Computer help required please.

[Adge Cutler]

Any help appreciated.. My computer keeps freezing generally when Im on line surfing the net. Other programmes which I may have open at the time such as word or excel wont respond either. For example yesterday I was working on a excel spreadsheet doing a Masonry takeoff and went on line to a quarries website look at stone details and the screen just froze. After about 2 minutes sometimes longer it springs back into life. During the freeze the mouse pointer seems the only thing that seems to move. ! Any clues anyone. ?

 

Cheers. A.

[JDog]

Your computer is trying to prevent you from getting onto Pigeon Watch.

[Adge Cutler]

Your computer is trying to prevent you from getting onto Pigeon Watch.

[BrowningB525]

Press ctrl shift and esc when it happens then click on processes and post up what is using the most cpu or memory.

 

You may need to update your browser or clean up your computer. There may be some "malware" installed that is using your resources.

[Mr gen]

It could be al manner of things from your internet browser, OS or memory. is it an old PC? start with the easy stuff first, try a new or different browser. Also try and do a bit of house keeping in regards cookies, and old registry files.

I use CCleaner it is free and very good at getting rid of a lot of unwanted stuff and wont harm your PC. if you are still having problems you might want to start looking at hardware issues.

 

good luck

 

gen

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, i am no expert on computers and do a lot a seaching, my son put an auto delete on searches so anything previous will go and not backlog the memory, but as happens now an old ASUS laptop google is stopping the VISTA so that maybe something to look at,

[Mr gen]

Press ctrl shift and esc when it happens then click on processes and post up what is using the most cpu or memory.

 

You may need to update your browser or clean up your computer. There may be some "malware" installed that is using your resources.

 

Good point

 

another good free program to use to get rid of malware is super anti spyware, cant hurt to try them

[Danger-Mouse]

Press ctrl shift and esc when it happens then click on processes and post up what is using the most cpu or memory.

 

You may need to update your browser or clean up your computer. There may be some "malware" installed that is using your resources.

 

This ^^

 

Run your disc defragmenter, virus checker and D/L and run Malwarebytes see if that improves matters.

 

Do you know how much RAM you have? My old PC was forever freezing when I had multiple processes running. That was mainly down to a shortage of RAM. The new one with much more RAM runs as smooth as silk. I`m not suggesting you buy a new PC but it might be worth checking if you can add more RAM to your present model.

 

What browser are you running?

Edited September 16, 2016 by Danger-Mouse

[bruno22rf]

Might help....turn your PC off , disconnect the mains feed and remove the battery - press the start button and hold for 20 seconds with your PC on a hard surface - this is supposed to remove static from the system - it's worked a couple of times with mine.

Edited September 16, 2016 by bruno22rf

[Billy.]

Ok right, the first thing which everyone seems to have missed is to get on with backing up anything and everything important. This machine sounds like it's on its last legs.

 

Go and find a USB stick, or buy one from the shops. 16-32gb should do for the critical stuff. (5-15 quid)

 

Get copying whatever you can to that stick, but create folders and directories on the stick, so that you have some sort of sense of what is in which folder, or you'll end up with an absolute mess and never find anything.

 

Go through all your document folders, copy those. Photos and anything else you've stored which may be key to you.

 

Now, some people will disagree with me on this, but after I've copied them over, I'd delete the files off the PC. The reason is that I can go through a PC, copy each bit over and then delete it, so I know what's left on the drive and keep looking for anything else. Compare the remaining space + Operating system at the end and work out if there's anything which is unaccounted for.

 

Once all is deleted. Fresh install the Operating System and copy all the files back. No messing around trying to clean a messy machine on a fresh OS install. If the problem still persists, there is a deeper issue with the Hard Drive or other hardware.

 

Basically, doing anything like defragging, antivirus or any processor/HDD intensive actions could break such a fragile machine. So get saving everything before you start trying to repair the thing.

Edited September 16, 2016 by Billy.

