then i needed to go to another country urgent so i gave my friend my laptop and exchanged and went. now yesterday i took my laptop after 2 months well he told it worked fine even with gaming and skype browsing all at once. only different we both have is i use on bed he uses on table. well i now know should keep on the soft surface it will make the lap over heat. i kept on bed last night and today morning it froze and couple of times i on and off it froze. well when i took the lap from him yesterday that motor like noise din show up or it wasnt loud. now it is so loud. now i have kept in hard surface to give ventilation and using the laptop. somtime the processor stops working and freeze i noticed it that when froze the both cpu and ram lights didnt work. well now i was skyping with my friend and fell asleep and woke up to see the lap showed 4.15 as the time but i noticed the times 6pm so it has froze for more than an hour still it didn’t switch off… pls if you have anyidea please let me know. i tried registry cleaners also ran a chckdsk.
Anytime you have a laptop where the fan stops working at certain times is not a good thing at all. You can only expect the laptop to overheat. If you can’t get the fan replaced, then you are just going to have to use the laptop in a way where it gets proper ventilation.
hi..great site..my frnd has a hp compaq nx6110..it freezes once its fully loaded windows so she gave me to format bcz it heavily infected bt i dscovred tht it bcz of overheatn..th funny thng z th fan stops spinning once windows starts up loading..she has a power-on password and if i dnt input th password th fan dsnt stop spinning bt th moment i do and windows begins to load, th fan stops..its th same wth linux or ubuntu..and hw do i get past a bios password cz she dsnt knw it so m unable to enter th setup menu..wil appreciate yo reply
Couple of suggestions for you…
1. It sounds like your gonna need to replace that fan. It seems that when the computer tells it to spin faster that it can’t so it stops spinning.
2. Do this to get into the BIOS. Take the side of the case off. Look on the motherboard for a silver battery. It looks like a bigger watch battery. Remove the batter from the motherboard for 30 seconds. This should reset the BIOS to its original settings and allow you to access the BIOS.
thnx man..wil let u knw hw it al goes..
I’ve been having problems with my laptop for about 6 months now, and its almost 2 years old. It’s a HP model G60- 635 DX, and it runs on windows 7 64 bit. My laptop freezes up after pretty much every time I use it, no matter the website. I have no idea what the problem is. I run superantispyware and all it picks up is adware, all my drivers are updated, I’ve adjusted the power settings to be performance first. I ran a performance information scan and it scored a 5.2 in both the RAM and Processor categories. I’ve also tinkered with the startup programs and services with no luck. Lastly, I debug my drives once a week so that also doesn’t seem to be the problem. I’ve had my computer scan for possible problems to no avail.
Some things that seem noteworthy: my laptop freezes A LOT less if I keep doing superantispyware scans, I deleted superantispyware in exchange for Avast once and after that I couldn’t open a single program unless it was in safe mode. Also, I don’t know if its relevant but my laptop says I need to get a better charger, one that has a higher output.
David:
At this point it seems you have done a pretty good shop at trying to fix this problem.
A few suggestions for you.
1. Get rid of all your antispyware software and use only Malwarebytes. Here’s A Video On Malwarebytes
2. I would uninstall all of your current Antivirus programs and use Microsoft Security Essentials. Just Google it to download it.
I am running out of ideas with my laptop. It just freezes randomly (even at startup) and with a loop sound.
I’ve done all these things below but none seemed to work:
1) I have reformatted my computer several times and with different OS (Windows 7, Ubuntu, WIndows Vista)
2) I changed the RAM with new ones
3) I changed the heat paste on the CPU
I know it is a hardware issue, but I don’t know what should I check next. Hard Disk?? Video Card?? Please help.
Background: My laptop had a problem with overheating before, the system used to shut down automatically when it was overheating.
About the only advice I would have for you at this point would be to run the manufacturer’s hardware diagnostics on the laptop. I know for a fact that both Dell and HP have these in CD form. Those diags will test the hardware.
Hey, thanks for the reply.
The hardware diagnostic softs were written into my hard drive (no CD) and I somehow accidentally erased it when I formatted my laptop (it is a Toshiba).
Looks like I might have found the source of the problem. I am not yet sure but I think the problem comes from power issue.
