What To Do When Your Notebook Freezes

It’s a normal day. You get home from work feeling stressed and exhausted.  After a good shower, you picked up your notebook and start using it. You play some games, maybe use social media for a while and, all of a sudden, your notebook freezes. You are like “This is not the first time”, right? If this little story has anything to do with your life, this article is for you.

What can you do to stop this annoying problem and avoid it in the future? There are several reasons that cause a notebook to freeze, such as computer viruses, driver errors etc. However, three major causes are the most common. Well, the good news is; there are practical solutions to solving these problems. So don’t panic.

Problem #1: Overheating

The most common hardware issue you will find with most computers is overheating — which arises as a result of dust or failure of the ventilation system.

If your notebook freezes, first confirm that your notebook is not overheating. An easy way to confirm this is

by placing your hand under the notebook. If it’s hot such that it burns, then your notebook is overheating. This problem can easily be solved and avoided from recurring by simply cleaning your notebook — Use compressed air cans to clean the dust and always ensure that your notebook’s ventilation system is not blocked.

Problem #2: Insufficient RAM

Lack of RAM is another reason why your notebook freezes. Random Access Memory, or RAM, is used to store data for a short period of time and is accessed for a variety of functions. If your computer doesn’t have enough RAM, you’ll experience problems like —  websites taking so much time to load, local programs running at a snail’s pace and maybe the dreaded blue screen with white text.

When your notebook freezes, you can troubleshoot to find out if it’s a problem with the RAM. To troubleshoot, clear your RAM by opening your Task Manager to see which program is using the most memory. Once you are able to figure that out, shut down the programs and see if the problem continues — the more programs you open, the more the RAM is used up. However, if the problem continues even after closing the program and restarting the computer, at this point you could be having a faulty RAM, thus, you might have to buy a bigger RAM or might even require cleaning up the hard drive.

Problem #3: Software problems

Software issues is another reason why your notebook freezes. Software problems such as malware, BIOS changes or simple software bugs — are very typical with Windows 10. Computer software problems are so far the hardest problem to solve, as the problem could be anything. However, there are some basic tips to get you started.

First Tip

First off, scan for malware with a good antivirus. If that doesn’t work, see if the freezing happens when one program, in particular, is open. If that’s the case, then reinstall the program. If not, upgrade your operating system if you haven’t done so.

Second Tip

Check the drivers of your system to see if they are installed properly. If you don’t find any problems with the drivers, then you’ll have to decide between reinstalling the operating system or taking your notebook to a professional computer technician.

80% of the problems with a freezing computer can be traced to right down to a software issue. Essentially, you should first troubleshoot to know if it is a hardware or software problem. If it’s a hardware problem, it’s best to take it to a professional computer technician. On the other hand, if it is a software problem and you are confident about it, you can look up some YouTube videos on how to fix a frozen notebook.