Common Causes of PC Crashes
Q. What is a PC crash?
A. A PC crash refers to what happens when your system locks up. You may be in the middle of something and find that it suddenly stops working. Your cursor can't move and you can't enter in anything. This is referred to as a system crash. Unfortunately, it's pretty common and as most people can attest, will usually only happen when you are working on something that is absolutely vital. When a system does crash, you will commonly lose whatever you were doing at the time, so this can be incredibly frustrating.
Q. What are the common causes of a PC crash?
A. Your computer can crash for a number of different reasons. From a software malfunction to hardware, to driver errors, your system is chock full of things that can suddenly stop functioning properly. Let's go over some of the most common causes. 1. Power issues 2. Overheating 3. Viruses/Spyware 4. Software
Q. How do I fix this?
A. For power issues, it may simply be a voltage spike or a brief power outage that causes your computer to crash. In this case, make sure that the power is stable, and turn on your computer again. It should work fine, but you will most likely lose what you were working on before the crash unless you saved it.
Overheating is a problem for many users, particularly if their PC's are not in a well ventilated area. It is actually quite hot in a CPU, even on a cold day, so if the room is quite warm, the chances of your computer overheating are pretty high. When this happens, turn the computer off, try to lower the temperature in the room and try placing a fan near the computer. Once it has completely cooled off, you can restart it.
Viruses and spyware are notorious for locking up your computer, and in some cases, they may make it nearly impossible to get back in. If you have sudden crashes with no other explanation, run a virus and spyware scan on your computer. Remove any viruses or malicious programs and then restart your computer. The issue should be solved.
With software, there are a number of reasons that it can stop working and interfere with your system. Most of these are transient in nature and only a one-time or occasional occurrence. Just restart the computer and try again. If it happens frequently, uninstall and reinstall the software. Make sure that you have all the necessary drivers installed as well.
If your system continues crashing and you have no idea what is causing it, it may be time to reformat your hard drive and reinstall the operating system. This should only be used as a last resort, but is usually quite effective at fixing the problem. If the issue persists, you may have a hardware problem. Check your hard drive to see if it is failing, or check your RAM to see if you need to replace the chips. If you're not sure what the issue is, take your computer to a professional for a full diagnostic exam.
