Your laptop freezes or becomes unresponsive? You’re not alone. Many laptop users have experienced the same issue, and some of them have had it occurring randomly.

This is incredibly frustrating. But don’t worry! It can be fixed …

Fixes to try

You may not have to try them all; just work your way down the list until you find the one that works for you.

Try fix 5 or 6 when your laptop is totally unresponsive.
  1. Close the resource-hogging programs
  2. Temporarily disable your antivirus
  3. Update your device drivers
  4. Restore your laptop system from a restore point
  5. Hard reset your laptop
  6. Check your laptop for overheating issues

Fix 1: Close the resource-hogging programs

Your laptop may freeze because some programs are using a huge number of your system resources. You should close these programs to see if this resolves your problems.

  1. Press the Ctrl, Shift and Esc keys on your keyboard at the same time to invoke Task Manager.
  2. Check the CPU, memory or disk usage in Task Manager to see if there is any program that is using these resources excessively.

  3. End each resource-hogging program or process (by right clicking it and selecting End task or End Process).
    If you’re not sure what the program or process is and if you should close it, you should do some research on the Internet.

Hopefully, this should stop your laptop from being unresponsive. But if not, you may need to try the fixes below.

Fix 2: Temporarily disable your antivirus

Your firewall or antivirus software can sometimes cause interference to the your system so your laptop freezes. To see if that’s the case for you, temporarily disable your firewall and see if the problem remains. (You may need to consult your firewall documentation for instructions on disabling it.)

If this resolves your problem, You can contact the vendor of your firewall and ask them for advice. Or you can install a different antivirus solution.

IMPORTANT: Be extra careful about what sites you visit, what emails you open and what files you download when you have disabled your firewall.

Fix 3: Update your device drivers

Your laptop may freeze or be unresponsive because you’re using a wrong or outdated device driver. You should update your driver to see if this fixes your laptop.

If you don’t have the time, patience or skills to update your driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy handles it all.

  1. Download and install Driver Easy.
  2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.

  3. Click the Update button next to each device to download the latest and correct driver for it, then you can manually install the driver. Or click the Update All button at the bottom right to automatically update all outdated or missing drivers on your computer. (This requires the Pro version — you will be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All. You get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee.)
    You can do it for free if you like, but it’s partly manual.
  4. Restart your computer.
If you need assistance, please contact Driver Easy’s support team at support@drivereasy.com.

Fix 4: Restore your laptop system from a restore point

This is an effective way to undo the recent changes on your Windows system that may cause your laptop freezing issue.

Note that you should have a restore point created before your laptop unresponsive issue occurred.

To restore from a restore point:

  1. Press the Windows logo key and R on your keyboard to invoke the Run box.
  2. Type “sysdm.cpl“, then press Enter on your keyboard.

  3. Select the System Protection tab, then click the System Restore button.

  4. Follow the on-screen instructions of the wizard to restore your Windows system from a restore point.

If this works for you, you won’t have the freezing issue on your laptop.

Fix 5: Hard reset your laptop

This is an effective fix to try when your laptop is totally frozen. Here’s how you can do it:

  1. Hold down the power button on your laptop until it is turned off.
  2. Disconnect your power cable and your laptop battery (if it’s removable) from your laptop.
  3. Hold down the power button on your laptop for 1 minute.
  4. Connect your power cable and your laptop battery to your laptop.
  5. Press the power button on your laptop to turn it on.

Check to see if this fixed your laptop. Hopefully it did. But if not, you may need to try the fix below.

Fix 6: Check your laptop for overheating issues

Perhaps your laptop freezes due to overheating issues. There are a few things you should try:

  • Place your laptop in a cool environment.
  • Clean the vents on your laptop to make sure the cooling system works properly.

This should stop your laptop from overheating and fix your laptop freezing issue due to this.

Hopefully one of the fixes above worked for you. If not, you may need to get your laptop repaired or replaced. Also, please leave us a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions.

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