- How to stop your computer from freezing up!

How to stop your computer from freezing up!

Written by Darren Coles

COMPUTER INTERACTIVE Inland Trader 47 I have had quite a few interesting subjects raised over the last couple of weeks one in particular that I thought due to our recent weather was quite topical is how do I stop my Computers Freezing Up and just showing a blue screen.

The windows blue screen that appears from time to time on the following windows operating systems (Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP) is commonly know in the geek computer community as the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH (BSOD).

This normally only occurs for two reasons, your computer has had a hardware failure, (like a car engine even with the best service history parts wear out or break over time) or there is a program misbehaving badly, the latter problem can be sorted out by most of us.

If the problem has arisen after you have installed a new software package (program), the likely hood of that causing the problem is quite high, so what we need to do is remove the program and check to see if we still have the same BSOD problem.

Following these steps should enable you to remove the program safely:

Switch your computer (PC) off and wait for at least 15 seconds
Press the power on button on the PC (normally on the front of your PC or just above the keyboard on a laptop.
As the PC starts to come alive keep pressing the F8 key, after a few moments you will be presented with a new screen (Advanced Options menu)
The Advanced Options menu offers you a selection of ways to start your PC; we are only interested in the first Safe Mode choice. Which will attempt to load the Windows Operating System with only the bear minimum of drivers and services it needs to start the computer for basic operations. Use the up and down arrow keys to put the white highlight box over the first safe mode option, and press the main ENTER key on your keyboard (looks like a U bend arrow). Another screen will appear asking you to select the operating system you wish to start, on most PC there should only be one option and it will be already highlighted; press the main ENTER key again. Now wait for your PC to completely load, if you see lots of lines of text flying up the screen do not worry this is normal. Now you will either be presented with what looks like your normal logon screen, so select the user you normally use, or your computer will show a pop up box in the middle of the screen with “safe mode” displayed in each corner of the screen. The pop up box asks if you want to continue in safe mode choose “yes”.
You should now be looking at a screen that resembles your normal start-up screen with “safe mode” still displayed in each corner of the screen. Now CLICK on ‘”Start” button (bottom left of the screen) a box will appear with many options. Now CLICK on the option ‘Control Panel’ (normally around the middle on the left hand side of the box).
Yet another box will appear with a list of options, look for the “Add or Remove Programs” option that is normally 3rd in the list and double CLICK on it.
In the next box that appears look for the software that you loaded prior to BSOD and click on the name of the software (Program), you will be presented with a button to “Change/Remove” the program. Click on the “Change/Remove” button.
Another box appears asking you to confirm that you want to uninstall the program, CLICK on “YES”.
Now restart your PC in the normal way.

Your PC should come back to life with no BLUE SCREEN, if however the problem persists and you still have a BLUE SCREEN when you switch on your PC either give up and call a computer engineer or you can try and repair your Windows operating system by doing the following:

Start your computer with your original Windows CD inserted in the CD Drive.
Once the "Welcome To Setup" screen appears, you will see the following options.
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

Press Enter to start the Windows Setup. Do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R", (you do not want to load Recovery Console). I stress, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console".
Choose “Accept the License Agreement” and press ENTER, Windows will then search for any existing Windows installations.
Select the Windows installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options, then I suggest calling an engineer.
Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears.
Setup will continue as if it was doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact.

If you get really stuck give me a quick call and I will try and help you through the above procedures.

Also some news on WiFi Internet connections, the various companies that I talk to have stated if I can prove there is a demand for the service in a village/town/urbanisation and its surrounding area then they would be willing to put the infrastructure in. So it’s up to you out there to let me know if there is a real demand in your area. Speak to your neighbours, friends and even local town hall, and please don’t forget the Spanish as they have the same problems getting connected. And if you think my participation in a town meeting would really help you out then let me know.

As always If you need any help with any computer problem please send an email to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or telephone 660565738 / 965482238 and ask for Darren.

And if you need any Web Site designing or network problems sorted out feel free to call

CACOON STUDIO
www.cacoon.es