I let run my laptop on battery last night and I noticed it didn’t freeze as long as the AC adapter wasn’t plugged. I am going to check out the power now. It is too soon to draw a conclusion but I suspect a malfunction in the AC adapter since I plugged it to a 220 V power supply when I went abroad last year (The adapter is compatible with 110/220 though, but I think it is mainly designed for 110 V not 220 V)
i have HP pavilion dv3 its hardly 14 months old and its freez when i click on any think then i have to wait for 5 mins
i formated many times but the problem is the same
If you have truly formatted the HD and re installed from scratch ‘several times’ as you have mentioned, then it sounds like you may have a hardware problem with the laptop. Perhaps it’s still under warranty?
i have a pavilion computer of some kind, (i forgot what it was i will tell you soon) but i have checked for viruses and foe malware, spyware, scum, etc and still my problem persists: my computer is very slow and internet access is blocked, and i say blocked because my laptop is connected and in excellent strength – wireless connection – but i have no idea what else to do and to top it all off, i cant do a fresh install of the operating system because my dad lost it, its windows vista, and i know windows vista has many problems, but so far i have not found one problem that is like this. Thanks for your help and consideration
Sam
Sam: First question I would ask, is do you have another computer that accesses the internet from your home? You want to make sure that something isn’t screwed up with your internet router.
Second, I would perhaps recommend you downloand and run a utility call ComboFix. It’s quite a powerful but very effective utility. There may be some very deep files that are infected and this utility will clean them. Read instructions on ComboFix and a Download here: ComboFix.
I have an HP Pavilion fb6-3237 and for the past couple of hours outta nowhere I can’t login. Everytime I turn on my laptop it works fine up until I get to the user select screen. After I select an account though it loads for a moment, then the screen turns black. I can still move my cursor but nothing else will work. Any suggestions?
1. Try starting your computer in safe mode. Find instructions here: Safe Mode.
If you can get it into safe mode, you may want to try doing a System Restore back to a date where you know your computer worked properly. Find System Restore instructions here: System Restore.
My HP Pavillion dv6000 has recently been freezing but only when i defrag the hard drive.
… so i dont have much of a budget to work with. also I know my registry is most likely full, is there any free/cheap program that may clear it up a lil untill i can afford a better one?
Cntr_alt+del doesn’t work, but the cursor is not frozen and the only way to turn it off is to take out the battery. i just lost my job and a month later my wife did
Defragging can sometimes be overrated. From a maintenance standpoint, I would only recommend running it once a month. I am guessing that it has been years since you actually defragged your machine? If so, then a fresh install of your OS might be the only way to get things running real well again.
I’ve both a new laptop a month ago, ASUS x52je, and from time to time it freezes for 2-3 minutes depending on what i do, i can’t watch a movie, i can’t play a game, i can’t do anything because it freezing, i observed that the third light on the laptop remains still(i think the hardware it remains frozen to when te laptop freezes)because that light ussualy blinks when the laptop works, please help me, i don’t know what to do.And I’m sorry if my english sucks… i am from Romania.Regards.and please help
I am going to say that the light that is staying lit up is the hard drive light. It’s quote possible that it could be starting to fail. I would search Google for WD Diags. Download it and run a quick test on your HD to see if it might be failing.
Hi, I have an Asus eeepc 101MT laptop and its only about 4 months old. Just recently it freezes, normally when I’m playing something from my external hard drive. When it freezes it freezes the sound and it kind of loops for about 2 seconds. There is no way out of the system when this happens. Cntr_alt+del doesn’t work,the cursor is frozen and the only way to turn it off is with the power button! I think it may have something to do with the External HD, Its a world Elements 1TB and I only have about 200GB left. Everything has been updated, I have done a full comp scan including drive E: External HD, and all is clear.
Any help will be greatly appreciated… It’s all very confusing.
Regards
Ellen
Ellen: The bottom line here is does this freezing only happen when playing something from your external drive? If so, then the problem has to be something directly with that. I would try making sure you have the latest drivers installed for that external hard drive.
i have acer 4740g,a 18 month old laptop.. 3 days ago, my laptop is struck by lighting, and my LAN card adapter is broken, although all of other device is perfectly fine. so i visit acer service center and they told me that my MAINBOARD is damaged(although my LAN card is the only things that have to be changed…) and it will cost me about 300$ to get it fix T_T….