[oldypigeonpopper]

hello, i am no expert on computers and do a lot a seaching, my son put an auto delete on searches so anything previous will go and not backlog the memory, but as happens now an old ASUS laptop google is stopping the VISTA so that maybe something to look at,

hello, as i said no expert, all this computer jargon gets me flummexed but very soon to be up and running with a new ACER

[Mr gen]

Ok right, the first thing which everyone seems to have missed is to get on with backing up anything and everything important. This machine sounds like it's on its last legs.

 

Go and find a USB stick, or buy one from the shops. 16-32gb should do for the critical stuff. (5-15 quid)

 

Get copying whatever you can to that stick, but create folders and directories on the stick, so that you have some sort of sense of what is in which folder, or you'll end up with an absolute mess and never find anything.

 

Go through all your document folders, copy those. Photos and anything else you've stored which may be key to you.

 

Now, some people will disagree with me on this, but after I've copied them over, I'd delete the files off the PC. The reason is that I can go through a PC, copy each bit over and then delete it, so I know what's left on the drive and keep looking for anything else. Compare the remaining space + Operating system at the end and work out if there's anything which is unaccounted for.

 

Once all is deleted. Fresh install the Operating System and copy all the files back. No messing around trying to clean a messy machine on a fresh OS install. If the problem still persists, there is a deeper issue with the Hard Drive or other hardware.

 

Basically, doing anything like defragging, antivirus or any processor/HDD intensive actions could break such a fragile machine. So get saving everything before you start trying to repair the thing.

try not to panic lol

[Billy.]

try not to panic lol

 

From my experience, OP is about one step away from a BSOD and data loss. Everyone's telling him to press buttons and stress the machine out, which will only make matters worse.

[Thunderbird]

Mike - listen to Billy

[old'un]

Any help appreciated.. My computer keeps freezing generally when Im on line surfing the net. Other programmes which I may have open at the time such as word or excel wont respond either. For example yesterday I was working on a excel spreadsheet doing a Masonry takeoff and went on line to a quarries website look at stone details and the screen just froze. After about 2 minutes sometimes longer it springs back into life. During the freeze the mouse pointer seems the only thing that seems to move. ! Any clues anyone. ?

 

Cheers. A.

Do you back-up to an external device?

[iano]

CCleaner is a great program.

 

There is no excuse for anyone on PW not to be using it.

Run CCleaner, doing a full sweep and then use your computer for an hour or so.

You'll find half a gig of **** has just appeared again.

[BrowningB525]

 

From my experience, OP is about one step away from a BSOD and data loss. Everyone's telling him to press buttons and stress the machine out, which will only make matters worse.

Opening task manager is hardly stressing a machine.

[old'un]

There are so many things that can cause this to happen so it's difficult to diagnose without being in front of the pc, can I suggest you first clone your hard drive with something like 'Acronis' using an internal or external USB drive, once you have done this change the boot-up drive to the cloned drive, run your pc and see if you still get hangs.

Advantage of this method is if it all goes tits-up you still have all your data on the new cloned drive.

[MrM]

As Billy has said, before doing anything else back up your documents. Ideally you should back up everything as often as is practically possible - I have seen too many people lose all their photographs when hard drives get corrupted and they hadn't backed them up.

Edited September 16, 2016 by MrM

[AVB]

Or just buy a Mac.

[Billy.]

Or just buy a Mac.

 

Not what we need right now. Wait until he's fixed it before you drop the M bomb

[subsonicnat]

Two things come to mind.

One is as you say when being online,the other with running spread sheets.??.

Try to isolate the problem,use your Open spread sheets and see if it happens then.??.

Open your online problem site without opening your spread sheets etc..

Your computor is either full of Carp and hence your chip cannot run fast enough.

You have not mentioned your operating system,this could point to your problem.

Some operating systems are not really fit for purpose..

How much Ram (Memory) Could be too low also..

Without actualy seeing the machine,it would be hard to give a correct diagnosis..

Just as a matter of interest how much of the Hard-Drive is Free..

They would ALL Slow your machine down...

Get someone who is computor literate to help you..

Where are you by the way.?.

[Adge Cutler]

Thanks for all the sound advice Guys I'm working my way through it..if I go missing for a few days you will know that something catastrophic has happened.

 

I will keep you all informed.