any suggestions for computer freezing

[cleanntidy]

Desk top computer used for home schooling on windows 10 freezes at least once a day (usually after morning break - when it has been left unused for 20 minutes). We have been switching off the power when that happens. I am not technical and not sure what to do so would really appreciate any suggestions. Unless of course I have damaged the computer turning the power off whilst it has frozen. Thank you

Can you get into task manager when it freezes to see what is running and might be hogging resources? (press CTRL ALT DELETE buttons together and select Task manager)

pinbinpin - I will try that tomorrow when it freezes as we have not tried that. Thank you

@pinbinpin

The computer froze today (whilst being used) and we tried control alt delete but it wouldnt work/unfreeze so we had no option but to turn off the power again. Do you have any other suggestions Apart from freezing once a day the computer works very well. Thank you

Maybe overheating. Check fans are working and vents aren't clogged up with dust.

What froze? The whole computer or a specific application like Teams?

The whole computer freezes - you cant do anything or move to any different programme. You cant close it down properly and cant do control alt delete - the only option is to switch off power at the plug. (well for me anyway but i am not great with technology)

Often happens when returning after computer is left standing for 20 minute morning break with SMH and perhaps word left open. Today it happened whist working on it. It only happens once per day.

Thanks will have a look at fans and vents - is this something i could do it i googled how to do it?

I was about to suggest overheating too, especially if it happens after about the same length of time each time.

Do you hear any fans running before the PC locks up?

Apart from freezing once a day the computer works very well.

Is it at the same time every day?

That would make me think something like an antivirus scan is being kicked off from a schedule and hogging all the resources. They often do run out of control.

If different times - I would also give it a good dust/clean.

Just clean it all out with a duster of dry cloth and, if that helps, you can buy proper air dust spray off Amazon maybe and give it a good whoosh.

You could also try press CTRL ALT DELETE buttons together and select Task manager to check what the computer is doing earlier in the day, maybe after you have used it for awhile and hopefully before it freezes. Click on CPU and memory so it sorts them dynamically by what is using the most and see if you can spot something that is continually near the top of one of the columns and looks like it might be hogging memory or CPU.

Also look for "Startup Apps" in settings and see if there is anything that says "High impact" that might be automatically starting up in the background and hogging resources that you might be able to do without.

Otherwise does sound like a possible overheating issue

Thank you . We are usually out of the room as my son works in the room for home schooling then goes for his morning break at 11 and then it has often frozen when he comes back so not sure we would hear fans running (not something I have noticed and there is no one else using the room). However it doesnt seem to happen at lunch. Do i need any skill to look at the fans?

If it's not a software issue or overheating it becomes a bit difficult to diagnose without seeing the machine, but there's several possibilities.
First thing though is make sure you have external backups of photos, documents etc as it may be a faulty hard drive.
To check for overheating. Unplug the power cable then press the power button for a few seconds. Remove the computer side panel (usually the left hand one when viewing machine from the front). Inspect the fan usually located in the middle of the main board. Try not to touch any of the components (static electricity) If it's really filthy and clogged with dust try a careful clean with a paint brush and blow out the dust.
Or £6.00 Air Blaster can from Amazon will clear it - you may have to gently hold the fan blade to stop them spinning.

For a quick check of the hard drive
Right-click the Start Windows icon.
In the shortcut menu, click File Explorer.
In the left hand pane, right-click C:
Click Properties.
Click the Tools tab.
Click the Check button.

@pinbinpin Thank you again

I have checked cpu - it is 2% and the only thing above 0.1% is task manager
I have checked memory - it is 41% of which google chrome is 275mb and service host 76.5mb
i have checked start up apps and there is only one high impact thing - a games launcher - no idea what that is as the computer should only be used for school work - i can try deleting that if it might help.

Thank you so much.

The pc OP, is it a ‘tower’ design? (Sits in the floor , is taller than wide) or a desktop, (sits on a desk , is wider than tall )?

If it’s a tower, take the side off as @whiteroom suggests.
You’ll likely see a couple of fans.
One will be sitting on the motherboard, this cools the cpu.
There could be one or more fans around the case itself, these move air around as a general cooling measure.
You may even see one or two smaller fans embedded on the graphics card.

The overheating problem , if it is one, will be with the cpu fan.

If it’s safe to do so for you, run the pc with the side cover off. You can see if the cpu fan is spinning that way.

If it’s not spinning at all, check it’s connected to the motherboard - there will be a wire out of one of the corners of the fan heading off to a connector on the motherboard.

With the power cable disconnected, this is also the chance to hoover inside the case.

Has anyone been inside the pc recently, possibly disconnected cables by accident?

Thankyou for all this, much appreciated. I will try fans tomorrow and update. Now we know home schooling will be continuing even more important to sort it out!

It’s not a solution but as a possible temporary fix why don’t you try sleeping the computer while you’re on morning break?

Then if it’s overheating it has a chance to cool down and nothing like a virus scan can be triggered then either.

Well yes - if it nearly always freezes during your break such that you have to pull the power and restart, I'd be inclined to shut it down properly when you leave the room.

If you think it could be the demand on the WiFi, get an Ethernet cable and plug ithe computer directly into the WiFi hub using the cable. This will stop the mini interruptions you get on WiFi (virgin media installer told me that recently)

just a thought, but to discount it being caused by some computer scheduled task, try changing the time back an hour just before the usual 11 o'clock break and see if it happens again.

Remember that couple in Wales who knocked the Internet out in the whole village at the same time every day, because they switched on their ancient telly at 7am which was something to do with the radio waves interference (I'm not technical!). Do you have something in the house that might be doing a similar thing?

Thank you for all the help. Have spent a couple of days following all the advice given.

Yes we can hear the fans working.

We have cleaned the fans but even with side off you cant see the cpu fan spinning but can feel air.

There are only 2 high impact things on the computer - one was a games loader thing which we deleted a few days ago and the computer has still frozen each day since then. The other is microsoft one drive where the work is automatically stored. We could delete this if you think it would help as we dont need to save anything on the computer as it is just for school work which is uploaded and submitted to teachers as soon as completed or done online.

We reset the main scheduled update for during the night but it has still frozen since although there was another update that we have just reset so that may help.

We checked the hard drive. 33% of the memory is shown as being used despite us not really storing anything on it. The largest thing is service host:sys main followed by avast security which seems to be listed several times so not sure if that would cause an issue. CPU is only at 2%.

Thank you all for your help - much appreciated

Just a thought, when you say it freezes.... are you saying whatever program view on the screen at the time is frozen, mouse pointer doesn’t move, no response to keyboard?

Do you know how much memory the pc has, 4gb or 8 or 16?

Yes when it freezes you cant do anything so you cant move the mouse and you cant do control alt delete. The only option is to turn it off at the wall plug. I think it is 8gb. Thank you

Turning it off at the plug isn't a great idea. You can long press and hold the power button which will turn it off.

Could you open up the system manager thingy before it freezes, leave it to freeze and then take a picture of the screen?

Thank you. I knew it wasnt a good idea to turn off at the plug hence posting here but I didnt realise I could switch it off on the computer as it never seemed to work. Do you mean just push the usual on/off button and keep holding it in and eventually it will turn off? Yes I could open up system manager before breaktime and see if it freezes on return.
Thank you

Have you looked at the system log (use Event Viewer) to see what was happening when the PC hung?