# Why is my computer hard crashing when I hit certain sites?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-computer-hard-crashing-when-i-hit-certain-sites/195149>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 14, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-computer-hard-crashing-when-i-hit-certain-sites/195149 "2003-08-14T15:20:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Janx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Janx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Janx)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-computer-hard-crashing-when-i-hit-certain-sites/195149/1 "2003-08-14T15:20:46Z")

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I’m using Windows 98, my browser is Netscape 7.0, When ever I access certain sites such as CNN for example, (not always, just often enough to cause a torrent of swear words) my machine will “hard crash” - that is, it just freezes up, even the famous CTRL + ALT + DEL is not heard. What could be causing this? and how do I fix it? short of a reformat that is.

Thanx!

Janx  
P.S.  
The machine is a PII, 800mhz, with 128 megs of ram, windows 98se

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**Author:** ![culov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@culov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/culov)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-computer-hard-crashing-when-i-hit-certain-sites/195149/2 "2003-08-14T15:33:14Z")

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it could be sevaral things. First off, [cnn.com](http://cnn.com) uses javascript so be sure thats enabled. I recommend using Opera, which you can get from [opera.com](http://opera.com). Install the Java version if you dont already have it installed. Use Opera as your default browser if it works well. Try this before going into any more detail.

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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:** [August 14, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-my-computer-hard-crashing-when-i-hit-certain-sites/195149/3 "2003-08-14T22:24:19Z")

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Netscape 7 should be able to handle it but some pages can take hold of your computer for a minute or more. Push the CAPs Lock key when it happens, if that light works then just wait for the webpage to complete loading.