Why does my PC hang often? What should I do?
539811
you may have the first symptoms of you hard drive failing\n\nis your system old\n\nwhen you shut own your system can you restart straight away and it goes into windows? if yes - basically!!  you hard drive has to warm up before it will kick in and read - that why it takes a few times to turn the pc on and off before it will start - from a cold start\n\nback up your data be prepared for a hard drive failure\n\nif your pc will not start up after shutting down - you may have a bad sector on your disk - try doing a scan\n\nclick on my computer - right click over you hard drive - then click properties - then click on tools - click on the option to scan the hdd for errors - make sure both the check boxes underneath are checked\n\nthis will do a scan next time you reboot you system \n\nlook for any errors - this will take some time\n\nhope this helps\n\nps\n\ncheck in your bios - some bios versions have a hdd checker - eiher a short version or a extended - if so try this\n\n;)
634775
There is probably something wrong with your mobo or your memory or VGA card, you have to troubleshoot them, most likely sounds like a memory problem
1588
It is may be too many process are loading at startup or there may be virus in your system. or you have too many fonts etc\n\nTry this :\n1) Stop unwanted process.\n2) Stop unwanted programs from start up list. (type: msconfig) in start>run.\n3) Update your antivirus and scan whole system.\n4) Upgrade your RAM.
792348
Try hitting Ctrl+Alt Del and checking your system resources. Select tasklist and look at your Processes Tab then look at what is using the most CPU. If you can see something rising to the top ie.90+% then that could be the cause. \nAnother reason could be that something is overheating and could be taking 20minutes to reach lockup.\nAlso try switching off yer firewall temporarily. Software such as Norton can be quite sore on your pc. I had this happen on a laptop recently and switched to mcAfee and problem resolved. Lockups however in this instance where for 3-4 sec then ok for 10 or so then lock up again.
706717
Here are my recommendations.\n\nA major cause of slow PC's is fragmentation of the hard drive.\nYou need to defragment the HD at least once a week if not more depending on how much you use your computer, and what you do with it.  \n\nOne way is to use the defragment utility built into Windows XP.  It is slow but does the job rather well.  Go to:\nStart > Programs > Accessories > System Tools   and then click on System Defrag to run the tool.  It will take several hours so let it run overnight or simply walk away from your PC for a few hours.\n\nA great program for defragging automatically is Diskeeper. It costs $30 but is well worth it. Go to www.download.com and search for Diskeeper. Read the Publishers Description and the tech and user reviews. It can be scheduled to run automatically as the program deems necessary, and if you are using your PC and the program launches itself, it will take a backseat to whatever you are doing and give you the priority for CPU usage. I think you'll agree it's a good program to have. It precludes your needing to remember to defrag at regular intervals.\n\nAlso, another major cause of a slow PC is programs that are running in the background. Here's another really good Microsoft tool.  Go to Start > Run >   type in msconfig in the box and click OK.\nThis will bring up a window with several tabs at the top.  Click on the “Startup” tab.  It will list the programs that are running on your PC and eating up resources.  Look them over carefully and turn off any that don’t absolutely have to be running.  Simply click on the “check mark” in the little box beside the program name.  Clicking on it will remove the check mark.  Once you have edited the Startup list, click on Apply and then on OK.  Once you have exited the window, reboot your PC for the settings to take effect.\n\nAnother good thing to have is a little program called FreeRAM Pro. It is free and is available from www.download.com This program puts a little RAM meter on the System Tray and shows how much RAM you have remaining that you are not using at any given time.  I think you may be surprised at how little RAM you have to run other programs. Also, once it is installed you can right click on the little meter, then click on RESTORE and it will open the RAM display window. You can tweak the settings so it will display your CPU usage also.  Then just click “Minimize” and then “To System Tray” to return to the Task Bar.\n\n What happens when you run out of or run real low on RAM is that the OS recognizes the low or no RAM situation and starts using a section of your hard drive as memory. This is called virtual memory, or a swap file. The PC is constantly writing and reading from your HD. Comparitively, it is a very slow process. Check your motherboard manual and determine how much RAM each slot can hold. It will also tell you what type of RAM you need. You can also go to http://www.crucial.com and run their analysis utility to determine what kind and how much RAM is installed in your PC. Depend on your MoBo manual to determine the RAM limits of each slot though.\n\nHope this helps
317624
a couple of simple things to check.  find the event logs and see if you can find an error occuring at the time of hang up, obviously you'll have to reboot to do this.  keep a simple log, if it happens when you open the same program or working a specific device, cd player, sound card, then look at the driver issue.  have a repair shop check your power supply, sometimes a small drop in voltage can hang the system.   or have them check for overheating of the system.  bad fan, dust bunnines in the cabinet can cause this.
