Looking for program or ideas to keep windows from freezing up

[thestain]

Anyone know of any software of ideas to keep my dad's pc from freezing up when he hits mouse wrong or hits a key on the keyboard he shouldn't?

When he does so.. it is causing complete freeze up.. no keys on keyboard work, so can't hit control alt delete, also his boot ups and shut downs take a long time. Not sure if that is related.

My solution so far has been to hit power reset button.. but I hate to do this if I don't have to with windows XP SP2 that he has on his machine.

 

[bobross419]

What sort of things is he experiencing? Why is your dad's computer freezing up from miskeys? Can you give some examples of what is happening?

There is a built in feature in Windows to help alleviate multiple button presses from physically handicapped individuals. Control Panel >> Accesibility Options >> Keyboard Tab >> FilterKeys

There are some other options in there that might help him out if he has a physical problem that causes him to hit keys.

If it is only very specific keys that he is pressing that cause these issues and he has no need for these keys (Most users never have to press Scroll Lock or Pause) then you could hard mod he keyboard to freeze those keys...

 

[thestain]

nothing specific. he gets distracted and hits something on keyboard or clicks mouse and presto... freeze up. I can't get him to repeat because it is by accident.

I was just hoping for some ideas on how to help him overcome this. Maybe some software or maybe something needs to be fixed in windows to prevent?

I was wondering if it could be related to incredibly slow over 2 minutes for his pc to shut down.

Any help or ideas appreciated.

 

[Quiksilver]

So pressing keys at random causes his machine to freeze? I'd say the problem is that fact it's a slow dated computer that is probably chock full of viruses and spyware.

 

[law9933]

"also his boot ups and shut downs take a long time."

Maybe some things should be done.

Download, update, & run free MaiwareBytes.
Use ATF cleaner or CCleaner
Defrag
Too many auto starting programs running???

 

[thestain]

thanks for replies!

I have defragged and run ccleaner and immunized with spybot, will try ATF cleaner and did full scan with malwarebytes and no problems found. No problems with hard drives or memtest.

Goal I guess is how to learn how to end freezing when wrong keys pushed.

 

[bobross419]

Take a look at the system tray and see what programs are running down there. Chances are good that there might be some random programs running that he absolutely never uses. Also might want to run the scans in Safe mode if you haven't.

Might also want to look into installing Secunia to verify that everything is up to date.

At the very least find out what applications he has open when this happens. Even if you can't figure out which keys specifically are causing the problem. And get a can of compressed air, open up the case, and clean out any dust bunnies that could be causing overheating issues. My old computer would freeze up randomly whenever I let it go too long between cleanings 🙂

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: thestain
Goal I guess is how to learn how to end freezing when wrong keys pushed.

Here's the thing... the PC shouldn't freeze when the wrong keys are pushed. That's why everyone's operating under the assumption that there is something wrong with the PC, or there's malware.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: Flipped Gazelle

Originally posted by: thestain
Goal I guess is how to learn how to end freezing when wrong keys pushed.

Here's the thing... the PC shouldn't freeze when the wrong keys are pushed. That's why everyone's operating under the assumption that there is something wrong with the PC, or there's malware.

..and if there isn't any malware/viruses there is something physically wrong with the hardware; eg. high temp's, a memory stick died, etc.