# What causes computers to freeze up?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-computers-to-freeze-up/63757>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 29, 2001, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-computers-to-freeze-up/63757 "2001-04-29T20:36:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-computers-to-freeze-up/63757/21 "2001-05-01T21:29:54Z")

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For now I’ve done the little simple things like backup files, delete files using disk cleanup and deleting files I never use (like a ton of document files and the .tmp files and a lot of internet cookies), I ran scandisk, I ran disk defragmenter, I’ve run the virus check programs that I have and I do the END TASK thing for everything but Explorer and Systray. I’m going to see how that does, before I go about re-installing, or installing new, drives and such.

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**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-computers-to-freeze-up/63757/22 "2001-05-01T21:41:30Z")

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Out of curiousity, is it always the same pages that lockup your computer? Which is to say, are these lockups reproducible? If so, odds are it’s some chunk of java or activex or something that your computer doesn’t like. Try going into your browser options and disabling java and the like and see if this helps any on these pages.

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2001, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-causes-computers-to-freeze-up/63757/23 "2001-05-01T22:35:00Z")

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“But I’m still curious about the black-outs when I go to some sites. I’ll go to a site  
and suddenly the screen turns black.”

I know, I thought that was really weird…I thought maybe the security was set high in the browser but that shouldn’t effect a whole screen.

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