How to stop laptop from hanging?

Question

Keshavrao Biswas · Answer

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). Sometimes certain action can use up all the computer's available RAM, and it takes a second for the machine to clear these tasks. As long as this isn't a common occurrence, everything should be fine after a few minutes.

Are you sure the computer is really frozen? Make sure the connected peripherals are actually functioning properly. Something could have gotten disconnected or run out of batteries. This will give the illusion that your computer is freezing up, but the input isn't going through as expected.

Investigate everything connected to your computer, making sure the mouse, keyboard, and trackpad are all working properly. You may even want to investigate the health of your USB ports if you think everything else is fine.

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. Mac users can use Command + Option + Escape to open a similar menu.

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. Your OS should snap back to attention as soon as you've closed the program, and you can restart it to continue your work.

If your computer always seems to freeze when that program is running, though, you may need to uninstall it and find an alternative. If the program is so intensive that it's running out of resources, you may even need to upgrade your hardware.

Sometimes, your computer is running fine, but your browser gets stuck on a certain page. And when so much of what we do on computers is confined to the browser, this feels like your whole computer is freezing, when it might just be the page you’re on. In those scenarios, Windows Task Manager might tell you your browser isn’t responding, but if you want more info on why, you have to dig deeper.

In Chrome and Edge, press Shift + Esc to see the browser's Task Manager. In Firefox, you can click the menu button and go to More Tools > Task Manager. This will show you the different processes running within your browser, potentially giving you some information on what page or extension might be frozen, or using lots of CPU and memory.

You may also have a run-of-the-mill conflict with an extension—for example, I once had issues with the Grammarly extension freezing Google Docs all the time—so try disabling any browser extensions to see if that solves the problem. Hopefully, the developers will issue a fix, as Grammarly seems to have done.

If you can't even open the Task Manager, 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. You can also 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.

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.

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 or check Microsoft's database for a solution to the problem. These details may have some error codes you can look up for more information. Microsoft’s database, meanwhile, rarely ever works, but it’s something to try.

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 reverting the computer back to a state before it was installed. You can do this by uninstalling a recent update, using a Restore Point in Windows, or Time Machine on a Mac.

If your computer’s freezing is eventually followed by a crash and the sad-face Blue Screen of Death, you may be able to find more information about the cause of your problems. The QR code and “Stop Code” on the blue screen are decent starting points for your research, but they rarely tell you everything.

That’s why I recommend also checking BlueScreenView(Opens in a new window), a free tool that reads the “dump file” your computer creates during a crash and presents it in a slightly more user-friendly way. (Download links are at the bottom of that page; they’re a bit tough to find). It’s still fairly technical, but you can scroll horizontally to see what driver or device caused the crash, as well as other codes you can look up to try and find the culprit.

The makers of BlueScreenView have a number of other freeze- and crash-diagnosing tools as well, like WhatIsHang(Opens in a new window) and AppCrashView(Opens in a new window), which might be worth trying. Again, System Restore may be helpful here in attempting to solve the problem.

While System Restore should be able to fix a lot of issues, I’ve found it isn’t always able to repair certain quirks that may be harder to pin down. For example, my computer recently started freezing constantly after I upgraded my graphics card. It turned out it was likely due to some leftover components from the old driver that were conflicting, and running Display Driver Uninstaller(Opens in a new window) (DDU) in safe mode was enough to clean up the problem.

If you installed any new hardware recently, try uninstalling its drivers—or uninstalling the drivers from the old hardware you just replaced—and see if you can’t fix the problem. DDU in particular is a great tool for graphics and audio drivers that are interfering with each other.

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.

A failing hard drive could cause hang-ups and other similar issues, so while you’re running scans, check your hard drive’s health, too. You can do this by running wmic diskdrive get model,status in the Command Prompt, but for more detailed health information, I recommend running CrystalDiskInfo(Opens in a new window) for Windows (free) or DriveDx(Opens in a new window) for macOS ($20 with a free trial).

If that tool shows your drive as anything other than “OK,” it could be the cause of your problems. If you have a Windows PC, you’ll want to replace that drive posthaste. You can't replace the drive in modern MacBooks, so you'll have to take it in for repair.

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(Opens in a new window), configure its options 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. Mac users can do something similar with Fanny(Opens in a new window).

The next time your computer freezes, you can take a quick glance at the program to see if heat might be your problem. If the temperature is 90 degrees Celsius/194 degrees Fahrenheit or above, it's almost certain your computer is overheating.

Watch out for a loud fan, which could tell you the computer is overheating. Clean any dust out of the computer with a high-pressure duster(Opens in a new window). Make sure your fans are actually working—if any of them aren't spinning, you may have a failed bearing and need to replace the fan.

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 will reboot your computer and test your memory, notifying you if it finds any issues. You might also try Memtest86+(Opens in a new window), an open-source boot disk that performs more thorough testing.

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.

