Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with freeze

I JUST WANT MY EMAIL.

EmpressCallipygos — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:44:05 -0800

My Outlook 2003 program is suddenly freezing ALL. THE. TIME. I have tried repairing the .pst folder, creating a new profile, and loading the system CD -- no love. (In fact, I loaded the system CD and it couldn't even FIND the file I needed to check Outlook.) I have done a virus scan -- it's fine. Help. (And PLEASE, PLEASE do not be cute by responding with "Get a Mac," unless you are going to give me the money to do so.)

What to do with all this bacon

billysumday — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:01:39 -0800

What's the best way to freeze bacon? Or should I just leave it in the fridge? So, just got back from Sam's Club where I splurged and bought the box of bacon. There are four 1-pound packs in the box. Now, the thing is, okay, see, I eat bacon. In fact I love the stuff. But there's just no way I'm going to be able to get through the stuff in less than a month - at the earliest. So, can I stick three of the packs in the freezer? I'm worried that the bacon will expand while freezing and break the tightly sealed plastic wrap. Also worried about how it will affect taste. I can always put some bacon in ziploc baggies to give them some extra room. That would help also in rationing out more appropriately sized servings of bacon, which I could then thaw and enjoy when desired.

However, this may be a moot point if bacon lasts essentially forever in its sealed package in the fridge. I don't know exactly what the shelf life is on sealed bacon, but I'm assuming it's pretty long.

Lastly, perhaps it would be wiser still to just make something with all four pounds of the bacon and then work on preserving that. The original idea was to make chocolate covered bacon with my new double-boiler, but the Sam's Club bacon is too thin, so it's off to the store to get thick cut bacon for the explicit purpose of making some delicious piggy confections. That means I've still got a lot of leftover bacon to make soup, bacon bread, bacon salad, bacon whatever.

Mmmmmm - bacon! Any ideas are welcome. Thanks, mefiers.

How do I resurrect this iBook?

gfrobe — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:40:56 -0800

I've inherited an old clamshell iBook that freezes every time I try to boot from the install disc. How do I fix this? The iBook came with 0S9 installed and seemed to be working OK. I then tried to upgrade it using a retail Jaguar disc and it froze on booting up. Now it won't even load OS9 but instead gives me a blinking folder with a question mark.

When I try to install from the Jaguar boot disc, I get the Apple logo and then it freezes right there. I tried zapping the P-Ram a few times and that didn't fix it. I tried holding Option key when loading to and got to the screen where it lists boot options. Chose OS X and it freezes.

I followed a few other similar threads and also tried re-seating and completely removing the RAM. No difference.

When I go into Verbose mode I get some kind of kernel panic error freeze and the keyboard won't let me input anything.

Does this sound like a bad hard drive? Or is there some other button combination I can push to further troubleshoot the problem?

Why does my Macbook keep crashing?

Andy Harwood — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:14:28 -0800

I have a 1 year old macbook which keeps freezing for no apparent reason. When it happens a message appears saying I have to restart the computer by holding down the power button. It started happening after I set up a 3G internet connection but I guess that's probably a coincidence. I can't think of anything else that could have caused it. Any ideas?

Computer Freezes but mouse still moves

zeoslap — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:25:26 -0800

My PC has been crashing - I can move the mouse - but everything else is dead as a doornail. Apps don't respond, clock doesn't change etc. As though the display is frozen in time. Any ideas?

Computer woes

bmalicoat — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:29:39 -0800

ComputerDebugFilter: How can I find out what caused my computer to crash? I'm running Vista 64-bit (I know, I know...) with 4gb of ram, 3 hard drives with a raid array and an intel quad core processor. The nature of the crash is very strange. Basically the mouse cursor will slow down and then intermittently work and then it will just stop, all in the span of 4 seconds or so. After that the entire computer is frozen with the reset button as the only source of relief. During the lead up to the freeze and the after the processor is not working hard at all (ie no audible stress). I do multiple virus scans from different vendors on a regular basis and no spyware/malware has ever been found. The only thing wrong that I know of is iTunes isn't installed correctly and it lets me know this each time I start it.

