When your system is not responding, usually CPU usage is at 100%, no matter if you do anything or not. On the other hand, it is not mandatory for this to happen, so if your CPU usage is not shown to be 100%, it is still possible that your system is not responding.

7 Reasons Why a System Is Not Responding

There are tons of reasons why a system can stop responding ““ it could be due to a hardware or a software conflict. Such errors don’t happen only on PCs but on all kinds of hardware (if this is of any comfort to you) and the symptoms could vary ““ from a totally blocked machine – to a PC which is responding very, very slowly. Here are seven of the most common reasons why a system is not responding and what you can do to prevent them.

1. Hardware incompatibilities

This is one of the most frequent reasons why a system stops responding. The culprit could be anything ““ from a mouse/keyboard, to a CD drive, to a USB device. In some cases, you might even experience a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), which is one more symptom of hardware incompatibilities. Remove the suspect and replace it with a functioning device and see if this helps.

A Blue Screen of Death is one of the most common symptoms when a system becomes irresponsive

2. Driver issues

Even if the hardware itself is not a problem, the drivers that manage it could be. If you have recently installed a new driver, this is the first suspect to check. Uninstall the driver and see if this helps. Don’t worry, there are easy ways to remove old and faulty drivers from Windows.

3.Messed up Windows Registry

Windows and its Registry are very complex creatures and even minor messes with them could not only make a system not responding error but could even make a computer totally useless. That is why it is a good idea to clean your Windows and the Registry from time to time, even if there are no visible problems. One great way to do it is with the help of nCleaner.

4. Malware of all kinds

Spyware, adware, trojans and the other pests you get for free from the Internet, are also a common reasons why a system is not responding. Just run a good anti-malware program and that’s it. Here are some great free online malware and virus scanners you might want to check.

5. Antivirus programs

As strange as it might sound, anti-virus programs can hang a computer. If you have more than one anti-virus program, conflicts between them are pretty common but even if you have only one anti-virus program, still there are many ways in which it can mess with the Registry, or with the applications on your computer, thus causing it to crash. Try to see which of the antivirus program is the problem and uninstall it. For antivirus recommendations, take a look at our poll for the best free Antivirus applications.

6. Bugs in applications

Poorly-written system tools and applications can cause a lot of trouble but it is not only system applications that can crash a computer. Browsers, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer can frequently hang when a poorly-written script is executed. If you are lucky to know which application in particular makes your system irresponsive, uninstall it (or in the case of a browser ““ disable the faulty plugin) and pray that this fixes the situation.

7. User intervention

Tweaks are great and very often they are safe to do (if you take the necessary precautions, of course) but as a matter of fact, tweaks that went bad are also a common reason for why a system is not responding. That’s why you need to be very cautious when you tweak your computer. And above all ““ always make a backup, a system image and/or a restore point before you start tweaking, so that if the tweak goes unplanned, you still have a lifeline.

The above reasons and their suggested workarounds are just some of the most common causes as to why a system is not responding. When your system is not responding, try these solutions and if they solve your problem ““ be very, very happy about it!

Feeling geeky? Check out these articles to make your computer run faster and troubleshoot problems:

• 10 Quick Fixes to Make your Windows Computer Faster
• How To Troubleshoot Your Windows With The MSconfig Utility
• Clean Your PC with Microsoft’s OneCare Safety Scanner (Free)
• Unfreeze Your Windows Computer With AntiFreeze

I just can’t remember how I was able to live without them before I discovered them a couple of years ago. I don’t remember if I found them by accident or if I read about them somewhere but since then, I’ve told all my friends about it.

What’s So Cool About It?

The ability to automatically restore opened Windows folders and Firefox tabs when Windows restarts is very convenient for people who have the habit of opening many folders and tabs. I usually have at least 5 folders open and some of them are located rather deep in the file system (i.e. F:\Work\Freelance\WritingComputers\MakeUseOf) and it is very irritating when I have to navigate to such a folder manually.

I usually keep all the folders I am currently using open, plus some folders with music, movies, books, and other non-work related stuff. These folders are open any time I am at my PC. For me, it is a great relief that when I restart Windows, I don’t have to open all of them individually.

How to do it?

If you have messed with a lot with the settings in Windows, you’ve most likely already discovered this options. But if you don’t know (or don’t remember) where to enable it from, let me tell you.

To enable the automatic restoration of opened folders, open Windows Explorer (or any folder) and in its menu bar, go to the Tools menu. Select Folder Options and then click the View tab. This will open the dialog box shown below:

If there isn’t a tick in front of the ‘Restore Previous Folder Windows at Logon’ option, just check it and there you go!

Similarly to Windows, Firefox offers a similar function. When you enable it, you will have your tabs from the previous session automatically restored when you launch Firefox. Since I typically have 20+ tabs opened and many of them are of sites I check all the time, you can imagine how much I value this option in Firefox.

To restore tabs on startup in Firefox, just open the Tools menu → Options → Main and have a look at the “When Firefox Starts:” option under Startup section. Click the arrow on the right of the drop-down list and select ‘Show my windows and tabs from last time’. When you are done, click OK and that’s it.

When Automatic Restoration Doesn’t Work

The above settings work almost every time you restart Windows and/or Firefox. One of the cases when the opened folders will not automatically restore is when Windows restarts after a crash. If Windows is terminated abnormally (for instance, when you didn’t restart your computer by selecting Start → Turn Off Computer or Restart but you unplugged it instead), the folders are not restored.

Also, if you have two or more instances of the same folder (i.e. C:), only one instance will open after restarting. Sure, this is a minor glitch to a great feature, so there is no reason to complain about.

Unlike Windows, when Firefox crashes, its tabs are usually restored. If Firefox has crashed, when you launch it, you see the following message:

If you select ‘Start New Session’, your tabs will not be restored. If you select ‘Restore Previous Session’, you will see the tabs that were opened before the crash. This feature is pretty cool, right?

Did you know about the “restore” function in Windows Explorer? Do you like your folders to automatically reopen magically when you turn on your computer? Comment it out.