You can easily look up how much RAM you have, but you should also look up your computer model to figure out what you need to buy and how to replace it. (If your RAM is soldered onto the motherboard—as is the case with Apple's laptops and many new thin and light laptops—you may have to buy a new laptop altogether.)

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, but at least you'll be able to get work done again.

Torsten McCubbin · Answer

In this article, we will help you in knowing the most common reasons why laptops hang or freeze, and we will also show you how you can solve those common laptop issues. We have limited this article to only include laptops that run Microsoft’s Windows operating systems.

This is the first thing you should try the next time your laptop hangs. We’re sure, most of us are already aware of it, but how many of us remember to do this when the laptop hangs? Once you click the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys simultaneously on your laptop’s keyboard, you will see the Windows Task Manager window pop up. All you need to do is, check which programs are consuming the most CPU and RAM resources. If you find any program that is unwanted and is eating up a lot of laptop computing resources, click on it and then click on the ‘End Task’ button.

Once all unwanted programs and unwanted background processes are identified and closed, your problem should be solved and the laptop should start behaving as it should. If it doesn’t help, you may have to forcefully shut down your device by holding the ‘Power’ button for a few seconds and then restart it. Do not forget to save the document you are working on so that you don’t lose critical data.

If you do not install the operating system updates on time, your laptop may fail to function smoothly. It is advisable to always run a legal copy of Microsoft Windows to be able to download updates as soon as they are released. If you are using Windows 10, the update option is automatically turned on. In most cases, automatic updates and the latest drivers are available online.

To update your software through Windows, follow the steps below:

Laptops may also slow down when their processor doesn’t function at optimal clock speeds, and that might happen when the laptop heats up and the processor has to lower its clock speed in order to maintain safe operating temperatures. This issue is called performance throttling. When a laptop overheats, its fans work in full swing, and you might hear unusually loud sounds generated by the cooling fan inside the laptop. This is a good sign that your laptop is overheating.

To stop performance throttling, you need to make sure that your laptop is efficiently dissipating heat generated in its internals. Moreover, you also need to make sure that dust isn’t blocking exhausts and air vents from where the laptop pushes our hot air. Clogged air vents can pose a big problem.

The best way to avoid laptop overheating is to use a cooling pad. Laptop coolers are meant to provide additional cooling. Fans inside the laptop cooling pad suck in hot air from the laptop’s air exhaust vents and extract hot air outside. This helps the laptop in staying cool. Also, always keep the laptop on a hard or flat surface so that hot air can exit easily. Uneven and soft surfaces like a blanket, pillow or your lap obstruct the laptop’s airflow.

Sometimes, the laptop’s CPU can’t dissipate heat efficiently because the thermal paste (also known as thermal compound) has worn off. The thermal compound helps heat transfer from the CPU or the GPU to the heat sink. If the thermal paste has worn off, you need to visit an authorised or trusted laptop service engineer and get them to re-apply a high-quality thermal paste.

If your laptop has been constantly freezing, insufficient RAM could also be a reason. It is necessary to have enough RAM to keep the system running smoothly. This makes sure that all the programs that you run simultaneously can stay in RAM concurrently.

If you run multiple heavy apps (like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, AutoCAD, or Visual Studio) at once or open a lot of heavy files at the same time, your laptop may get hung if it doesn’t have enough RAM to load all those apps or files. You may either have to upgrade to a laptop with a higher RAM configuration or upgrade your existing laptop to add more RAM (provided that it supports RAM upgrades).

One of the easiest ways to find out if the laptop has a RAM issue is – when you first turn on your device and it runs perfectly fine but in a few hours the laptop begins to slow down, files take too long to open, and websites fail to load quickly. This can be due to insufficient RAM. Apart from this, if you notice that your laptop constantly keeps restarting, this is also a clear indication of faulty RAM.

Most modern mid-range and high-end laptops now feature SSDs (Solid State Drives). However, older laptops and some modern entry-level laptops still use HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). If your laptop uses a hard disk drive and if you notice an unusual clicking sound every time you turn the laptop on, this is an indication that something is wrong with the hard disk drive. Do not take this lightly!

In case there is a serious issue with the hard drive and it crashes, you can lose important data due to hard disk drive malfunction. This is why we recommend saving all your important documents and files on an external hard drive as well so that you don’t lose important files. It’s a good routine to back up important files before it’s too late.

Just to be sure if the hard drive has really malfunctioned, you can open File Explorer on your laptop and follow these steps:

You can also run SpeedFan to check for possible issues with the hard drive. If the hard drive has malfunctioned, you will need help from the brand’s authorised service centre for replacement.

If you’re planning to buy a new laptop, we recommend buying it along with the Onsitego Extended Warranty Plan to ensure a longer life for your device. Our extended warranty covers all the defects and malfunctions covered in the standard manufacturer’s warranty and you can buy Onsitego’s extended warranty plan with up to 4 years of validity on top of the standard 1-year manufacturer warranty.

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Bijoy Ruia · Answer