Is there a log or stack trace that I can access after resetting that could clue me in to what's going on?

Death by a thousand windows

mammary16 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:33:45 -0800

I have a very specific problem with the online system at my work. I have a contracting job that requires me to log on to my work's online system (through Internet Explorer) and listen to audio clips. I work from home.

The system was first developed for essays, but 2 years ago it was adapted to play audio. It is clearly inefficient with system resources. But I thought I'd ask about this problem, since it does really cut into my efficiency.

Many of my colleagues (maybe 5%) have the same problem I do:

When going between audio clips, a small Internet Explorer window appears in the bottom right of the screen. It usually just flashes and goes away. Sometimes, however, it stays permanently - so much so that I can't even close it (not by using task manager; not by right-clicking and choosing "close").

These windows really cripple my computer. Usually after I get two of these, the audio will just not load on my computer. Additionally, I can't open up other programs - or if I can, they open up very limited. Windows notepad, for example, will sometimes open, but the menus at the top will not load.

The system uses Java - although it doesn't work very well in versions of java past 1.50-11. Additionally, the system requires use of the *.ogg patch.

I've developed a weird solution that helps. My solution has been to open up about 25 internet explorer windows and log on to the system with one of them. Whenever I get a freeze (one of those little windows freezes) I close one of the IE windows and it seems to free up system resources for a while. This allows me to work much longer, because without those other windows, I reach a point - within a half hour - where I have no memory left to load any of the audio.

When I run out of IE windows (and this often means I'll have about 8 frozen little windows that refuse to close) I restart my computer. I usually have to do this about once every 8 hour shift.

Question: Is there anything I can do on my end to avoid this problem? As I said, some of my colleagues do not have this problem. I have Windows XP, running on a Lenovo Thinkpad T60. This problem has been with me since the beginning (2 years ago) and my computer has undergone many changes. I have a great deal of free hard drive space, and generally keep very few programs running (I've got a very clean computer). I've tried different upgrades of IE and many different versions of java, and of course my company has tried a variety of things. The general policy with tech support is not to be concerned about this.

That said, my company isn't Metafilter. Maybe you ragtag group of misfits have an idea.

You want to see this e-mail with attachment? Ok, let me go check out your external drive for no reason before I fetch it.

roomwithaview — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:49:33 -0800

Why does Microsoft Outlook insist on spinning up my external hard drive before letting me see any e-mail with attachments? I've noticed this in Outlook 2003 and 2007, in XP and Vista, and I'd like to know what causes it.

Basically, whenever I have an external hard drive connected (via USB) to my computer, I cannot see an immediate preview of any e-mail in Outlook that contains an attachment without having everything in Outlook freeze for a few moments while my external drive spins up. Once the drive is spun up, the body of the e-mail shows up.

If the drive is not attached, or if I have accessed it recently (so that it is spun up and not idle), I can click on an e-mail with an attachment and have it show up in the preview pane with no delay.

My .pst files are my local drive (not on the external) and this happens with both POP and IMAP folders.

So what causes this behavior and is there any way to stop it?

My laptop is killing my sanity!

sarcasticah — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:43:24 -0800

Okay, hive mind wise ones, please help save my sanity. I have an HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop that I bought in September. In general, it works great... except at random times, when I'm online, and the whole damn thing freezes up. It only happens when I'm online, and the only way to unfreeze it is to hold the power button down until it shuts off. Then I have to wait until it mostly boots up, and then it gets stuck on a black screen until I hit CTR-ALT-DEL, and choose to restart, and then, finally, after a long wait, it's back up and running.

What gives? I'm not running anything major. I'm using Firefox, and my operating system is Vista. I updated Java on the advice of a friend, and that didn't help. It happens at least once a day, and it's driving me crazy. I've kept track, and there isn't any one program that locks it up -- it just happens randomly.

