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How Do I Stop My Computer from Freezing, Forcing Me to Turn it Off?

Anonymous
2025-06-08T23:10:43+00:00

It’s been a year & a half now since this problem began for me, & it’s very hard for me to deal with since this is exactly what happened every time.

Last year this made my computer basically unusable, due to how quickly it would freeze. The computer freezes on the screen of whatever I am doing- but when this happens I notice that my mouse cursor or keyboard won’t do anything. I have left it for extremely prolonged amounts of time only for it to still be frozen, when this happens the only thing that works is to force-shutdown my device, & pray it doesn’t freeze again.

I’m not an absolute computer genius or anything, but I’ve looked into a lot of methods- driver updates never worked, I’ve checked files & done quick malware scans, even using the ‘sfc scannow’ command. Everything seems to show up like it’s fine, but then it eventually freezes again. I do not know exactly how to read through Performance Monitor, as the terms are confusing & I find it very easy to get lost in complex computer files-

However, I’m concerned that this is probably due to something relating to Windows 11, as I have heard/seen from many sources that the Windows 11 OS is prone to causing freezes.

Not to mention- I have quite a lot of files/data on this computer that I rather not lose, & I don’t have the best access to external drives to move all these files. I know this is very common, but I don’t see too much about my freezing issue.

I kind of have no idea what to do- is it a driver problem? Do I roll back to Windows 10? Is it because of my storage usage? RAM is kind of hard for me to understand too, even if it embarrasses me, but am I using too much of it?

My computer has potential to freeze in the middle of me troubleshooting, which it has done many times in the past- it’s so hard to work on it like that that I really wanted to ask, here! I rather not have to spend money for repairs on something I could’ve done at home.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-11T23:36:48+00:00

    Also, I managed to get the test done.

    It said no problems were detected at all, so it’s not fixed, unfortunately doesn’t seem to be a RAM problem.

    The computer didn’t freeze for a while, afterward, but today in particular it froze again.

    I had my headphones plugged in while it froze this time though, & notice something I haven’t heard before- that when my computer locked up, there was intense, choppy static playing in my headphones. Very loud, rather unnatural, very scratchy kind of staticky noise.

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-09T00:54:29+00:00

    Hello,

    First of all, let's check your drive for hidden file-system errors or bad sectors, because those often cause Windows to hang without warning. Open the Start menu, type cmd, then right-click on "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator". At the prompt run:

    chkdsk C: /f /r

    and press Enter. You'll be asked if you want to schedule this check the next time Windows restarts, type Y and press Enter. Then reboot your PC and let the scan complete. It may take an hour or more depending on the size and health of your disk. When Windows comes back up, use your computer normally and see if the freezing stops.

    If it does, you've repaired whatever drive errors were triggering the lockups. If it doesn't, let me know and we can move on to the next step.

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  3. Anonymous
    2025-06-11T04:28:12+00:00

    And just curious- what would you suggest I do if my computer freezes mid-test? It has already done so twice, I expect it to do so again… I haven’t even made it to 10% within the test without my computer locking up, actually.

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  4. Anonymous
    2025-06-11T01:08:14+00:00

    Sorry to hear that. Let's rule out faulty RAM next, since bad memory often causes complete system lockups with no mouse or keyboard response and even a flashing power-button indicator. To do that you'll run the built-in Windows Memory Diagnostic:

    Press Windows + R, type "mdsched.exe" and hit Enter. You'll be prompted to restart now and check for problems. Choose that option, let your PC reboot and run the test (it may take 20-30 minutes). When it finishes it will reboot again and show you whether it found any memory errors.

    If the diagnostic reports errors, that pinpoints a bad RAM module or slot. You can then reseat your sticks or replace the faulty module. If it reports no problems, let me know the result and we'll move on to examining things like driver or BIOS updates.

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  5. Anonymous
    2025-06-10T23:04:10+00:00

    Hi! It took some testing, I did the scan and it completed, but, alas, today my computer still froze. Less than one hour of usage after the scan. :/ Thank you so much, though, I’m with you on this. I’m ready for whatever’s next recommended.

    Update, right after it froze for a second time since the scan: I also noticed that when my computer freezes, the button to turn it on seems to turn yellow? And it begins flashing, seemingly. This could be another important detail, even if I’d have to look up my exact computer model again.

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