So in the end i bought a wireless router because i still can use my wireless adapter.. yesterday when I’m listen music with my WMP, suddenly my laptop is freezing… i cannot move my mouse, or press ctrl + alt + del, and i hear a “bzzzzzzz” sound from my speaker, so i shut it down by hold the power button, today when i doing the same thing, my laptop is freezing again, with the same condition…. i calculated that my laptop is freezing after 2-3 hour. although sometimes is about 4 hours +
my question is, can my laptop be repaired with out changing the MAINBOARD?? or should i bought a new computer instead of repairing my laptop…
thanks and sorry for my bad english..
If your budget permits, I would shoot for buying a new laptop/computer. You really have no idea what else that lightening strike may have hurt in your laptop, so I would deem that laptop as being very unreliable just from that standpoint.
So, just recently, as in the past day and a half, I have been having some problems with my laptop and I can’t for the hell of me figure out what it is…
It’s a 3 year old ASUS Notebook M51Va, with 3GB RAM, Vista,
32-bit operating system, Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T5750 @ 2.GHz
And, well, basically what the problem is, is that it runs fine for about 10 minutes, then it starts to lag horribly, and freeze for about 1-2 seconds every 5 or 6 seconds, this includes any games or programs that run will freeze, the mouse movement across the screen will also freeze, and if say, any music is running, it will freeze and blank for those 1-2 seconds before resuming….
Also with the sound, after a while it becomes extremely distorted with a fuzzy staticy sound added into this problem, at first I thought it was the headset, but with everthing else being affected it seems like it isn’t just that :/
Also, using a USB internet (dongel?) with Virgin Mobile, that can say that it is connected, but I try nd get on any webpages and get IE or Firefox both saying that there is no internet so end up having to refresh the page about 20 times for it to ‘connect’
Recently updated everything, I’ve tried running full computer scans, using F-Secure and am not finding anything at all. Restarting it and it is OK for about 10 minutes before everything starts up again…
Any help or reccomendations would be wonderful, thanks!
Completely understand your frustration!
I see your laptop is 3 years old. Has there ever been a clean install of Vista since you’ve had the laptop? Any computer that is 3 years old is going to be much slower and have problematic symptoms. Consider backing up your data and installing a fresh copy of Vista.
my problem is anytime i try to play games or use the webcam it freezes and then i try to click end but then it says not responding,sometimes its different depending on what program i’m using,but i mostly use google chrome and could hardly do anything on it because of this problem, what do i need to do? I have been trying to figure it out since.
From the information given, it seems that this issue is either graphics or web browser specific.
Recommendations would be:
1. Download, install, update and run a quick scan with Malwarebytes.
2. Clear your temporary internet files, or maybe even try a different browser.
3. Ensure your graphics card drivers are up to day.
Hi there!
Lately, my laptop has been driving me absolutely nuts. For no apparent reason, everything decides to not respond. I can use my computer for about 10-15 minute intervals (once I was able to use it for a whole 45 minutes without it freezing!) but then bam, “not responding”. I can’t even access my Task Manager, so the only think I can do it hold the power button until it completely shuts down. I’ve done my share of research in hopes of finding SOME bit of advice that will actually help, but so far no such luck. I’ve defragmented my hard drive, turned off most of the unnecessary programs that start-up once my computer is turned on, but still nothing. I can’t access cookies either! I thought maybe I have a virus so I went and about McAfee Antivirus 2011 and my computer seems to be virus free. I’ve had this laptop (HP) since 2008 I believe and I bought it brand new. If you could help me in ANY way, it would be so incredibly GREATLY appreciated!
Corey: I would recommend 2 things that you should try.
1. Boot your computer into safe mode with networking. (Press F8 continually at bootup). I would then download, install, update and do a quick scan with the free version of Malwarebytes. Remove anything it finds.
2. This also could be the makings of a hard drive going bad. You may want to check with Windows System Event log and look for any Disk errors.
Also, if the Operating System has never been reloaded since 2008, it may just be time to put a fresh copy on your hard drive.
also, it doesn’t happen every time obviously since i can get in sometimes. When i can’t i have to hard shut down. Wondering also if that hurts the computer. I just tried the Lenovo boot optimizer hoping this helps too. any ideas?
Cheryl: These types of problems can be terribly frustrating! Let me give you some steps as to what I would do if I were encountering this problem.
