Windows 11 Keeps Freezing? 12 Ways To Fix It

Windows 11 has come a great distance from its buggy inception section and has been repeatedly optimized since. However, there are nonetheless some points in Windows 11 that may trigger your system to lag and finally freeze.

Your Windows 11 might keep freezing resulting from causes like malfunctioning storage gadgets, inadequate RAM, corrupted system information, or incorrect display decision facet ratio.

However, so long as your laptop {hardware} meets the minimal system necessities to run Windows 11, it is best to be capable of troubleshoot and repair these points your self.

Before You Begin

There are some things you want to bear in mind to have the ability to correctly run Windows 11 in your laptop.

First, ensure to verify your PC specs to see if it meets the minimal system necessities for putting in Windows 11.

Also, ensure to maintain some area out there in your OS drive. If your OS drive is full or practically filling up, you possibly can attempt deleting short-term and pointless information.

For the sake of this text, we can be addressing freezing points on reside Windows, but when your Windows 11 laptop freezes at startup with out even booting up, you possibly can seek advice from our different article.

Run a Malware Scan

If your Windows 11 retains freezing, the very first thing it is best to do is attempt to verify your laptop isn’t contaminated with any type of malware. Malicious software program makes your system more susceptible to crashing as it may possibly even devour giant quantities of your system sources inflicting efficiency drops and even periodic freezes.

So, it is best to attempt operating a malware scan to make sure this isn’t the case.

1. Right-click the begin menu and choose Settings.
2. Navigate to Privacy & safety > Windows Security.
3. Select Virus & menace safety underneath Protection areas.
   
4. In the brand new window that pops up, click on on Scan choices.
5. Select Full scan and click on on Scan now.
   

If you might have a distinct antivirus software program energetic in your laptop, you may also run a malware scan from that utility as a substitute of Windows Security.

Set an Appropriate Screen Resolution

You may also expertise periodic system freezes in case your graphics card can’t actually deal with the display decision set in your monitor. If you might have a 4K monitor, and your decision is about to 4K, but when your laptop has a low-end GPU, it received’t be capable of deal with your show operating at that decision.

This is obvious whenever you’re operating graphics-intensive duties like gaming. So, you possibly can attempt downgrading your display decision or setting an acceptable one supported by your GPU to repair this problem.

1. Open Settings using Windows + I shortcut.
2. Navigate to System > Display.
3. Scroll right down to Display decision and set it as 1920 x 1080 from the drop-down menu. (If your graphics card helps increased resolutions, you possibly can set an acceptable decision.)
   
4. Select Keep adjustments.

If you might have an ultrawide monitor setup, ensure you set the display decision with a facet ratio of 16:9. The display resolutions with 16:9 facet ratio are 1024x576, 1152x648, 1280x720, 1366x768, 1600x900, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160.

Reinstall GPU Drivers

The GPU drivers are utilized by your system to attach along with your graphics card, which is crucial to your laptop show to perform correctly. However, in case your graphics drivers are outdated or corrupted, it may possibly additionally trigger system lag and freezes.

To repair this sort of problem, you possibly can attempt to reinstall your graphics driver from the official web site. 

1. Press Windows + R to open Run dialog field.
2. Type devmgmt.msc and press Enter to open Device Manager.
   
3. Expand the Display adapters tab and right-click your graphics driver.
   
4. Select Uninstall device and click on on Uninstall once more.
5. Open an internet browser, and go to the official web site of your GPU producer.
6. Search to your GPU device and obtain its corresponding driver.
   
7. After the obtain is full, go to the Downloads folder in File Manager and run the set-up file.
   
8. Follow the on-screen directions to put in the graphics driver.
9. After the method is full, restart your laptop.

Alongside the GPU drivers, you may additionally need to reinstall your storage drivers, as they will additionally trigger your system to freeze if corrupted. The storage drivers are situated underneath Disk drivers in Device Manager, and you need to use the identical technique as above to uninstall them.

After the uninstall is full, you possibly can restart your laptop to routinely reinstall your storage drivers.

Windows Update

You may also attempt updating your Windows to see if it fixes the difficulty of your system periodically freezing. If this problem was brought on by bugs in your model of Windows 11, a Windows update will probably repair the difficulty, as they carry bug fixes for identified points.

1. Right-click the begin menu and choose Settings.
2. Click on Windows Update from the left sidebar.
3. Select Check for updates.
   
4. If an update is out there, Windows 11 will routinely begin downloading it.
5. Restart your laptop to put in the downloaded update.

Perform DISM, SFC, and CHKDSK scan

Your laptop may also periodically freeze if some vital system information are lacking or corrupted. To verify for and repair this sort of problem, you possibly can attempt operating a DISM and SFC scan. The DISM command will restore and ensure your Windows image is wholesome, whereas the SFC scan will use the Windows image to repair any corrupted or lacking system information.

Also, in case your laptop’s inside drive is corrupted or has dangerous disk sectors, your system can get caught within the means of studying it. This could cause vital lag and system freeze. So, you may also attempt operating a CHKDSK scan to verify for and repair points like these in your drive.

