Random Freezing, but comp is clean?

[wander]

Hia,

As the title says, my comp freezes every now and then, basically the screen sticks with the mouse pointer and doesn't respond, even pressing the cap-lock doesn't light up and I'm forced to turn my comp off and back on again to solve the issue.

I've run my own net security to scan, even downloaded Malware Bytes and done the same, both come up with zero threats. So there doesn't seem to be any malware that's obvious on the comp. Program list is clear too.

I haven't noticed anything strange come up in my Task Manager and I've ran it in a window in the corner to see what happens when the comp freezes, but nothing weird sticks out, CPU, Memory, Disk, Network, they're all in normal limits, so nothing pumps up to 99% or what have you.

Something's up though for my comp to do this. I've had it just over one year and I've not changed anything on there. Once this started, I did delete Flash as I thought that might be buggering my comp up. My comp has froze twice now writing this.

My only other thought is my laptop fan is giving out, my comp feels hot where my fan is and this isn't usual behaviour for it. So it could be overheating or something.

Help would be greatly appreciated!

[Vekseid]

Dangerous overheat will generally result in the system doing a force shutdown on you.

What OS are you running?

[Aiden]

Sounds like you are having video card issues, either you drivers are out of date or you are playing a game that is over taxing the system.

Start with updating those first, if it is an over heat issue, then look into one of those cooling stands that ventilate air into your laptop.

[AmberStarfire]

There are some things I've found that help in the past. I don't know if they will, but they spring to mind:

- Switch the power off to your computer. Unplug it and plug it back in again. Don't just reboot. I don't know why - I guess some power must still be getting to it when it's switched off but is plugged in/switched on at the power point, but it has worked for me in the past.

- Check how full your HDD is. You need to allow around 15% free otherwise it will start to slow down.

- It could be a Windows problem or bad sectors on your drive.. possibly. See if Windows can find any errors and try scanning your disk drive from the command line. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd637756.aspx

My computer had pretty much this same problem on and off for around 6 months, and other times the mouse pointer would start drifting across the screen on its own. What I put it down to was that malware my computer had might have damaged Windows before I got it deleted, but it hasn't done this in a long time. I thought it was something to do with the mouse, but the keyboard always stopped working at the same time. What stands out around the right time was that I got rid of McAfee, but what I think made the difference was ensuring power was entirely cut to the machine. Somehow it solved the problem.

Laptops usually have a fairly low level power supply and I've encountered problems where it can't keep up with a more powerful graphics card. Laptop manufacturers are really bad for this. They sell machines with better graphics cards than they can run effectively. That tends to lead to overheating issues (sometimes very fast). It's possible your laptop might have its fan clogged with dust, though.

[wander]

'scuse the necro, I never realised I got replies here...

So some updates... It's still happening and from what I can gather it's something to do with a hardware issue. I am running Windows 8.1, my friend offered to help with doing a system restore, though I don't think that'll help if it's down to hardware.

Apparently my video card drivers are up to date (I literally checked them a few minutes ago), I don't hear my fan anymore and I notice when my comp does do this (it'll randomly do it, for weeks it could be fine, other times it could do it three times in one day) that the vent at the side is super hot. Note the comp doesn't shut itself off, it's like the screen will freeze in place and the keyboard or mouse will not respond either.

I don't play games on the laptop, occasionally I'll place youtube in full-screen though I see nothing that links to why the comp does it... One time I switched it on and it simply froze before I could do anything with it, which makes me think overheating could be the issue, seeing as safe mode running four different anti-malware scans picked up nothing at all.

My HDD is 3/4 empty, I have very little saved on my laptop. I did a memory check, all was fine. I could also stand to run chkdsk again, just to make double sure. I also ran troubleshooters for everything I possibly could, all is working as it should.

I've put my laptop now onto a powersaving mode, hopefully that may or may not help. I'm also debating opening her up to see if I can find and get any dust and gubbins possibly clogging her up out, maybe find a loose connection that may need tightening.



Any help or suggesting something I might have missed would be great. My laptop after so many weeks of being fine has started doing this again and it's got be pretty down, so much that I dread switching the thing on sometimes.

Thanks for any extra help.

[wander]

Update;

Comp did it again a little while ago... Except this time I hadn't even got to log in yet. Screen froze on the password entry screen of log in, I didn't even get to move the mouse... Screen was just stuck on it, couldn't move the mouse, pressed caps and it didn't light on the keyboard, unable to use it at all... What's worse was the fan area was absolutely cool. No sound coming from it, but the comp didn't have time to overheat...

I'm officially worried now.

[AmberStarfire]

I don't want to sound like a person whose go to solution is 'upgrade to Windows 10', but my desktop used to do that from time to time and it's stopped since I upgraded. However, it also stopped for ages there for no clear reason, so I really don't know, wander.

I used to just switch off/on again, or switch it off at the powerboard and back on, and it might do it once or twice and then it was fine again. It may be a different issue but I never got entirely to the heart of it.