1. I would double check the hard drive. I would run a quick test of WDDiags and see if it passes. You can download it here WDDiags.
2. I would make sure all of your major hardware drivers such as video, audio, network, etc are up to date to the latest versions.
3. Since your laptop is so new, you should have technical support through IBM. I would give them a call and see if they can help you diagnose.
Please reply back with any questions!
I have a Lenovo I5 just purchased 2 months ago. started freezing up about a month ago at start up, won’t even give me the login page. Just the circle and please wait but the circle isn’t spinning it just sits there frozen. I took it in and they said hard drive was fine, they then reinstalled the OS and it was fine for about 2 weeks. Now it’s doing it again. Starts up fine in safe mode. I took everything out of my start up menu but i don’t think that’s the issue because i don’t even get the login page.
On a number of occasions over the past two weeks my toshiba laptop fails to close down
and I have to remove the battery. I have tried control, alt, del. but get no response. Can you give me any advice?
PJ: What if you remove the battery before starting up your laptop (assuming it is plugged in with an AC adapter for power) and then seeing if it will shutdown properly with no battery in. If this is the case, then you have a bad battery.
I have an hp laptop. I’m 15, got it for Christmas last year and lately, when I am doing something, and I don’t move the mouse for two seconds, it will freeze and the only way to get it unfroze is it restart everything. I have google chrome, i also use internet explorer. my laptop is also slower then ever lately.what do i do with it?
Sami: My first question would be to you is how old is your laptop? It sounds to me like there may be a shortage of memory for it. Please reply back with some specs and we can go from there.
Hi,
My Dell Inspiron 1370 is about 16 months old and just today it has been freezing up a lot.
Every time it freezes up, I force-shut it down by holding the power button and ‘start windows normally’ on start up.
Most of the times it has been freezing up have been when I was in the middle of a game of Minesweeper…
Any help?
Thanks
David: The number of things that could be causing this are just about endless, so I’ll give you a couple of ideas that you could try that might help.
1. Download, install, update and scan your computer with Malwarebytes. You can download it from Malwarebyes.org.(the free version is just fine) Remove anything it finds.
2. Make sure your laptop is getting enough ventilation. It may be freezing from overheating.
3. Go to Dell’s website and use the service tag on your laptop to make sure you have the latest drivers for your video card, audio card and network adapter.
Those are 3 good tips to get you started in the quest to narrowing down your laptop problems.
i have the same problem and i was able to fix mine after doing some research. i found out that its a battery problem for me. so some of u with pavilion and so on might want to remove the battery and run ur laptop with plugin only.
Hi, i just got my laptop for like a month and when i was recording wih my webcam it suddenly freezes and when i keep turning on t freezs but today it worked like on internet but freezes out of nowhere i think its over heating because i use it soo many times a day
Rockaya: Try elevating the back of your laptop to help provide better airflow that should keep your laptop cooler. Also, you may want to think about seeing if there is an upgrade for the Video Camera drivers.
I have a brand new computer, bought about a year ago but just recently opened and touched for the 1st time. It’s an Acer Travelmate 2480 running on Windows Vista home basic 32. My computer is running extremely slow, when I opened of course I had several required windows updates and I did each one of them, computer takes forever to start a program and randomly but usually I get a “not responding” error message on any program that I may be attempting to use, also updated all drivers. BTW: takes internet explorer at least 5 minutes to load… Not just when I’m online, Microsoft word takes it’s time too. What can I do??
Shay: There are any number of things that could be causing this. From what I can see, it looks like this laptop has a Celeron processor, so that is the first warning flag. Although Celerons are cheaper, you don’t get the same performance out of them. Also, make sure that laptop is maxed out with RAM. It looks like it only support up to 2GB of RAM(even this is very low for running Vista). The last think would recommend would be to run a check disk on the hard drive to ensure it isn’t going bad.
My laptop has recently been completely locking up after about 10-20 mins of use.. whether im using alot of programmes or just one it will still do it! sometimes i get a bsod of “kernel inpage data error” but the last few times i havent..just been unable to move the mouse/use the keyboard. maybe just a coincidence but its only been happening since i started actually using my Wi-Fi.. it is a HP Presario CQ-61 laptop. have ran all virus/malware checks etc without anything making a difference. tried updating all the drivers and as far as i know they are upto date, doubt overheating is a problem either because it never really gets too hot..only had it for just over a year. any idea what it could be?