Why does my computer keep freezing?

chorltonmeateater — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 16:05:07 -0800

Why does my Windows XP machine freeze every half an hour? My computer has taken to freezing after about half an hour or so of use, forcing me to switch it off and on to get it working again. When the PC does this, it stops responding to anything I do with the mouse and keyboard, and the CPU fan starts whirring away, but I can't work out what process is causing this major CPU use, and so the freezing problem.

It started at about the same time that I started using a U3 USB stick and installed Acronis True Image 11, but I have removed/uninstalled both these pieces of software and still the problem occurs. Even a system restore roll-back to a point before the problem occurred has done nothing to help.

Any ideas on what might be causing this, or at least how I can begin to find what the culprit might be? I'm running Windows XP SP2 (intermittently, at least).

How to freeze pomegranates?

ac — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:24:34 -0800

I really love fresh pomegranates. Unfortunately, their short season ends soon. Is there any way to freeze them for later enjoyment? Or anywhere to get them while they're out of season? I'd love to hear your experiences, or step by step instructions if anyone has them. I get all kinds of conflicting information on the internets.

Computer freezes!

Jase_B — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 13:44:55 -0800

Computer semi-freezes one in every three startups. What's going on? This problem with my computer has been going on for a while not, and it's reached the point where I'm totally over it. I think it started about 6 months ago. I would turn on my computer and every so often certain programs wouldn't open, specifically internet programs such as Firefox and IE. Some programs, however, would open fine (such as Word, Notepad, Windows Explorer). After a while I worked out that If I unplug the internet cable before turning the computer on, let it load, open the desired internet programs (i.e. Firefox), THEN plug the internet cable into my computer, it would work fine.

I was able to do this until I changed internet providers. Now, no matter whether I unplug the internet cable before or after startup, one in every three or four times the computer won't let Firefox or IE load. The programs simply don't open, and then the computer totally freezes.

I've done some testing with it, such as using a new virus scanning program, but it still happens. And according to the two virus scanning programs that I've used there are no viruses.

Also, the internet cable that I used BEFORE the current ISP was a regular big blue cable that goes into the "bigger" slot (I hope that's understandable!) - and the internet would automatically start. However, the current internet connection uses a USB connection to the modem, and I actually have to log in to my internet every time I turn on my computer. I had to install special software as well and it always tries to connect to the modem, even if the cable's not plugged in.

My last resort will be to reformat the computer, but I really don't want to do that. If you can offer any suggestions it would be much appreciated.

Excel copy cell CRASH. (why?)

lucasks — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 22:53:39 -0800

Excel for Mac freezes on copy (command-c)! Help. Earlier today I had my PowerBook G4 hooked up to a bigger monitor. Later, when working in Excel I tried to make a chart, when I did so the chart wizard window appeared off screen. Not being able to resolve this issue, and not being able to get Excel to let me quit, I killed it. Upon restart everything seems to work fine but if I try to copy a cell I get the whirly beach ball of death EVERY SINGLE TIME. Behavior is consistant over multiple restarts of both Excel and the Powerbook. Any ideas? I really need Excel to work.

What am I getting myself into?

vitrum — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:27:09 -0800

The Seattle Freeze: What am I getting myself into? I'm moving to Seattle in a few months from the Los Angeles area to accept a job offer, and hardly know a soul other than one or two acquaintances there.

Frankly I haven't been too incredibly worried about meeting people - which is somewhat surprising considering I'm a pretty introverted - but I think it partially originated from being so taken back by how nice everyone was while I was visiting last to check things out.

Now I'm hearing thats what they all say - before the end!

I just ran across a very interesting article that I think has been mentioned here a few times - but just in passing - regarding the "Seattle Freeze" in the Seattle Times, which I had never really heard of until now.

So hive mind, I'm curious to hear your own perceptions of this phenomenon... fact or fiction? Am I in for some rough times, or is this just like any other big city. If it is true, is there a hidden secret for winning over the locals? haha

I'm still excited about the move, and not rethinking my decision based on reading an article in a newspaper, but I am thinking of if and how I should prepare myself for a potentially very different culture...

