Why do computers freeze up?

I find the most common reason now days is an overloaded CPU. It has so much to do, so many demands, that it would take it forever to finish the task with the little resources it has at that moment.

Now days, if you leave it a while it will normally unfreeze its self, or you can fix it by shuttng down the offending program.

Either hardware or software.

Nine times out of ten, if it’s a hardware lockup, it’s due to excess heat. In modern computers, they have failsafes which shut themselves down when the heat gets too high. In the olden days, we actually had to deal with computers which would burst into flames. The Hercules video cards were notorious for it.

If it’s a software problem, it’s usually due to problems with the stack. An operating system works by putting tasks in a “stack” one on top of the other. The computer works its way down the stack, performing each task in sequence. If for some reason the computer loses its place or can’t figure out which task to process next—lockup.

I was just asking because my computer freezes up OCCASINALLY, not always.

When you say freezes up, do you mean that not even the mouse will move?

If the mouse still moves, and you are using windows, press ctrl+alt+del, look for the process that is taking up all the CPU, select it, and press end task, and that will maybe fix it up.

If the mouse wont even move, then yea, its restart time.

It can be several reasons. If it’s systematic when you run a certain program it’s most likely a software issue. If it’s apparently random it could be software conflict, minor hardware faults, or god knows what else.

freezing up is generally an out of memory issue.
Confilcts in hardware or IRQ can cause symptoms like this, but you will get BSOD in windows or other more visible issues.
Again that is general and it varies from OS to OS.
This is also more prevelant in Windows than UNIX, etc..
If you have any more detail to you question it would be helpful.

Maybe, Bill gates is fucking with you….

@blueiiznh

I have found that increasing the size of the cache can sometimes help prevent freezeup. If you visit a lot of active sites, such as virtual reality sites, sometimes the cache fills up very fast and causes lock up.

There are many reasons. Bad memory, not enough memory, running Windows, overheating, “dirty” power, not enough CPU to do all that you want it to do in a timely manner (my most common one on my systems; I flog them hard), it hates you, loose wires….

I can think of a lot more reasons for a computer to freeze, but I think I will stop with just the list of things that pooped into my head within 30 seconds of reading this question.

@CaptainHarley I have 6GB of RAM and enough hard drive space to cache every page I visit and have yet to freeze my browser (except for the times I tried running Safari, which freezes before even fully opening and then crashes like Dale Senior a couple of minutes later without having done anything useful) so I can attest to the fact that a big cache helps. On older systems, I used to be forced to run with a teeny, tiny, piddling cache and had problems.

@CaptainHarley exactly sir. Great point.
Bottom line, each freeze will generate a dump and potentially events. View these and many fine tuning modifications.

@jerv

To me, that’s weird, having that much having that much memory space and still apparently not enough cache space! I’ve even heard of users having dual-processors and still having this problem! Weird!

@blueiiznh

Thanks. Sometimes I get it right! : ))

@CaptainHarley You can have a big house with small closets, if you catch my drift. The cache will only get as big as you allow it to in the preferences, at least with every browser I’ve used. Since I have the space, the first thing I did when I installed Firefox was to go into Options -> Advanced -> Network and up the maximum allowable cache.
As for the memory, I tend to go for far more than the recommended minimum for whatever OS I am using. WinXP recommended 128 MB and I usually ran it on 2GB. Win7 has a minimum of 1GB for the 32-bit version and 2GB for the 64-bit version; I run 3GB on my 32-bit laptop and 6GB on my 64-bit desktop.

You would be surprised how many freezes and crashes can be avoided by decadent excess :D

@aidoom7 Yes, sometimes a freeze is caused by just not having enough of something, whether it be RAM, hard drive space, or CPU power.

“Decadent excess!” LMAO! Jerv, son… you ain’t right. : )

@jerv I disagree with your approach. The OP question was a freeze ups, not sluggishness.

@blueiiznh I consider “so sluggish it won’t respond to mouse movements or keyboard commands” to be frozen. If it is merely slow enough to only redraw the screen once a second, causing the cursor to jump around, then you are correct, but in the past I’ve had mine freeze completely under heavy load only to return to merely sluggish a few minutes later.
I guess it’s a matter of definition.

@jerv yep. review the logs and dump before making any WAG.

@blueiiznh While troubleshooting always involves a bit of WAGging, knowing the configuration can narrow it down quite a bit, as can knowing the circumstances. For instance, my old P4 would freeze up sometimes, but a quack glance at the bottom of the screen told me why; that system ran hot, especially when the video card was under load. My current system runs far cooler, so any freezes it has are less likely to be heat-related, so I would check elsewhere first.