Why did my computer stop responding? Here’s what to do.

Q: My computer becomes unresponsive from time to time, which is frustrating. Why is this happening and what can I do about it?

A: Few things are as frustrating as waiting on your computer to respond to your keystrokes or mouse clicks, but when this happens, it’s not something you should continue to put up with.

In some cases, this can be the sign of nefarious activity that’s chewing up your computer’s processing power in the background.

Malicious programs won’t appear with an icon on your taskbar or provide you with any indication that they’re running other than impacting your computer’s ability to perform normally.

The possibilities are numerous, especially if you don’t regularly maintain your computer.

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Hardware failure

It’s possible that one of the components in your computer has failed or is failing, which requires some technical know-how and spare parts to determine.

Bad sectors on your hard drive, a faulty power supply, a bad memory stick, or even something that’s plugged into a USB port can be the cause.

Detecting operating system and hardware issues is something that takes some tech skills, so if the easy tests don’t work, consulting an expert is the quickest way to get things working properly.

 

Ken Colburn is the founder and CEO of Data Doctors Computer Services, datadoctors.com. Ask any tech question at facebook.com/DataDoctors or on Twitter @TheDataDoc.

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