Stop-Start Computing

SansPoint — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 19:39:16 -0800

What would make an old Windows computer stop accepting input for short periods of time (2-3 minutes)? My housemate has an old Compaq PC running Windows XP. Lately, it's started pausing for 2-3 minute intervals, not accepting any input. The keyboard buffer isn't overflowing: it's even mouse input that stops dead. It also seems to just seize up.

I'm going to run Memtest86+ on it, but I can't imagine anything that would cause it to exhibit these symptoms. He has Antivirus and Spyware software, though any Windows worms would hit my Mac mini first, which is the DMZ host.

I'm a bit out of practice with Windows. Help?

My uncle's computer freezes whenever he tries to connect to the internet.

Andy Harwood — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:47:54 -0800

My uncle's computer (a fairly old PC with Windows XP and a dial-up connection) freezes whenever he tries to connect to the internet. It gets as far as verifying the username and password before freezing up completely. Any ideas?

What is wrong with my computer?

sailoreagle — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:05:10 -0800

Knowing full well that diagnosing computer issues across the internet can sometimes be hard: what could be wrong with my computer? The computer froze yesterday (while I was doing nothing particularly intensive - just browsing the internet), and I had to pull the plug because nothing else had any effect on it. Now Windows won't load anymore: when I start the computer, the loading bar will freeze after a while, and no matter how long I leave it it won't go any further.

Safe mode doesn't work either.

A BartPE CD does nothing (gives the white-text-on-black loading bar, and when that is filled, goes to a black screen and hangs there), and neither does a Linux Ubuntu live CD (just hangs forever on loading kernel). I suspected memory issues, but I'm now on the 14th pass of a Memtest86 test and no errors have popped up.

I've tried to reinstall Windows, both 2K (what I was originally using) and XP; no matter how I do it (format the HD before or not) it still ends up hanging (Win2K setup never gets past the "Setup is loading Windows" part, while XP got past that and then froze on the normal XP loading screen). Ran both chkdsk and scandisk and it found nothing whatsoever.

I'm completely stumped. I suspect motherboard / processor / both, but I haven't the faintest clue even where to begin diagnosing issues with those.

Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

Branding with liquid nitrogen?

logicpunk — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 14:39:51 -0800

Any good sources of information on freeze branding for humans? I'm not big on body modding, but I'm interested in getting work done to remember a difficult period in my life. I've decided against tattooing or hot iron branding, but I can't find any good info about freeze branding except as applied to livestock. I'm looking for images of freeze brands after they've healed, descriptions of the process, the amount of detail and size of brands, body mod shops that actually do it or, failing that, advice for the do-it-yourself type.

The Blinking Cursor of Immense Frustration

phrontist — Thu, 03 May 2007 06:36:37 -0800

I'm trying to install Ubuntu Server on a just out of the box Dell machine. After completing the install the machine hangs (displaying only a blinking cursor), and subsequent attempts at reinstall from the LiveCD result in hangs as well. I downloaded the Ubuntu Server 7.04 i386 install ISO and computed it's md5 sum, which validated correctly. I ran through the install using the whole hard-drive on a brand new Dell Optiplex 230 server uneventfully. Upon the first boot, I got a blinking cursor after GRUB, after which it simply hung. I tried to boot again several times, in safe (or "recovery") mode, with and without the monitor plugged in, and combinations thereof.

I tried to run a verification on the disc, but it hung in the same manner as booting from the HDD did. I assumed I had a bad disc. I burned another and ran a successful verification (on another machine) first. Upon trying to install from it, it hung once again - same blinking cursor of frustration.

I've let the box sit for 15 minutes more than once to ensure it wasn't just some daemon taking a long time to come up.

Also, I get random characters and colored blocks (like old DOS-style ASCII blocks) when I let it sit for a bit.

Someone in the Ubuntu IRC channel reccomended using a LiveCD to re-install GRUB on the HDD, which was done to no avail. While the Ubuntu install LiveCD's hang as described after the ubuntu menu, the super grub disk worked fine.

My post on the ubuntu forums yesterday has gone unanswered. I've got to get this server up before Friday, when I leave town for three months. Help me MeFi!

