There are a number of reasons that computers freeze up ranging from anything from a virus that is attacking the system to a computer being swamped with too many open programs and windows at once.
If you open up multiple browsers and run numerous programs all at once, they will require an awful lot of memory for the computer to process these functions.
If you do not have enough memory to run all these things, it can cause the computer to lock up, and other times cause it to run slow.
For users who will be operating their computers while running several programs all at once, you will need at least 2 gigabytes of memory.
One gig is fine for one or two programs at the same time.
Websites can also clog memory, especially those that are graphic intensive.
This can also cause a computer to freeze, even with as little as 1GB of memory installed.
Today, websites and even emails have more graphics associated with them than ever before.
The more graphics are involved, the computer will use more memory.
The more memory available will help it to run smoothly and without stutters and stalls.
However, basic programs like word processing doesn't need a lot of memory to run.
However, things like watching movies require a lot of memory installed on the computer.
With systems that have little memory, the movie will not play well at all.
More often than not, the thing that make a computer freeze up are associated with not having enough memory to process the programs.
However, sometimes it can also be slow due to a slow website that you are visiting.
Not all websites are up to date and when one is found that has not been updated for quite some time, your system can freeze while processing the site.
Additionally, a computer may freeze if that site gets overwhelmed with visitors at the same time.
Sometimes they cannot handle that amount of traffic at once.