Why does my laptop keep "freezing" - Completed thanks to all who helped me.

[LizzieW]

For a few weeks now, my laptop has started freezing, particularly if I try to view a pdf, but often just on sites that I've used hundreds of times before, like FindMyPast and Ancestry.  Yesterday I bought a new car insurance on line and it was suggested that I look at their terms and conditions etc. before I completed the purchase.  I clicked on the first pdf file and it promptly froze.  I had to turn off the laptop and then turn it on again.  Of course when I went back to the insurance co web page, it showed I was out of time, so I had to re-enter everything again.  I didn't try to open the pdfs again, just bought the insurance.  It's a well known company that I've been insured with before, so I wasn't worried about not having read everything beforehand.

It's just happened again. A rootschatter started a topic called Kirkheaton project www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=644102.new#new with a link to a site about Kirkheaton graveyard in which I was interested.  I've tried twice to get to the site suggested and both times as soon as the site came up, my laptop froze. This was not even pdf.

I use Mozilla Firefox so, fortunately, it will restore to anything you were doing before it froze.  I unticked the offending site and got back on here without having to re-type everything.

Is it Mozilla that's the problem?  We changed our ISP yesterday but it can't be that as I've had this problem for a few weeks now.

Any help gratefully received, I'm getting rather fed up with having to keep turning my laptop off and on again.

Lizzie

[KGarrad]

What operating system do you use?
And what version of Adobe Reader?
And what version of Firefox?

I use XP, Adobe Reader X 10.1.6, Firefox 20.0 and I don't appear to be having problems.

[LizzieW]

Hi

Adobe Reader X (10.1.6)
Mozilla Firefox 20.0.1
and Vista

I've just downloaded Chrome as people seem to like that, but I can't work out how to put up the toolbars that I like without having to download them all again, i.e. Manchester & Lancs FHS, Roboform, Google toolbar - I know I've loads of them, but that's how I like to be organised.

Lizzie

ps.  As I was closing Chrome, it also crashed 

[LizzieW]

I've got to go out, one of our sons has just rung to ask if I'll babysit for a while, as his son is being "Invested" into Beavers.  Good job we weren't doing anything as it's short notice - he used to ask his F.I.L and M.I.L as they live 5 minutes away from him, but she has got dementia (not yet 60) and so they can't babysit now.

[LizzieW]

Help, I'm getting desperate now.  Has anyone else got any ideas.  My laptop has frozen 3 more times, twice last night and once this morning.  This morning I had changed my e-mail address on my on-line bank and then logged out again.  As soon as the home page of the bank came up, the laptop froze again.

Other times it seems to be if I click on a link from either an e-mail or on a website, such as Roots.  It's getting beyond a joke now.

Is my laptop coming to the end of its days?  It's about 3 years old, surely not old enough to be giving up the ghost?  And the thought of having to transfer everything again to another laptop fills me with dread.

Lizzie

[silvery]

I'm wondering if it's something to do with the battery.   There's a vague memory of reading about this before somewhere.   Take the battery out, and see what happens when you use the laptop just using the mains.   

(I'll have a google)

[LizzieW]

Silvery - I always use the laptop plugged into the mains, should I take the battery out and leave it out?  I read somewhere that it should be allowed to run right down, and then be re-charged so I do that occasionally, but as I say, I actually use the laptop plugged in.

[kiwihalfpint]

Hi Lizzie

I am no expert on the innards of computers or lap tops ....  my first lap top (I am on my third) started to freeze all the time, like you was always turning it on and off, until it finally gave up the ghost and it was only about a couple of years old.

A friend of ours reckoned it was caused by over heating, as they noticed when they called in, my lappy was always sitting on the armrest of the chair.  Since he suggested I put something under it, like a piece of board to help the air circulate I have had no more trouble with my lap tops freezing.

Mind you, I am not suggesting that is your problem, but just what I experienced.

Cheers
KHP

[LizzieW]

Hi KHP - I did wonder about overheating, but this morning when it froze, I'd only just turned it on.  I have a desk bureau, the type where the front drops down to form a desktop and it sits on there.  Feeling the wooden desktop, that is barely warm, although the side of the laptop where the fan is, is quite warm.

As we've had builders in and everything else is full of dust, I wonder whether I should get the vac and just try to suck any dust out from around the fan.  I've looked on the user guide and under the heading "What should I do if my computer or software stops responding" it suggests the usual ctrl, alt, delete, but if that doesn't work to turn the computer off in the normal way, but that doesn't work either (as everything is frozen), so the final suggestion is press and hold the power button until it turns off, which is all I can do.  Then they suggest remove the AC adapter and battery pack  and reinstall the software, but which software?  Is it a Mozilla fault, which I can easily uninstall and reinstall, or is it a computer fault?

Lizzie