335704
try to upgrade your cooling fan for a bigger one...and adding another system fan to your cpu...that might help
1073094
The only way to sort this problem out is to reformat your hard drive and allocation the correct allocation ( set to auto ).\n\nYour hard drive has been formatted with a compressed filing system which not only makes your pc slower, but limits you to what you can do with your drive.
1167087
I don't know exactly what you mean by "hanged" and also don't know what operating system you are running.\n\nbut, I'll give it a shot....\n\nIf you have a few different applications open, and your computer seems to get stuck changing focus from one application to the next (it gets a white screen with the border of the application you are trying to open or leave from) then the issue is RAM.  You don't have enough.  There are some software programs that are RAM hogs. The more applications you have otpen the more RAM you really need.\n\nIf you are on Windows platform, on your desktop right click on your "my computer" icon and select "properties". Under the general tab, the last thing on the screen should be your RAM.  If it says anything less the 512 MB, you likely don't have enough for what you are running.  RAM is fairly inexpensive nowadays, and super easy to install.    \n\nAnother question is "how long have you had your computer"? Have you ever tried defragmenting it?  If your hard drive is virtually full, your computer is likely searching for empty sectors for available space.  Open up "my computer" and right click on "C:/" (your hard drive).  Select "properties" and "defragment". You can also select "check for errors"\n\nAnother question is "Is there a pattern of actions you do that make your computer hang? Does it usually happen when you are running certain applications?  It could be the RAM required for that application.  It could be interactions between that application and other processes on your computer, or it could be that a piece of software is full of bugs and is causing soft crashes.\n\nI hope that helps.
267250
You've got too much stuff going on and it can't handle everything -- you probably run out of memory.  Try limiting the number of open windows and programs you have running; it should help.
860124
Sounds like you do have too many applications, like I did. Adding more RAM will fix the problem.  It cost me $60.00, and it was worth it; isn't that aggravating!\n\nHope this helps.
334826
to many programs running ? not enuff ram ? to many pages open ?? try defrag and disk clean up.
886589
There could be a lot of reasons for this. It may be that you need to \nreinstall windows.or it could be that there is an issue with your power supply or your motherboard could be overheating.\nI would try reinstalling the operating system first and take it from there.
1105131
You may need to clean it up; try:\nDeleting temp and history.\nRunning clean disk\nRunning Defrag\nClearing your recent files\nEditting the programs that run at start up.
208327
Your processor is fast enough and you definetly have enough memory to run Windows XP, but maybe you're trying to run too many resource-hogging programs. Try to not open too many programs at once, so you don't overload your computer. If you don't open many programs, maybe there are spyware programs installed on your computer that hog resources away from your CPU. Try installing one of the anti-spyware programs listed on the site below and running a full scan on system:\nhttp://www.download.com/sort/3150-8022_4-0-1-4.html?\n\nAfter you've ran the scan, delete all the spyware, if any, that the program finds.\n\nIf none of the solutions above solve your problem, you need to describe at what istance your computer hangs (i.e what programs are you running? Did a certain program cause your computer to hang?).\n\n\nGood luck!
957923
i have found its the upgrades getting sorted out as i'am shutting down causes my system to hang or after a defrag \nif after i have upgraded and used my pc to do something else it shuts down properly
122228
It may get overheated or some hardware is broken (it can be a HDD,RAM,Video card etc., I think the HDD has a problem). Try getting a hardware diagnostic tool.