5.1.
Freezes commonly occur because the task or tasks being
undertaken require more memory or CPU capacity than is
available. Other reasons are failing hardware, e.g. defective memory
or hard drive, cabling or overheating. Of course you
should first eliminate
malwareas a contributory factor before looking
at other possible causes of the problem.
5.2. Where the task or tasks being undertaken require
more memory or CPU capacity the solution is to increase
what is available or to reduce demand. You can do both.
5.3. If
memory is limited it can be simply remedied by adding
RAM. To determine whether the amount of available RAM is
an issue investigate using Resource Monitor.
When you sense the system is becoming unresponsive
use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to access Task Manager. Click the
Performance tab and theResource
Monitorbutton. Click the Memory tab and check
whether Free is near to Zero or is Zero and Standby
a large figure.
If your system is
holding on to Standby memory and not releasing it toFreememory. You can force release by restarting your
computer but often this is not very convenient.
Another way to force the release of Standby memory
is available using RAM Map (freeware from
Microsoft):
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/ff700229.aspx
Download and install,
and create a shortcut on your Desktop to RAMMap and
/ or pin to your Taskbar. When you sense the system
is becoming unresponsive use Ctrl+Shift+Esc to
access Task Manager. Click the Performance tab and
the Resource
Monitorbutton. Click the Memory tab and check
whether Free is near to Zero or is Zero. If it is,
open RAMMap, click Empty on the Menu bar and Empty
Standby list. This action instantly restores Free
memory.
The procedure using RAMMap is an effective
workaround but the true solution lies in discovering
the source of the problem. Knowing the source you
may be able to resolve the problem by contacting the
provider of the software and / or updating the
software.
5.4. If
the problem is CPU capacity you will find that
increasing capacity is often not practical as to
replace the CPU processor usually means replacing
the motherboard, operating system and other
hardware, making the exercise expensive. Changing
the hard drive could help but switching to a solid
state drive is also expensive. If the CPU is the
problem then reducing demand is often the only
practical way to go.
5.5. If you are intent on reducing demand it can
dramatically improve performance if you remove browser
add-ons like toolbars and search engines which are not
needed. Most times when you install new software you
will be offered recommended add-ons. Say no when they
duplicate what you already have. Add-ons can conceal
malware, and often come with spyware reporting on how
you are using your computer.
Do not be taken in by statements like "quietly runs in the background". It's
spin. You can quickly find you have
too many programmes loading every time the computer
boots. Multi-tasking can be fine but it can bring
performance problems. It translates into an excess of
supply over demand!