Computer Freezes After Startup

While working on computers, there is a high probability that your system may freeze for no rhyme or reason (reasons known best to it, perhaps!), and you may have even faced this situation sometime when working on important documentation work which might even get lost, if not saved on time! Yes, your desktop computer freezes after startup and you have no clue, why? Well, there are many reasons that can factor this system hanging abruptly. The immediate solution one resorts to, is shut down the system, restart again and start the system in safe mode. If your computer freezes frequently, it is time you first figure out the reasons behind such malfunctioning of your system.

Computer Freezes on Startup

There are myriad reasons for a computer freezing on startup. Following are a few causes, which could be detrimental in freezing your system more often.

• Defective hardware (Electro static discharge and loose connections between hardware and computer motherboard)
• Faulty software (Codes using lot of RAM; software infected with adbots, viruses and spyware)
• Bugged computer operating systems (A corrupted Windows registry of operating system)
• Infected drivers (Improper installation of drivers, small programs that enable the hardware and software to work in sync)

In all the above, the root cause that answers your query on why computer freezes is, almost all computers today are assembled and so the hardware components are manufactured by different vendors, which may result in hardware malfunctioning of the system. If your software is corrupted with malicious programs through Internet, freezing on startup is a warning sign indicating that your operating system may be at risk. This is because, viruses and spyware usually replicate their code and store them at hidden locations in your system, thereby using up more RAM. This eventually slows down your system. However, if the registry of the operating system is corrupted, then a symptom like computer freezing on startup would indicate warning to reformat your system.

Computer Freezes Shortly After Startup

Sometimes, it may happen that you log into your system and as the system is loading, your computer freezes randomly, and no matter how many times you tap your keys and bang your mouse, the system remains frozen. In that case, I would suggest you to try the following:

• Reboot your system and set your system in clean boot.
• Click on Start, and type msconfig in the search box of the start menu and click on Enter.
• The system may prompt you for a confirmation, sometimes asking for an administrator's password. Type the password and click on Continue.
• Now, click on selective startup on General tab and under the Selective startup of the General tab, clear the load startup items check box.
• Select Services tab and click the check box for Hide all Microsoft Services. Then click on Disable All.
• Click OK. And once the system prompts, click on Restart.
• If your system starts, apply divide and conquer algorithm to detect the non Microsoft service which is causing the problem, if your system is running on Windows Vista or Windows XP.

Once the start up fiasco is solved, check for the registry. Here are some steps to check this.

• Click on Start.
• In the search box of startup menu, type REGEDIT. Click Enter.
• Now find this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
• Once found, set the NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1 to delete any duplicate or short versions for DOS names.

Computer Freezes After Startup But Works in Safe Mode

Many a time, people complain, "My computer freezes after startup in Windows Vista.....", but meanwhile they might have also observed that it prompts for the system to start in 'Safe Mode', once rebooted. Now before understanding whether this safe mode is advised or not, it is important to understand what this safe mode is all about. Safe mode is a special way for Windows to load when a system is not starting in the normal mode. Now in the safe mode, not all functions are enabled. Most device drivers are not loaded (like that of printer and scanner). The command files autoexec.bat or config.sys are not run. Standard VGA graphic mode is used and not the normal graphics device driver. In this mode, the system checks for the msdos.sys for information to find the required Window files. So now the question arises, what to do once the system boots in safe mode? To check the root reason for what had caused Windows to load incompletely should be your first plan of action.

Click on Start, and click on control panel. In recent times, if you have added any device driver, try uninstalling it and then attempt a reboot. If your system starts normally, it means that the device was having some conflict with the driver software. Check further for installation of games or new applications and try uninstalling them as well, if you have doubts about their installation. However, if there is no problem with the hardware or the software, then it indicates a corrupt registry issue, which can be resolved only by getting a new installation copy of Windows.

When you face such an issue, do not jump into conclusions, that your system needs reformatting. Check out all the possible causes and try to figure out the core reason why your computer freezes after starting. And yes, one more important thing, always save your data in backup devices like CD or a pen drive. It will save your work at least!