What To Do If Your Laptop Freezes

If your computer has slowed to a near-crawl, or become unresponsive entirely, here's how to see if
it's an easy fix or something that needs more attention.

By Whitson Gordon July 17, 2019 4:55PM ESTJuly 17, 2019

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It feels like your computer only freezes in the middle of the most
important tasks, doesn't it? If your computer has slowed to a near-crawl—
or become unresponsive entirely—here's how to recover from the
problem, and prevent it from happening in the future.

Give It a Minute to Catch Up

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If you're performing a particularly CPU-intensive task, sometimes things
will hang for a moment, making you think your laptop is permanently
frozen—even if it's not. If it seems like your computer has completely
locked up, give it a few minutes to catch up and finish what it's doing.

You'd be surprised how many times this actually works, especially if it's a
random occurrence (and not a chronic problem). Similarly, make sure
your mouse is working properly—it could be that your mouse just got
disconnected or ran out of batteries, which can give the illusion of your
computer freezing (even if it's working just fine).

Kill the Offending Program

If Windows doesn't recover (or it starts freezing again after it recovers),
it's time to break out old faithful: Ctrl + Alt + Delete. Strike this combo on
your keyboard and choose the Task Manager option from the resulting
screen to see a list of running programs.

If any of them are not responding, select them and click the End Task
button. If you're dealing with an isolated incident, that should be all you
need. Windows should snap back to attention as soon as you've closed
the program, and you can restart the program to continue your work.

If your PC always seems to freeze when that program is running, though,

you may need to uninstall it and find an alternative (or possibly upgrade
your hardware, if the program is so intensive that it's running out of
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resources).

Reboot and Try Again

If Ctrl + Alt + Delete doesn't work, then your computer is truly locked up,
and the only way to get it moving again is a hard reset. Press and hold
down on the power button until your computer turns off, then press the
power button again to boot back up from scratch.

If you were working on something important when the freeze happened,

you may be able to recover it, depending on the program and how it
handles unsaved documents. For example, Microsoft Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint auto-save backups as you work, and you can often recover
them the next time you open the program. Or navigate to File > Info >
Manage Document(s) > Recover Unsaved Document . It won't necessarily
work every time, but it's worth a shot—do some digging on whatever
program crashed to see if it has a similar feature. If it doesn't, you might
be unfortunately stuck doing some of that work over again.

Check the Reliability Monitor

If you still can't pinpoint the cause of your lockups, you'll have to do some
extra troubleshooting. In these situations, I recommend checking
Windows' Reliability Monitor—it's a lesser-known error-reporting tool
buried in Windows' settings.

Open the Start menu, search for "reliability," and click the "View reliability
history" option that appears.

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You'll see a graph of your PC's reliability over time, with crash logs and
other issues alongside updates and newly installed applications. If you
can find an error listed around the same time as your freezing problem
began, Reliability Monitor will give you the option to view technical details
(which may have some error codes you can Google for more information)
or to check Microsoft's database for a solution to the problem
(which...rarely works in my experience, but it's something).

If those don't help, you might also use the graph to find out what
applications or updates were installed before the freezing started
happening. If a new program or update looks to be the cause, try using
system restore to revert your computer to a state before it was installed.

Do a Malware Scan
As with all computer glitches, it never hurts to do a malware scan and see
if something nefarious is causing your problems—especially if you haven't
done so in a while. Grab a free scanner like Malwarebytes, let it comb
through your hard drive, and see if anything pops up. If you run into
trouble, check out our guide to ridding your computer of malware.

Watch for Overheating

Excess heat can often cause your computer to—ironically—freeze, so if
you see this problem pop up again and again, maybe your cooling is to
blame. Install a temperature monitor like Core Temp, configure its options
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to show temperature in the Notification Area, and drag that icon out of
the pop-up tray and onto the taskbar so it's always visible.

The next time your computer freezes, you can take a quick glance at the
Core Temp icon to see if heat might be your problem. If the temperature
is 90 degrees Celsius or above, it's almost certain your computer is
overheating.

Clean any dust out of the computer with a high-pressure duster and
check the fans—if any of them aren't spinning, you may have a failed
bearing and need to replace the fan.

Test Your RAM

Bad memory can also be a culprit of locked-up machines, so if you
suspect you might have a failing RAM stick, it's time to run some tests.
Pop open the Start menu and search for the Windows Memory Diagnostic
Tool—it'll reboot your computer and test your memory, notifying you if it
finds any issues. You might also try Memtest86+, an open-source boot
disk that performs more thorough testing.

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If all the tests come out okay, it may just be that you don't have enough
RAM. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to bring up the Task Manager the next time
you experience problems, and click the Performance Tab. If your memory
is maxed out, it may be time to upgrade.

Google your model of laptop to figure out what kind of RAM you need to
buy, and how to replace it. (If your RAM is soldered onto the motherboard
—as is the case with many new thin and light laptops—you may have to
buy a new laptop altogether.)

If All Else Fails, Call in the Pros

If nothing else seems to solve the problem, you may have a hardware
problem not so easily fixed on your own. If your laptop is still under
warranty, contact the manufacturer for service. If your motherboard (or
some other part) is indeed failing, they'll likely replace it for free.

If your warranty has long expired, find a good repair shop in your area and
see if they can diagnose the problem further. You may have to pay for
that repair, or—if it's too costly—replace the laptop entirely. It's a bummer
on the wallet, but at least you'll be able to get work done again.

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