On startup
Often people experience computer freezes when they start up their computers. In this case there are several hardware and software related issues that need to be checked.
Computer freezes on start up – Possible software issues
Software can obviously cause freezing at start up. Besides possible virus issues your Windows computer registry could be the problem. The registry stores data that the computer uses at start up. Unfortunately this small piece of software can become corrupted because everytime you install something its loads some more code into the registry file. Drivers for your video cards are stored in the registry so if some other piece of software corrupted the registry file your graphic card might not load correctly (one possible issue for example purposes). You can run registry clean up software that helps spots problems and removes unneeded software. Some options for registry clean up software are included at the end of this article.
Also with software if you recently installed some new software and you noticed that your computer is freezing remove the new software completely and see if that fixes the problem. Often new software can conflict with something already installed on your machine.
Computer freezing at start up – Possible Hardware issues
When your computer starts up listen to see if you hear the computer fan start up. Some computer freezing problems are related to over heating and that is most often caused by the computer fans failure. The fans keeps everything working smoothly and if it stops working your computers motherboard can over heat which can cause numerous different issues.
Also listen to see if your hard drive starts up. If you do not hear the disk start to spin that is another likely hardware problem. In this situation its also possible for the drive to start up fine one day and the next day the computer will freeze on start up because its stuck. If its possible try starting your machine with another hard drive to see if its causing the error.
Your computer RAM could also be causing hardware faults at start up. bad RAM would stop the start up process dead in its tracks. If you know how make sure your RAM is seated correctly and if its possible restart without some RAM installed.
Another small hardware problem could be the CMOS battery. This small battery is installed to track the date and time on your system. Sometimes when its extremely low and not working correctly your computer will freeze on start up. You can research how to fix a CMOS battery online. This usually happens on machines after they have been used for several years.