A frozen computer is a health risk. It’s even been rumored to appear on some major health care providers’ checklists. Headaches from hours of scouring google for a solution; broken hands from punched-in monitor screens; pulled muscles from heaving computer cases through bedroom windows; high blood pressure from yelling at unresponsive programs. All of these and much more are all caused by the infamous ‘freeze.’ Or, it’s evil father: The blue screen of death.
Joking of course, but almost everyone can relate to this conundrum. Even I myself have been subjected to stubborn, abrupt freezes, although I’d never admit it in a Mac vs PC debate.
The problem is, the average user has no idea why his/her computer freezes up. It must be the damn Internet”, “Those damn kids caused this”, and “The Internet must be busy right now” are some of the common responses while staring blankly at a frozen screen. Needless to say, these claims are. . .crazy. Not only do these statements allow computer technicians to glimpse into an average user’s point of view, it also stands as a testament to how uneducated users are of the inner-workings of a PC. Having a competent mental image of what’s really happening inside one’s computer, the underlying cause, is adament to being a competent user.
Here’s a simple analogy of what happens when a computer becomes unresponsive:
Your computer freezes because it is exhausted – completely stripped of all available RAM (Random Access Memory, special hardware on your motherboard used specifically for processing data, henceforth referred to as ‘memory’). Now, the memory hasn’t gone anywhere-no one stole it-, merely what happened was, all the available memory designated to run programs within Windows has been used up. Still not getting the picture? Here’s a visual representation:
Let’s say hyopthetically that you have FIVE potatoes, which represent five programs, and you have a SIX-inch wide pipe, with width representing the allotted ‘room’ for programs to pass through. (This is a model of how information is passed through a computer. The program opens, information is passed through the available memory, and the memory allows the program to run efficiently, given there’s enough memory, of course.)
So we have five (5) potatoes and a six (6) inch wide pipe. To go along with the computing process, the potatoes (programs) have to pass through the pipe (memory) in order for this to work smoothly. Well, let’s say that each potato is exactly 5 inches wide. Each potato would pass through the pipe with tremendous ease individually – this is what happens when one or two programs are open at once. But, now, let’s imagine that there are already lots of programs open (i.e. Internet Explorer, iTunes, Office, DVD player, and Adobe Reader) and you try to open another program which requires a considerable amount of memory to start up and remain open. Here’s what happens:
Having numerous programs open and then opening a memory-heavy program is comprable to trying to pass 4 or 5 potatoes at once through the pipe. There’s no way that they can all get through at once, no matter how much you try. The computer, just like the pipe, gets overloaded with information that needs to be processed, because the memory is scrambling to process this mountain of data all at once. The computer becomes so bogged down it’ll simply stop processing information altogether.
Too much information -> not enough memory to process it all -> computer gives up
It’s as simple as that. This is why computers riddled with spyware and adware and other malicious software freeze up relentlessly: there’s simply too many processes going on in the background, in the motherboard, and in Windows itself to operate efficiently.
Now, here’s where the second question comes in: Why do only my mouse and keyboard work when my computer is frozen? Simply put, your keyboard and mouse are connected to ‘ports’ on your motherboard, which basically means they have a ‘direct connection’ to the process that goes on in the motherboard (the big square thing inside your computer’s case). Along with their sole purpose of converting movement of the mouse and taps on the keyboard to visuals on the screen, they’re information gets caught up in all the information sent to Windows from the motherboard itself, independent of whether Windows is frozen or not. So there you have it. Finally. The answer. Now you can drop this gem ever so slightly into the next conversation around the water cooler or over cocktails at Applebee’s or what have you.
Freezing can easily be prevented by safe web browsing, clearing out unnecessary files regularly, knowing when and when not to open programs that require lots of memory, and using common sense when it comes to managing one’s computer.
