Why Is My HP Laptop Freezing?

The main reason why a HP laptop is frozen is because it’s coming out of sleep mode, or because the laptop has a virus and incompatible drivers.

There are also different types of indications when your HP laptop freezes. One of them is an all-blue screen with no response to your keyboard commands.

The different types of indications are as follows:

• Incompatible software
• Outdated drivers
• Freezing or a lock-up can occur when the HP laptop is coming out of sleep mode.
• Conflicting third-party applications

 

Incompatible Programs or Drivers

One of the oft-reported reasons for your HP laptop freezing is because of some applications or programs you may have downloaded and installed. You may not have known that the program or application will interfere with the other programs.

 

Viruses

Some downloaded applications can be the cause of viruses making an entry into your HP laptop. You must always have a strong antivirus program installed in the system. The AV will prevent any malicious program from being downloaded if there is a virus in it.

 

Driver Updates

Some HP laptops can go into a freeze mode if the drivers are not of the latest versions. If you uninstall the drivers and reinstall them, the freezing issue may vanish. Under normal circumstances, when you restart the laptop it will automatically detect the missing drivers and download and install them.

This is feasible only if you have an intermittent issue of freezing. When your laptop freezes you cannot execute any command except to switch OFF the laptop.

 

Why Does My HP Laptop Freeze on Startup?

One of the reasons for your HP laptop freezing on startup could be because you chose the wrong option on startup.

The screen may offer you two options ‘run system repair’ and the other ‘start windows normally’. Some users can mistakenly click on the first option instead of the second.

Even if you have done this, you need not be concerned since the inactive black screen that appears will go away after some time. The screen will then come alive with the HP logo and the option to restore the system. You can click on it to go back to using your HP laptop.

This process may take up to 20 minutes. Wait before you conclude if there is some problem with your laptop. If the problem persists, try some of the hardware diagnostic tools that HP has on its website. If you can boot the system in the normal mode but if it is taking too long to reach the login screen, you can try other methods to speed up the system.

These issues can also be linked to the exact model of HP laptop you are using and the operating system. Some of the solutions above may apply to HP laptops running on Windows 8. You may be facing fewer issues with the latest Windows 10 OS.

 

HP Laptop Freezes after Login: Windows 10

If your HP laptop running on Windows 10 has this issue after the login, it may be due to an application running in the background that is not responding to commands.

This can be fixed as follows:

1. First, you must disconnect any other application that may be running in the background.
2. Press Ctrl+Shft+Esc keys together; this will open the Task Manager.
3. You have to check the unresponsive programs running.
4. If needed you can click on the ‘More Detail’ tab to identify these programs.
5. If you find any program that has stopped responding under the head Processes, select that, and click on End Task to stop that program.
6. Continue this till all such programs have been stopped.
7. You may notice a green leaf icon against some programs; this is part of an automatic process the system has adapted to suspend the programs that are slowing it down. You can leave them alone
8. You can now close the Task Manager and try to restart the HP laptop.

The earlier issue of freezing would have been fixed by following the above steps. If the issue persists, you can try restarting the laptop by keeping the power button pressed for some time till the laptop is switched OFF, and then after a gap press the power button again to restart.

This restart may remove the problem of freezing. If it does not, then the only option is to contact customer service at HP.

 

HP Laptop Freezes after Going to Sleep

If you are facing the issue of your HP laptop freezing when you try to get it out of Sleep mode, you are not alone. Many other users have this issue too. While the manufacturer claims there are many ways this freezing issue can be resolved, there are a few users of an HP Pavilion 15 – Au101nx laptop who couldn’t find the solution to this problem.

In the normal course, this problem of freezing after coming out of Sleep mode can be addressed in 3 or 4 ways.

• HP has hardware diagnostic software on its support website. You can run this software on your laptop to check if any component is failing.
• The HP website also has the support assistant program that will check if the updates required for the various components and programs to work are installed on your HP laptop.
• You can check if all the latest Windows 10 updates have also been downloaded and installed.
• If none of these worked, the only option is to contact HP support online or by phone.

The problem faced by a few users, however, couldn’t be resolved even after taking the help of HP experts or through relevant forums.

 

HP Laptop Freezes When Plugged In

One of the reasons often reported for freezing of an HP laptop as soon as it is connected to the AC power adapter for charging is a minor adjustment in the Power options settings.

In the Power options menu, you can change the settings to read the same when working on battery power, and when connected to the AC mains. This will eliminate the issue of freezing of the laptop when it is connected to power for charging.

Your AC power adapter could be faulty. To check this, you will have to find an alternate charger and see if the problem persists. There can be other reasons like a hard disk failure or the display screen having an issue. There can be damage to the screen or the driver may not be functioning. You may have to reinstall the driver for the display screen and check if the problem gets resolved.

Users of HP 6530b and HP 2230s model laptops have faced this issue of freezing when plugged in. Many cases get resolved while some have to be referred to HP for resolution.

 

HP Laptop Freezes When Connecting to Wi-Fi

There are multiple ways to check and fix the issue of HP laptops freezing when connected to Wi-Fi.

Switching OFF and re-powering the device.

• Switch OFF the HP laptop.
• Unplug the Modem and the router from the mains.
• Now, wait for up to a minute.
• Connect the power to the modem.
• Wait till it is ready for the connection.
• Similarly, power the router ON by plugging it back and wait for the lights to settle down after flickering, indicating that it is ready to be connected.
• Now switch ON the HP laptop.
• Try and reconnect the Wi-Fi.

 

Resetting the TCP/IP settings

• Switch ON the start menu type CMD.
• When you see the command prompt, right-click on it and click ‘Run as administrator’.
• On the resultant window, typenetsh int ip reset resetlog.txt.
• Press Enter.
• Now, restart your HP laptop.

