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Personal Technology Information |
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Freezing - Time To Warm Up Your PC
Freezing is also known as crashing or hanging. It's frustrating. The computer locks up and the mouse and keyboard do not respond. You may lose data and you certainly lose time and patience. Typically, you need to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to see the programs that are running and to try to close the program that is not responding, or you need to force a restart. So why does your computer freeze up? Common causes of freezing:
Steps you can take to minimize freezing: There are many things that you can do to help your computer do what you want without testing your patience...
Disk Cleanup : For Windows 98 & 2000 You have probably been downloading programs, creating and deleting files, and installing new software without thinking about the effect this has on your disk space. It's probably time to have a clean-up. Windows 98 and 2000 have a feature that cleans up your disks for you. It removes temporary files, the recycle bin and other files - giving you the option to delete or not to delete. It is simple to run. Do this clean-up as follows: Start: Programs: Accessories: System Tools: Disk Clean Up When it opens up, select the C: Drive and start it. It will pop up and show you about four types of files, each with a check box. Check the boxes for files you would like deleted and proceed. It should run through pretty quickly and then you will have more space on your computer. For Win 95 Windows Temporary Files Firstly, get rid of your Windows Temporary files. Go to Start> Find> Files & Folders. Then search for "*.tmp" (minus the quotes). The * allows you to look for any file that has a temporary file type. If you have done it right, only files that have a .tmp after them should appear in the search results. Now just click on the first one, hold shift, use the scroll bar to go all the way to the bottom, then click on the last one, and press delete. Secondly, get rid of your Temporary Internet files Go to the Temporary Internet Files folder in the Windows directory. It should be next to the Temp folder. There shouldn't be anything in here that can't be deleted, so you can go ahead and delete the files in this folder. Thirdly, empty your recycle bin. Right click on the Recycle Bin icon, select Empty Recycle Bin. Many people have hundreds of files they "deleted" but they are still taking up space in the Recycle Bin. Run the Disk Defragmenter Editing and deleting files as you work leaves gaps on data storage media. Instead of each file being stored in one continuous block, it ends up in several locations, resulting in inefficient retrieval of your data. As you add more data to your hard drive, the gaps left by previous deletions are filled. Your file becomes split, or fragmented. This will slow down your system - when you try to retrieve a file, the process is slower than if it was stored in one block. To make your disk storage more efficient, a process called "defragmenting" is used. Windows has a built in defragmenter, which is located at: Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter It is a good idea to run this program once a month. When you run the defragmenter, close all programs including your screensaver. If programs are running it can cause data on your hard drive to be changed which makes the defragmenter start from the beginning... and never finish! The more frequently you use defrag, the faster it will become. About The Author Deborah Anderson is a computer consultant who offers free email based computer troubleshooting through her website at http://www.it-solve.com. To benefit from information, advice and tips on using your computer, get a free subscription to SolveIT's newsletter today. To subscribe, send a blank email to subscribe@it-solve.com. SolveIT - Solving Your Computer Problems
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