Antony: If you have ruled out overheating, drivers and spyware/malware, then you are probably looking at some corrupt operating system files. I would look into performing a repair on your windows installation. I do not mean wiping your computer clean and starting over, but doing a Windows repair. If you need some assistance with this, just reply back with what operating system you are using.
Well, i just bought this laptop about 5 months ago and it froze. the only thing that froze was mozilla firfox but everything else is perfectly fine. it doesnt overheat. it is still frozen so i am using internet explorar. Also, i cannot exit out my Browser!!! What do you think is wrong?
Guisue: You need to download Malwarebytes to your computer and then install it, update it and run the quick scan. I would remove everything it finds. Malwarebytes is by far the best spyware/malware software available today…that’s free. Get more info on Malwarebytes by checking out this post: Computer Freezing
I bought a brand new Toshiba Satelite L775D-S7222 laptop on July 15th, and I have had no problems with it so far until last Tuesday. I clicked on Google Chrome, and before it could come up, a load buzzing noise started and the computer froze for 15 seconds before it went to the blue screen . I quickly manually shut it down. I ran the check disk utility and it was perfect. Then I ran a full Norton Security Scan, and it found nothing wrong, every single fill was clean. So I was really confused as to what caused this. Then just 3 hours ago, it happened twice on me. Now I don’t know if this is an overheating issue with the battery, the hard drive, or the portable battery might be too hot. I am really confused.
Kyle: First thing I will mention is that if you bought your laptop just in July, it should still be under warranty…not 100% sure, but it should be as most manufacturers have a 1 year warranty.
Probably the first thing I would recommend would be if your laptop boots into Windows is to do a system restore back to before it had the first blue screen. After doing that, I would download, install, update and run Malwarebytes on it…a quick scan and remove anything it finds.
its a buzzing sound like bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wherein there is a vibration of the laptop? I check the hard drive using the LG smart care wherein in has a diagnostic of the hard drive and the result is my hard drive is functioning well, so what do think it is?
I just bought a LG A510 laptop 2 days ago and it easily gets hot, it get freezes once with a annoying sound i removed the battery and it stop, what do you think is the problem?
Dennis: I am sorry to hear that your new laptop seemed to have frozen up on you…but it is a computer and they do freeze!
Specifically for this issue, I guess we would need to know whether the sounds coming out of your laptop was a static filled sound…or whether it was a loud ‘ticking’ sound.
If it was a sounds filled with static, then it could have just been some sort of ‘glitch’ with the sound card…I would recommend just monitoring your laptop over the next few days.
If it was a loud ‘ticking’ sound, then it could quite possibly be a hard drive going bad. In this case, I’d recommend running the check disk utility to verify that the hard drive is good.
Hi. I have vista on my laptop and recently it has started to freeze unexpectedly. It doesnt matter what I am doing at the time, it just freezes and the cursor turns into the spinning circle. If I press ctrl-alt-del it takes a few minutes and eventually a message comes up which reads something like; logon process has failed to identify security options (not word for word). It is very frustrating and each time it happens I have to just hold the power button to turn off the computer.
Is there anything I can do? Would it help to wipe the computer and update to windows 7?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated
I am a bit confused as to when exactly you are getting this error. Does it happen when you try to login to your computer? Or does it happen when your desktop is loaded and you are using different programs?
I turn on my laptop (Toshiba satellite L 300) , put in my passwords, and ‘configuration updates stage 3 of 3 0% complete, do not turn off computer’ comes onto the screen. after a minute the laptop starts back up again. i dont no much about computers, i went into the settings n defaulted them but nothing changes
Shane: I am assuming you either have Vista or Windows 7 on this laptop. It looks like this is a common error, but there doesn’t seem to be one steadfast fix for it.
Without being in front of the computer, I would recommend this fix from Microsoft:
MS-KB949358
There are 2 methods you could try from this link. Have a look and be sure to reply back!
Hi. My laptop i just got was peviosly owned. I wiped it and put winds xp revision 2 on it, and it still has problems. It might be over heating but if its not what do i do?
Could you please expand on what the problems are with it? Perhaps it randomly freezes? Perhaps it just shuts down at random times?
Please provide more information regarding what the problems are and we can help you more from there.