Acer PC problems - total freeze-up
By jazzsue58
@jazzsue58 (2666)
November 9, 2012 6:42pm CST
I've got a tower Acer PC that I've had for around 5 years now, and just lately it's become soooo annoying. Today, around 5 times I had to switch off my entire system and switch on again (losing work I'd been doing and hadn't got round to saving) because suddenly the thing just freezes - both keyboard and mouse become totally unresponsive, punching the f7 function key (as one site suggested) does nothing.
When I reboot, it works fine for a while, then it does it again. I've not recently installed anything (that I know of) and this is seriously screwing my work output! Have I infected my PC with a virus or something, or is this a hardware problem? Any suggestions before I throw my hard-drive out the top floor window?
I'm running on Windows 7/ Vista btw.
I'm running on Windows 7/ Vista btw. 1 person likes this
3 responses
@peavey (16936)
• United States
10 Nov 12
Many, many things can cause computers to freeze up. Not enough RAM, becoming overheated and program conflicts are probably the most common.
Since yours is 5 years old, I would venture to say you need more RAM, but the fan might be getting weak so that it's overheating. Or you might be running programs that don't communicate well. Or you might have spyware that's interfering.
@jazzsue58 (2666)
•
10 Nov 12
Thanks for your help Peavey. As you say, it could be any of those things. The fan has certainly been making some odd noises just lately (the kind it makes in really hot weather, except it's cold here right now.) It's also running v.v. slow, and since I write for a living and do a lot of research I know I've used up a hell of a lot of memory. Also a good way to get nasty infections ...
I'll try freeing up some RAM, but I think I might just pass it over to a pro for some tlc. costly, but still cheaper than a new 'puter! Too near Christmas, that's the trouble. 
@derek_a (10873)
•
10 Nov 12
We had an Acer (my wife's computer) for around 6 years and it started freezing and nothing that we did would make a difference. I did a virus scan and defrag and a few days later it would start the same problems again. It turned out to be the mother-board and the fact that a defrag seemed to make a difference was only a fluke. I took the hard drive out and put it in an enclosure case that I bought from e-bay, checked it on my computer and there was nothing wrong with it at all. My wife has bought another computer now and we've kept the hard drive with all her data on it as a good back-up. I am not saying that your computer is a hardware problem, but just in case, I would make sure that all your software is backed up and get it checked out. 
_Derek
_Derek