Check if the freezing problem has been fixed. You can also try reinstalling the drivers for the network adapter. You must first uninstall the wireless adapter from the Network adapters in Device Manager. After installing the drivers downloaded from the HP Support site, you should restart your laptop.

 

HP Laptop Freezes When Watching Videos

The reason why a HP laptop freezes while watching videos can be due to incorrect power saving settings.

Follow these steps and see if the problem gets fixed.

• Go to the Device Manager menu using the search box next to the Windows start icon on the bottom of the screen (in your Windows 10 HP laptop).
• Go down the menu and choose the network adapter.
• Click on Properties.
• From the options, choose ‘Allow to turn OFF to save power’ and uncheck the box opposite it.

If this doesn’t solve the issue, you can try and update the relevant drivers. Experts recommend Creators Update and particularly the Nvidia for V,1703 driver. You must update the audio drivers as well to be sure.

You should be able to locate most of these updates on the support pages of HP’s website. If your HP laptop is the Pavilion 14-Al107nt model, go to the support pages for the Pavilion range of laptops on the company’s site.

 

HP Laptop Freezes and Makes Buzzing Noise

Some users have complained of this issue of the HP laptop freezing and making a buzzing noise while watching YouTube videos. Some users say this happens when their HP laptop is run on battery and not when directly plugged into a power source.

One solution for this is to change the BIOS setting to Default. To do this, restart your HP laptop and keep pressing the F10 function key till the BIOS menu appears on the screen. Select the Default option by pressing the File button. You will have to press the F10 key again to save the change and exit the menu.

You have to invariably update all the drivers and ensure that all the Windows updates have been downloaded and installed. On most occasions, these actions have helped solve the problem of the freezing of the laptop.

You can also try downloading the hardware diagnostic tool from HP’s website and run it on your laptop and see if the problem of the buzzing noise is resolved.

 

HP Laptop Freezes on Welcome Screen

There are several ways to solve the issue of the HP laptop display freezing on the Welcome screen and not moving forward. One of the solutions is to first disconnect all the USB devices connected to the laptop. Restart the laptop to see if you can move past the Welcome screen.

An HP Pavilion TouchSmart 15-n071nr user faced this issue and reported it on the relevant forum. One instant solution suggested was to remove the battery and plug the laptop into the AC mains using the adapter. You must first power OFF the laptop by pressing the power button for around 15 seconds.

See if this works and the laptop boots normally. If this didn’t work you can do the hardware diagnosis using the HP Hardware Diagnostics UEFI. Since the laptop is not booting properly, you will need to do a restart. As soon as you press the restart, press the Esc key repeatedly.

If you see some menu options appearing on the screen, press the F2 key. From the menu options presented on the screen, click on Component Tests.

These tests can take a long time to run and complete. If at the end of these the issue of freezing of the Welcome screen is not solved you have to get in touch with the HP support team.

 

HP Laptop Hangs on HP Logo

Setting your HP laptop’s BIOS settings to Default can be one solution you can try to fix the issue of the device hanging on the HP logo.

The other solution is to make changes to enable Fast Startup.

1. First, go to Control Panel.
2. Look for Power Options in the menu.
3. You will notice several menu options on the left side of the screen.
4. Click on ‘Choose what the power buttons do’.
5. The next menu to choose from is ‘Change settings that are currently unavailable’.
6. If you get a choice to confirm, click on the ‘Yes’ button.
7. Next, check on the box next to ‘Turn on Fast Startup’ menu.
8. Ensure that these changes are saved.
9. Now, restart the laptop.

Check if the booting process goes beyond the HP logo.

The other way you can fix this issue is to open the laptop, if you are familiar with the steps to do this and remove one RAM card (if there is more than one). You can also try removing all the connected USB or other devices and check if the booting goes through without stopping at the HP logo.

 

HP Pavilion Laptop Keeps Freezing

A user of HP Pavilion Notebook – 15-ab254sa experienced the laptop freezing problem and the regular suggested fixes did not work. One of the solutions suggested was that the Intel Management Engine interface was responsible for this. Version 11 of this interface was found to be plagued with defects.

The fix suggested was to go to version 9. The full version is 9.5.24.1790 1.5M.

To remove the Intel Management Engine interface, follow these steps:

• Right-click on the Start button.
• Choose Device Manager from the pop-up menu.
• Under Device Manager, click on System device.
• Next to look for is Intel Management Engine – disable this.

 

HP ProBook Laptop Keeps Freezing

The fixes for freezing of the HP ProBook laptop are not very different from the other models of HP laptops. Restarting the laptop is one solution that has figured in many of the above situations. It is usually tried by all users with even a minimum level of computer awareness.

Some of the fixes not discussed earlier are mentioned here:

• If you suspect a virus, run the antivirus program for a thorough scan of the laptop.
• If you don’t have a good antivirus package, buy one and install it.
• Defragmentation is a solution you can try; this can rearrange the files in your HP ProBook and bring some order. This is a way of removing one likely threat causing the freeze.
• Disk cleanup is another fix available to you. This is available in the System Tools section of the settings.

Remember that all these solutions will run for several minutes if not hours.

 

HP Chromebook Laptop Keeps Freezing

There are again many solutions to this problem. Chrome OS has a dedicated Help page on its site. You may get some tips from this page on handling the issue of the HP Chromebook freezing.

One way to fix the problem is to close some applications from the Task Manager. On the Chromebook, you can press the Shift + Esc keys together to get to the Task Manager.

Another fix you can try is like this:

• Unplug the charging adapter and allow the battery to drain completely.
• The laptop will switch OFF automatically.
• Allow for the laptop to cool completely.
• Now, reconnect the charger and see if the issue is resolved.

Is your Laptop still freezing? How to fix a HP Laptop that is overheating