What to Do When Your Computer Freezes Up Solid

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What to Do When Your Computer Freezes Up Solid

Every once in a while, Windows just drops the ball and wanders off somewhere to sit under a tree. You're left looking at a computer that just looks back. Panicked clicks don't do anything. Pressing every key on the keyboard doesn't do anything ? or worse yet, the computer starts to beep at every key press.

When nothing on-screen moves except the mouse pointer, the computer is frozen up solid. Try the following approaches, in the following order, to correct the problem:

• Approach 1: Press Esc twice. This action usually doesn't work, but give it a shot anyway.
• Approach 2: Press Ctrl, Alt, and Delete all at the same time. If you're lucky, Windows Task Manager appears and shows an "unresponsive application."  The Task Manager lists the names of currently running programs ? including the one that's not responding. Click the name of the program that's causing the mess and then click the End Process button. You lose any unsaved work in the application, of course, but you should be used to that.   If that still doesn't do the trick, try clicking the Task Manager's Shut Down menu and choosing Restart. Your computer should shut down and restart, hopefully returning in a better mood.
• Approach 3: If the preceding approaches don't work, push the computer's reset button.
• Approach 4: If not even the reset button works, turn the computer off.

Source: Dummies.com