Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Dell Laptop Freezes or Stalls More and More Often- A Lot!

Jul 25, 2012 2:20PM PDT

I have a Dell Inspiron 15 from 2009. It has Vista 32bit with 4 gb RAM and plenty of free space. In 2010 I had to reinstall my OS bc it started having problems. Since then it usually works fine. Not long ago though, it started to freeze up, or stall, especially on Yahoo mail. I would have to hit ctrl, alt dlt to get it going again. Also, I could leave task manager open and maybe click on it and it would start moving again. It was messing up a lot on facebook too. If I tried to type a description to a photo in or something else it would start freezing every few letters! Very aggravating. I would have to ctrl alt dlt and try again. (After that I would post in Word and then cut and paste to FB.) It has increased though and gotten worse. It does it all the time now. (Even freezing when viewing photos on my hard drive.) I can't be in my email more than 30 secs before it does it. (On some websites, it showed the compatibilty icon as broken but if I click it, it still did not help. I have kept my computer as up to date as possible.) It freezes mainly on facebook and yahoo mail or amazon. I have Norton 360 and they show everything as fine. I ran the Microsoft test, including malware, and it said that it did not find anything. I am about to just give up and reinstall windows again. Please tell me if you have any ideas. Also, I would like to know why it would be doing this. Thanks for the help.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Dell Laptop Freezes or Stalls More and More Often
Jul 26, 2012 1:42AM PDT
- Collapse -
Will Try
Jul 26, 2012 1:32PM PDT

I have followed the link to the microsoft fix it tool and have tried resetting my browser. I just did it a while ago and I will see if it helps. If not, I will probably try the other option. Thanks for sending the link and for the help. I really appreciate it.

- Collapse -
Data Prevention
Jul 27, 2012 1:19PM PDT

I did a reset on the browser and the stalling seems to have stopped. However, I am once again getting the Data Execution Prevention thing everytime I close a tab or other window. It does the internet explorer has stopped working thing after I close that tab or window. I am not sure what I should do with it. Thanks.

- Collapse -
Dell Laptop Freezes or Stalls More and More Often
Jul 30, 2012 1:36AM PDT

Hi genbeau,

Data Execution Prevention or DEP is a method by which the execution of suspicious software's is prevented at the hardware level. This is done to make the computer secure against Virus Attacks. Some software's which are not made according to DEP get errors.

To fix Data Execution Prevention Error, you need to know which application is getting DEP error(In your case its "internet explorer"), please add Internet explorer to Data Execution Prevention Exception list. This is a list of applications which will not be stopped or suppressed by DEP feature.

FIX:

1. Right click on My Computer > Properties > Advanced Properties.

2. Go to Advanced Properties > Performance >Data Execution Prevention tab.

3. On Data Execution Prevention tab you can see the first option Selected to "Turn on DEP for Essential windows Programs and Services only. Set is to the second option, press Add button as highlighted in the image below , and add Internet explorer that is giving you the DEP error.

4. Press Apply and OK.
That is it, restart your computer and Data Execution Prevention Error should be fixed for the added applications.


Thanks & Regards
DELL_LEKSANG _BHUTIA
Dell Social Media Responder
https://twitter.com/DellCares
http://www.facebook.com/Dell

- Collapse -
Can't Find Right One
Jul 30, 2012 2:02PM PDT

Sorry. I can't seem to locate the one that is for internet explorer. I have gone through the list twice under the Add option under DEP and do not know which one it is. Thanks for the help.

- Collapse -
Answer
A quick maintenance check.
Jul 30, 2012 2:33AM PDT

How long has it been since you used your canned air on the vents? It was not funny last month that another laptop owner had reloaded the OS a dozen times and the problems were all over the map including the DEP one. They had never cleaned the vents. Nuff written!
Bob

- Collapse -
Need to Try
Jul 30, 2012 2:03PM PDT

Wow. I need to try this too then and soon. Thank you.