Online IT forums, where art thou?

Smarson — Tue, 01 May 2007 07:19:57 -0800

It's almost 60 degrees outside, so why is my computer frozen? ( know any free online IT help forums?) My fiance's notebook has been freezing up lately. If you really want to know the details, they're available here. What I'd really like to know is if anyone has some recommendations for good online IT help forums that would at least help me to rule out quick fixes before I decide to to go with reformatificationalism of the ol' hard drive?

Can I re-freeze thawed french fries and hash browns?

crazycanuck — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 10:58:46 -0800

Can I re-freeze thawed french fries and hash browns? The power was out for approximately 60 hours. The highly processed curly fries and potatoes o'brien in my freezer thawed. The freezer is a stand-alone deep freezer, and other items in the freezer did not thaw. Is it safe to re-freeze these items for consumption on another day?

Computer Freezes after a couple of hours of non-use

quintno — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 13:35:54 -0800

If I don't use my Dell PC computer for several hours and return to it, the various screens on my Firefox browser are often frozen. This sometimes affects non-web screens, such as word processing, etc.--but sometimes it doesn't. I can't even close out of the Firefox screens--I keep getting an error message. Any suggestions? I'm using a direct ethernet connection with a cable modem.

Help me stop my computer from locking up and/or rebooting!

Effigy2000 — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:49:45 -0800

My computer keeps locking up and/or rebooting! Help me find the problem. The System.

* AMD Athlon64 x2 4600 operating at 2.6Ghz with a 512k Cache.

* Motherboard: ASUS M2N32-SLi Deluxe.

* Big cool case with lots of room inside (so overheating shouldn't be an issue) with an internal 430watt power supply.

* Western Digital 320GB 7200rpm SATAII KS 16meg Cache.

* 2GB RAM

* Video Card: NVIDIA 7950-GT

* Running WinXP with SP2.

The Symptoms.

Simply put, the system has a habit of locking up at the spur of the moment or rebooting at the spur of the moment. Sometimes this will happen within minutes of the first power-up of the day. Somedays it will be hours until it occurs.

Rarely, it won't happen at all. Very rarely...

Other Pertinent Information.

Yes, I've got all the latest drivers installed.

Windows has been patched with all the latest critical updates.

I've done an anti-virus and spyware check and found nothing. My system is something of a fortress anyway, as far as that sort of thing is concerned.

I run a firewall, of course. I'm using the last, free version of Sygate (`cause I hate ZAP and can't find a better free firewall).

So far I've removed from startup any programs that don't need to be starting up. I plan to reinstall Windows (an over the top reinstallation only; it's a fresh install anyway so this should be quicker). But if that dosen't work then quite frankly I'll be at my wit's end.

My only other thought is that maybe the internal power supply isn't enough for the CPU and the video card, but I'm not technically minded enough to make a call on that. I'm hoping someone here is.

So, what seems to be the problem? Is it indeed my power supply or is it something else? Help! Thanks in advance!

My Bluetooth Dongle seems to lock up XP SP2

govtrust — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 10:45:28 -0800

My Bluetooth dongle locks up XP SP2. The device is KINAMAX BT-USB USB 2.0. The computer is a Compaq Presario 6000. I have tried installing useing the newest BlueSoleil drivers 2.3 and disabling the windows drivers. Once they are installed it pairs its self with my plantronics 320 headseat but the computer will intermittently freeze up. No error messages.

Help! My computer freezes instantly!

callmejay — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 10:06:35 -0800

Help! My computer freezes almost instantly after power-on! This started yesterday after the power in my apartment flickered and caused the machine to reboot, although I seem to remember this happening for a little while a year or so back but then disappearing.

I turn my computer on, the bios screen starts to show up, and the thing freezes before it's even done. I know this because the sentence at the bottom starts "Press DEL to enter SETUP, ESC" and then freezes before the usual "to skip memory test." Needless to say, it never gets to the memory test.

The computers a no-name cobbled together from some guy on the internet a few years back.