What to do if my laptop freezes?

Surely you have ever been working with your laptop and, between tasks, you have been “frozen” halfway and do not respond to any of your instructions, having to restart it forcibly to be able to work with it again.

This is something very common that unfortunately happens much more often than we would like, but everything has its explanation, and that is that laptops usually have less RAM capacity than desktop computers, which leads us to when we work intensely with them, we have much more chances of it hanging, stopping or freezing, we can call it the way we want.

It also influences the freezing or blocking of the computer, how prone they are for overheating of laptops, and is that by their own characteristics when we have been working with them for a long time continuously, it is possible that they overheat excessively and end up blocking.

Normally the main symptoms we encounter when our computer freezes are the following:

→ Windows is unresponsive and nothing, including the mouse arrow, moves across the screen of our laptop.

→ A screen appears with some error message, which we cannot remove in any of the ways.

→ When you open any of the programs on our laptop PC you have locked your mouse and nothing responds.

There may be many other symptoms, these are the ones we encounter most often. If this has happened to you recently, you should not think that your computer has broken down and that it is time to change it for new, at least for now. It is a common thing and that usually should not pose any too serious problem, so below we will tell you how you should act in this situation.

How should you act?

Windows Task Manager

When you have problems with the operation of the computer, the Windows task manager can become one of your best allies. It does not always work and the problem cannot always be solved through it, but it does often offer us the possibility of eradicating the problem.

To access it, you need to press at once the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” keys on your computer. Automatically, if the administrator has worked, you will access a window in which you will see the following options: lock, change user, log out, and change a password and task manager.

Access task manager directly and once there, try to close all open tasks on your computer. Then, exit the administrator and check if your computer is working again. In case it is still blocked, press the “Ctrl + Alt + Del” keys again and this time click on logout to turn off your computer and start again from scratch.

Quick restart

If the freeze level of your laptop is such that it does not even respond to the “Ctrl+Alt+Del” combination, you will need to opt for the quick restart option. It is not the most recommended, but it is one of the most effective when your levels of despair only increase.

To do this, you just have to press and hold down for a few seconds the power key of your laptop. If all goes well it should restart automatically, and when it is turned back on, it should work properly. But it doesn’t always work, as there are times when the home key doesn’t even respond.

Remove the battery and disconnect it from the current

If the quick restart has not helped you to unfreeze your computer, the next option, and also the most drastic, is to remove the battery from your laptop and disconnect it directly from the mains. This way, yes or yes they will turn off. When you turn it back on, you will almost certainly find some window warning you that the last time the computer was not turned off properly. Tap OK to start recovery mode.

Option that few bet on: Cleaning

Of course it is one of the measures that few take into account but that in turn is usually effective, remember that heating the products or not having an adequate cooling system can cause failures. The same goes for laptops.

Be aware of where you frequently use your laptop, if it has to be on the desk of your home, university, even in your office laptops are usually mostly exposed to dust seeping into their components as well as in vents.

Being one of the most common cases, dust filtered in the ventilation can cause slowdown in your computer and this event can cause serious and permanent failures to your laptop due to high temperatures that are not cooled as they should be.

How to prevent the freezing of your computer?

We’ve already gone over the three alternatives available in case your laptop has frozen, but now let’s see what you can do to prevent that freeze and that you can use your computer without having to worry about anything.

Check for viruses

Usually the freezing is due to overheating or that the RAM has not given more of itself, but to get out of doubt, let’s check that the computer is free of viruses. We imagine that you will have an antivirus installed on your computer, if not, we do not know what you are waiting for to get hold of one.

Scan your entire COMPUTER and make sure there are no viruses lurking. If you usually work with any external USB, CD, or DVD devices, also make sure they don’t contain viruses either. You can also follow the tutorial below to remove viruses.

Being one of the most likely, viruses in the greatest case cannot be easily removed for which leads to take much more rigorous measures as is usually the formatting process.

Don’t work with the Laptop on the table

We have already said that laptops by their own characteristics, are much more prone to overheating, and therefore, also to stay hanging. That is why it is important that you leave a space between the computer and the work surface, so that air runs and suffers less heating.

There are different possibilities for cooling, such as external fans and plates that come from the factory with fans installed, on which the computer is located and provides them with an extra ventilation that will reduce the chances of overheating. If you usually work with a laptop, we recommend that you opt for one of these options.

Get performance out of your RAM

The RAMmemory of laptops, at least in the vast majority, is usually less than that of desktop computers. Many times we do not take this factor into account and we work with our laptop without paying attention to it, which causes it to end up freezing.

We recommend that you do not have an infinity of windows open on your computer, and that you only open those applications or programs that you really need to use. The fewer windows you have open, the better your laptop will work.

In case you are used to working with many applications or programs, and you need a laptop, we recommend that you get one whose RAM is greater than 4GB and that has wider ventilation slots than usual. And in case you already have your laptop, you can get hold of a RAM and change it for the current one.

Remember that there are computers that need a greater capacity of RAM depending on the software, type of navigation or activities you perform. The ideal for a standard functioning are from 4GB to 8GB and in case your programs need a higher demand, you can count on capacities up to 32 GB.

Update components

One of the cases in which laptops usually freeze is when you run software that needs higher requirements than your computer or you also occupy the entire capacity or the memory is not enough to perform the activities you need.