pingTips By Chima M. Oleru
Most
"freezes" are just software lockups, often limited to just one
program, although they can cause the entire system seemingly to hang. The remainder
is caused by hardware. Failing power supplies can cause all sorts of trouble,
for example, including freezes. Memory is also a frequent culprit. Reseating
the memory module fixes memory-related problems one-third of the time on
desktop systems and one-quarter of the time on laptop systems, according to
studies done by Microsoft.
Instructions
1. Is the Whole System Freezing?
o 1
Press "Alt" and "F4." This
may close the program without any further problems.
o 2
Press the "Alt" and "Tab"
keys together to switch to another program. If you are unable to see any change
when you press "Alt" and "Tab," then try to bring up the
Task Manager by pressing the left "Control" key, the left
"Shift" key and "Escape." If that key combination doesn't
open the Task Manager, press "Ctrl," "Alt" and
"Del," then press the down arrow on the keyboard four times to
highlight "Start Task Manager." Press "Enter."
o 3
Determine the problem area. If your mouse cursor
moves freely, then you have a locked up program and you need to find the
process that's hogging the CPU. If the whole system seems jerky, and you can
hear or see your hard drive being continuously active, then you are facing
memory exhaustion.
o 4
Go to the "Processes" tab. Sort by CPU
or Memory as determined. If your mouse is functional, click the headers to sort
the appropriate column. Otherwise press "Tab" to move forward or
"Shift" and "Tab" to move back through the controls until
you get to the header. Then use the arrow keys to select the header you want to
sort by and press "Enter."
o 5
Select the item at the top of the list, which
should be the problem program. If your mouse doesn't work, use "Tab"
or "Shift" and "Tab" to navigate to the list.
o 6
Click the "End Process" button, or
press "Alt" and "E." Then click "End Process" in
the confirmation box or press "Spacebar" on the keyboard. If none of
this worked, your computer may be totally frozen due to a component problem.