1. Launch Run utility using Windows + R hotkey.
2. Type cmd and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter.
   
3. In Command Prompt, kind the next command and enter so as:
   dism /on-line /cleanup-image /restorehealth
sfc /Scannow
chkdsk /f /r /x
   
4. Exit Command Prompt. Restart your laptop.

If you might have multiple drive in your laptop, you may also attempt to run the CHKDSK scan on these drives. To accomplish that, you’ll merely must specify the drive letter of the drive you need to scan within the CHKDSK command.

For instance, chkdsk D: /f /r /x

Set Virtual Memory

Another purpose why your laptop might periodically freeze is you probably have inadequate RAM for the duty you’re performing. By default, Windows 11 wants a minimal of 4 GB RAM to perform correctly. If you’re operating heavy applications in your laptop, even 6 or 8 GB RAM is perhaps inadequate 

So, to repair this sort of problem, you possibly can attempt increasing your digital reminiscence. This permits you to use part of your drive to behave as a digital RAM that may assist improve your system efficiency.

1. Open Run.
2. Type systempropertiesadvanced and press Ok.
   
3. Under Performance, click on on Settings.
   
4. Under the Advanced tab click on on the Change possibility.
   
5. Make positive the Automatically handle paging information dimension for all drives possibility is disabled.
6. Select your OS drive and click on on Custom dimension.
   
7. Set the Initial dimension (MB) because the Recommended quantity underneath Total paging file dimension for all drives.
   
8. Set the Maximum dimension (MB) as both 1.5 instances, 2 instances, or 4 instances the quantity of your RAM. (1GB = 1024 MB)
9. Make positive to stability the utmost digital RAM dimension in line with your bodily RAM and drive area. For instance, you probably have 8 GB of RAM, setting the max Virtual RAM dimension as 4 instances will take up 32 Gb of area in your drive.
   
10. Click on Set and OK.
11. Close all of the dialog packing containers and restart your laptop.

Check Your RAM

You may also need to verify your RAM to verify it isn’t the one inflicting the difficulty. A defective RAM may also trigger your system to freeze and even crash unexpectedly. To verify the state of your RAM, you possibly can attempt doing so with the Windows Memory Diagnostic device.

1. Launch Run.
2. Type mdsched.exe and press Enter.
   
3. Select Restart now and verify for issues within the new window.
   
4. Follow the on-screen directions and restart your laptop. 
5. After the restart, Windows Memory Diagnostic will begin checking your RAM. After it’s carried out, it would restart once more and show the outcomes.

If Windows Memory Diagnostic does show some points along with your RAM, you would possibly need to reseat your RAM. If you might have a number of RAM sticks, you may also attempt alternately reseating them to verify if solely one in all them is defective. If none of those works, you possibly can attempt changing your RAM.

Disable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling

Enabling GPU acceleration lets your laptop applications offload sure duties to your GPU relatively than all the time operating on the general-purpose CPU. This can tremendously enhance efficiency and cut back latency.

However, GPU acceleration may also trigger your system to periodically freeze if the GPU drivers are incompatible with this perform. So, you possibly can attempt disabling GPU acceleration to see if it fixes the difficulty.

1. Press Windows + I to open Settings.
2. Navigate to System > Display > Graphics.
3. Click on Change default graphics settings.
   
4. Toggle off the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling possibility.
   
5. Exit Settings and restart your laptop.
6. If disabling this setting doesn’t repair the difficulty, you possibly can allow it once more.

Disable Overclocking

Unstable Overclocking may also trigger your system to periodically freeze, and it may possibly even end in crashes. If you might be operating an Overclocked system, it is best to disable the overclocking. If you overclocked your system from third-party software program, you possibly can disable it from the identical software program.

If you might have additionally modified your BIOS settings for overclocking, you also needs to reset your BIOS to default settings.

You may also attempt updating your BIOS, because it additionally restores your BIOS settings to the default configuration. Furthermore, it makes positive your BIOS isn’t outdated.

Reset Windows 11

Lastly, if all of the above strategies nonetheless don’t repair your problem, you possibly can attempt resetting your Windows 11. A system reset will reinstall Windows 11 for you, and it’ll additionally delete all of your information from the system drive. So, ensure to back up your system drive first earlier than resetting your laptop.

1. Launch Settings using the Windows + I hotkey.
2. Navigate to System > Recovery, and click on on Reset PC.
   
3. Click on Remove all the pieces. (Selecting Keep my information will solely save the info current in your User accounts folder.)
   
4. If you might have a steady web connection, select Cloud obtain. If you don’t have a network connection, this feature received’t seem.
   
5. Select Next and comply with the on-screen directions.
6. After the method completes, arrange your Windows 11.

Hardware Troubleshooting

If you continue to expertise system freezes even after resetting your Windows 11 laptop, then it’s probably brought on by {hardware} points. A Windows reset will root out many of the software program issues, leaving solely {hardware} points that may very well be the trigger.

This problem will also be brought on by issues in your different {hardware} like storage device, GPU, CPU, or Motherboard. If you might be skilled in {hardware} troubleshooting and restore, you possibly can attempt repairing or changing the {hardware} your self.

However, you probably have no expertise in {hardware} troubleshooting, it’s best to go to a pc restore store to get it fastened. Also, in case your device is underneath guarantee, you possibly can contact the suitable occasion to have it repaired free of charge.