my computer keeps completely freezing

[alucard10]

my computer keeps completely freezing (the mouse cursor won't move, the clock is frozen ,control alt delete does nothing). It keeps happening randomly and continuously avery 5 to 30 minutes or so making the computer practically unusable. im lucky i can even make this post , i don't know when it will freeze again gotta be quick to post this before it freezes again. just stared happening today.

whats causing this?

 

[pete.i]

To be perfectly honest with you that sort of thing could be caused by, almost. anything. The power supply could be glitching randomly, the motherboard or CPU or the RAM could be glitching randomly or any of the peripherals. My first course of action would be to see if the CPU is getting hot. That is not an easy thing to do without the right equipment and knowledge, as in how hot should the CPU be getting. But you can check that the CPU cooling fan is still going round and that the CPU heat sink is not all choked up with dust. Make sure that if you are going to go inside your computer you have it disconnected from the mains supply. It isn't that dangerous inside a computer as all the high voltages are contained in a separate box so it's only low voltages that your will be exposed to as long as you do not go inside the PSU box. Even so getting a finger ring or anything like that across 12 volts can do damage to the components. I am assuming that it is a desktop but all I have said does apply to a laptop as well but the innards of a laptop are far and away more difficult to get at than a desktop.

Not a lot of help I know but it's somewhere to start.

 

[BikerEcho]

Could be many things.

If you computer has 2 RAM modules, Try to take one of them out and see if the problem stops. If it doesn't, try again with only the other RAM in place.
If it freezes again, we can rule out defected RAM

 

[BikerEcho]

realtemp is a good software to check CPU temperature. If i's too high, dust could be the reason.

Usually when a CPU get's too hot it will bluescreen or simply shutdown. Usually. so it could still be the issue.

 

[cb600fshornet]

In this situation I'd always recommend backing up your files and reinstalling the operating system. This eliminates virtually all possibility of it being a software issue.

This could also be a hard drive issue. Is the hard drive making any clunking noises? When the PC freezes does the hard drive make a strange noise? Does the hard drive light flash as normal, or does it stay on all the time, stay off, or flash almost in a rhythmic way?

 

[Celery]

In the case of overheating the CPU can be throttling down to where everything comes to a crawl.

Open the case and look to see CPU fan running, heatsink clogged, case fan(s) running etc.

 

[alucard10]

It stopped freezing after I posted , hopefully it won't freeze today.
It seems like the fan is on I can feel cool wind in the computer and the light near the power switch blinks every 2 seconds.

 

[Celery]

That doesn't tell you if the CPU fan is running though.

 

[MMM]

First question that should have been asked was there any changes to computer software or hardware before this happened as this may indicate what could be causing the problem.
Usually a faulty PSU or overheating cpu will cause computer to shut down or reset, not freezing.

 

[pete.i]

First question that should have been asked was there any changes to computer software or hardware before this happened as this may indicate what could be causing the problem.
Usually a faulty PSU or overheating cpu will cause computer to shut down or reset, not freezing.

My laptop froze when the CPU cooler got filled up with dusty junk. That's the problem with diagnosing computer problems on the internet remotely. They do things that you wouldn't expect them to do so diagnosing them is extremely difficult if not impossible at times.