Programs freeze

Here is my problem: Sometimes my programs will just freeze up for anywhere between 15 seconds and a couple minutes. It usually happens to Firefox or games I am playing, and once it starts, a restart is the only thing that will stop it, and sometimes that doesn't even work.

While frozen, the bar at the top of the program will read (Not Responding), and if you click the window while it is happening, the window will fade white until it starts working again.

Sometimes only certain programs will be affected, for instance today when it happened, Firefox was freezing, but Windows Media Player was still running fine

The trigger seems to be when I download something, but that doesn't always cause it. It just happened when I was watching a video online.

It has been happening for a couple months infrequently, but just today got so bad it made my computer practically unusable for a few hours.

I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

Come on people, can't anyone help with this? I can barely use this thing anymore it is so bad, happening almost constantly now.

Some new info, when a program is coming out of a freeze, its icon on the bar across the bottom will move one slot to the right then back over very quickly, nothing appears to take its place while it is moved but it happens very fast.

I just posted THE same issue.I can kick my self in the *** for not buying a MAC!
No answers from CNET forums either....ahhhh

I have windows 7 professional. Dell Latitude 5500, hard drive is only 40% full. All programs - including Microsoft Office 2007, Firefox, Windows explorer - stop responding, some times for seconds- other times minutes. This is starting to drive me up a wall. Especially if I am in the middle of burning a CD or DVD. There is no consistency with this. I could go days with no issues, then my computer freezes, starts troubleshooting itself, then fix's the same programs over and over again. any suggestions would be appreciated.
I have search the internet. it appears there are post all over the net with this issue occurring..POST but no concrete fixes that i can find.
and this issue has been going on for some time.Post dating back to July 2009.[IMG]file:///C:/Users/CHARLO%7E1/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/03/clip_image001.gif[/IMG]
Reminds me of the crashes with Windows 95.

Just an update, after trying every possible fix for anything remotely RELATED to this problem but nothing working, I finally decided that it must be my power supply that was the problem, because it was by far the oldest (and cheapest) component on the machine and malfunctioning power supplies have been known to cause similar symptoms.

So I replaced the power supply I had with a more powerful name-brand one, but at that point I guess I had corrupted the start-up files irreversibly with all the rebooting. Towards the end it wasn't even detecting my hard drive was there.

So I am on a fresh installation of Win 7 64bit. Still have no idea if the power supply was really the problem. Guess I'll know in a few months if it starts happening again.

Thanks for nothing to the people on this board by the way.

hi timblack27, I hope the reinstall helps you and the situation doesn't reoccur. The last thing I want to do is a fresh reinstall. because there's no rhyme or reason to when the computer locks up, I don't think there's a simple answer out there. as time goes on, and this happens more and more, to more people, somebody will figure it out. in my situation, it happens when the computer runs on it's battery, and also when it's plugged in.

I currently have this post on CNet . Windows 7: programs stop responding-then respond repeatly - CNET Windows 7 Forums, GOT SOME GOOD REPLY'S


'every time i try to post the link, FOR EASY ACCESS this site deletes it....Ahhhh


what kind of security program were you using when all this happened? WAS IT NORTON?

I had a similar problem and think it was some kind of conflict between Adobe Flash and Windows Defender. They always seemed to occur after windows update. I disabled Defender and the problem is gone.
Joe

I use AVG antivirus, and windows defender is inactive.

Originally Posted by timblack27

I use AVG antivirus, and windows defender is inactive.

AVG is the culprit! I had the exact same problem with my windows 7 32bit - worked perfectly fine for almost a year then the sudden freezes started. As part of my work, I keep a diary of the activities I undertake on a machine (I do research in digital preservation, it's not just the fact I'm weird lol) I noticed that the freezes coincided with an AVG update. Once uninstalled and replaced by Avast Free the problem ceized completely. Ah and I should mention that a patch for AVG antivirus caused similar problems to the Win7 64bit version: AVG 2011 Free edition causes problems for Windows 7 64-bit users | ZDNet