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 malware as 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 the Resource Monitor button. 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 to Free memory. 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 Monitor button. 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!

 

 

 

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