[crazy244]

hi, my first time using this site. well when i start up my computer after 2 hours my start toolbar freezes and i cant click anything on it. i upgraded my ram from 1gb to 2.5gb and it still occurs.please help.

[crazy244]

no one?

[sepholdem]

do you run regular antivirus scans ? it your tower making a grating noise when the computer freezes ?

[crazy244]

yeah i do. Could it be to many programs running? And if so how can i run more programs without problems occuring?

[crazy244]

it doesnt make any noise.

[sepholdem]

if there is is to much running it will freeze up your system. What u need to do is right click on task bar at bottom >select task manager >select performance > this shows your CPU usage - when its to high you FREEZE- also in task manager open applications - this shows running programs- you can stop them running by >ending task. I play alot of online poker and always have task manager open to keep check on whats happening- if a antivirus program decites to start up i can cancel it if its causing the CPU ti be to high- hope this helps

[crazy244]

what kind of hardware can i upgrade so i can run more programs? and how much would it cost? thanks

[good grief]

Hi crazy244, and welcome to TSG.

It's difficult for people to know whether or not they are able to help without some more information. Can you post some more details about your computer please, including the age of it? Click on the computer symbol at the top of my post for an example of what sort of specs to post.

Also, some more details about the problem. When you say your Start toolbar freezes, is it just that alone that freezes, or can you continue with other things? How long has the problem been occurring? Is this something quite recent, or has it always done this? Are you doing anything in particular at the time, or can it be different things? E.g., does it happen when you are playing a particular game, or using a certain application, or does it vary. Is it always two hours, or does it vary quite a bit? (Maybe a heat issue? I don't know, but someone else will.)

You haven't put a skill level, so I'll ask some basic stuff so we know where we are. Did you put the RAM in, or did you get it done by a professional? If you installed it yourself, did your computer recognise the extra RAM when you added it? If it did, then 2 1/2GB should be plenty of RAM for most things to run easily (I'm assuming you are running Vista, what version?). The reason I ask is, if the problem is caused by not enough RAM, and the new RAM hasn't been recognised, it may not be the right RAM for your motherboard, or it may be that it needs to be installed in pairs. There are many more knowledgeable than me on this forum who would be able to help you with that.

For myself, I don't know whether the lack of RAM would cause the Start to freeze, as the lack of RAM problem on my Acer always caused everything to freeze, not just one specific thing, so I'm wondering what else it could be. We may get some pointers when you post some more info.

With regards your question on what hardware to upgrade, and the costs involved, that would depend on the age of your computer (may not be worth it if it's an older one), how much you wanted to upgrade it to, etc. etc.