Why Does My Computer Keep Crashing? 12 Options to Fix It

If you don’t know why does my computer keep crashing, you can find out the reasons and some solutions for this issue.

Posted by @Tina July 24, 2024 Updated By @Tina August 23, 2023

Why does my computer keep crashing?

 

"My PC keeps crashing when playing games. It only crashes when I go to load into a game. It will shut down immediately. I can browse the web or watch YOUTUBE all day long without issue. I have run memory test. Scanned files and repaired them. I have done a clean wipe of drivers and reinstalled them and the problem still remains the same. Why my PC crashed? Do you know the specific reasons?

- Question from elevenforum.com

What does computer crash mean?

PC crash means that the computer not working properly, especially when you are writing article, playing games, watching videos, etc. Why does my computer keep crashing? After reading many related articles, we have concluded the following reasons:

The computer or hard drive is overheating. The CPU is not working properly. The system files are damaged. The driver is out of date. There're some file fragments. The viruses are attacking your PC. The RAM space is insufficient. There are bad sectors on the hard disk. There's not enough space on C drive. The computer hard drive is full or damaged.

How to operate when PC crashes

After knowing why does my computer keep crashing on Windows 11/10/8/7, you may want to learn how to get out of it. In this section, we will share 12 practical methods for you.

▶ Method 1. Cool down the computer

When computer hardware like the PC motherboard and CPU overheats, computer freezes will occur, and even the life of the PC will be shorted. Therefore, when the computer overheats, you need to cool it down in time.

When using the computer, you can open the chassis, enhancing the cooling effect. If it’s a laptop, you can buy a cooling fan.

▶ Method 2. Check hardware connections

You should check whether the hardware connection on the PC is stable. Because the hardware may loosen during the moving process, such as the loose of memory sticks, etc., which will eventually cause the computer to crash.

▶ Method 3. Check the system files

System files refer to files created automatically during the installation of the Windows, they can maintain the stability of the PC system. Once they’re damaged, you may encounter PC crashes. Here’re the steps to check and repair the system files.

Step 1. Click "Start" and type "cmd", then choose "Run as administrator".

Step 2. In the new window, type "sfc /scannow" and press "Enter" to check the health condition of the system files.

Step 3. Besides, you can repair the system files with Dism tool: Input "Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" and then press "Enter".

▶ Method 4. Update driver

If the hard drive is outdated, your computer may crash. So you can try to update the hard drive.

Step 1. Open the Device Manager by pressing "Windows" and typing "device manager". In a new window, click "Disk drives".

Step 2. When you see the following interface, right-click the target drive and click "Update driver".

Step 3. You should choose a method to search for drivers, click "Search automatically for updated driver software".

▶ Method 5. Run Troubleshooter

Not sure why your computer crashed? The Windows Troubleshooter can check if there's any problems with your PC. Details are as follows:

Step 1. Open the Settings, then click "System" and "Troubleshoot".

Step 2. In the new window, click other troubleshooters and "Run" in turn.

▶ Method 6. Defragment the disk

In the HDD-installed PC, if there are too many file fragments, the PC may keep crashing. You can try defragmenting the PC hard drive.

Step 1. Press "Windows", then type "defragment and optimize drives" and press "Enter". 

Step 2. In the "Optimize Drives" window, choose the drive you want to defrag and click "Optimize".

▶ Method 7. Check PC in Safe Mode

In order to find out the reason for the PC keeps crashing, you can start your PC in Safe Mode, and then configure applications that you think may be problematic.

When the PC works normally after starting in safe mode, you need to uninstall the wrong software. Here are the correct steps.

Step 1. Press "Windows+ R", then type "regedit" and click "OK".

Step 2. In the Registry Editor window, locate to the path "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Minimal\".

Step 3. Right-click "Minimal" and click "New", then choose the "Key" option. If you are in network safe mode, right-click the Network instead.

Step 4. Rename the new key to "MSIServer".

Step 5. Then type "Service" in the Value data section, changing the default data value to Service.

Step 6. Close Registry Editor, then uninstall the program, the issue can be fixed.

▶ Method 8. Remove virus

Viruses attacking the computer will cause it to keep crashing. Please use Windows built-in CMD or download a safe antivirus tool to remove viruses.

▶ Method 9. Upgrade RAM

RAM is short for Random Access Memory. It is often used as a temporary data storage medium for Windows or other running programs. If there's not enough RAM to support the running programs, the PC may freeze when running multiple programs. So you can upgrade RAM and prevent the PC from crashing.  

▶ Method 10. Repair bad sectors

Why does my computer keep crashing? Bad sectors will affect the operating efficiency of the PC. Especially the bad sectors on the C drive will cause unrecoverable errors in Windows, and eventually cause the computer to crash.

Therefore, you need to check and fix bad sectors. Here, you can use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, it is  a third-party free software. This powerful hard disk manager will test the hard disk health, if there are bad sectors on the hard disk, it will automatically repair them.

Download Freeware Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
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Step 1. Download this free tool, right-click the target drive and click "Check Partition".

Step 2. Choose "Check partition and fix errors in this partition by using chkdsk.exe" and click "OK".

Step 3. Wait patient and click "OK" when the task is finished.

▶ Method 11. Extend the C drive

A slow C drive can threat data security, and it often leads to PC crashes. You can upgrade to the Professional Version to use "Allocate free space", try to increase free space for it.

Free Download Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
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Tip: When the hard drive is in poor health, you can also select "SSD Alignment" (for SSD) and "Disk Defragment" (HDD) according to the actual situation to optimize the hard drive.

Step 1. In the main interface, right-click a drive with enough free space, click "Allocate Free Space".

Step 2. In the new window, set the allocated space and destination drive, and click "OK".

Step 3. Click "Apply" to add free space to the target drive.

Note: To make Windows Server PC woke better, you can try the Server Version to manage your PC.

▶ Method 12. Upgrade the current PC hard drive

If your current PC hard drive is HDD, you can consider upgrading it to a more practical SSD. Because when the hard disk is aging or damaged, there will be a problem of computer keep crashing.

Step 1. Connect the new SSD to the PC with a SATA to USB adapter. Click "Clone" option and select "Clone Disk".

Step 2. In the popped window, tick "Clone Disk Quickly" and click "Next". 

Step 3. Choose the old disk and click "Next".

Step 4. You need to select the new SSD, tick "Optimize the performance of SSD" and click "OK".

Step 5. Then edit the disk and click "Next".

Step 6. Click "Apply" and "Proceed" to perform this disk migration.

Verdict

Why does my computer keep crashing? In this post, we analyzed the possible reasons. And we shared 12 methods to fix this confusing issue, including check system files, clean up viruses, repair bad sectors, etc. If you meet the disk errors, please try AOMEI Partition Assistant, it can easily solve your problems.