It should be possible to use Windows applications provided with the operating system to work out why a computer freezes. It is important however to begin with doing hardware checks first.

Open the Device Manager tool to check the state of your hardware. You’ll find your computer keeps freezing if there are conflicts between different hardware peripherals (e.g. printers and USB drives) or driver issues. This utility can even suggest ways to fix the issue.

Your next concern should be the possibility that there is a virus, malware or adware somewhere on your operating system. These affect the operating system programs as well as damage registry key settings. Scan the full drive and any external memory with an up-to-date application.

It is also worth seeing that your drive is not running out of space. Computer freezes will often occur once a drive goes over 95% full. Clear out extra space by uninstalling software you do not require anymore and by transferring bigger files (e.g. music or videos) to an external hard drive.

Running the disk defragmenter is generally recommended in PC maintenance every four weeks. It helps improve performance of the system. However, it also helps reduce the chance of computer freezes that can occur when fragmented operating system programs are dispersed around the disk repeatedly.

Most of the time however you’ll find a computer keeps freezing when the registry has become faulty or damaged. The main culprit is often application changes that you make which affect shared key settings. A registry cleaner can be used to rectify the fault in isolation or you could resort to a workaround solution by using System Restore to restore the last known good configuration.

Lastly, try reducing how many applications you have running. There is the potential that they are overloading your RAM memory and causing performance degradation and computer freezes. Use the Task Manager tool to pick out specific applications using an inordinate amount of RAM.

Tanya Vaughan