I agree with Jeff Atwood his post, and we should only allow very specific cases that have rich detail and went through all the questions relevant to his problem.

> One word of caution: creating the canonical "perfect" mega-answer is very very hard. So don't even entertain the idea that you can create a single question and answer that covers all scenarios. 

While a mega-answer is very hard, it's always nice to have a nice overview or approach to follow.

A specific scenario isn't always answered with a specific answer, for a video game the video card or it's driver is more likely to be the problem *but* it could also be the hard drive, system memory, ...

My answer does indeed not apply to any `freeze` case; as it might be a part of Firefox freezing, a freeze during the boot phase, and so on. But it does apply to a lot of soft and hard freeze in a general way when you are in the desktop phase...

But as we're discussing [in the chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/118/root-access) right now, as @IvoFilpse stated it is probably handy to split of parts of those resources into their own answers and create more detailed tutorials that can be linked to.


----------


Some resources for the FAQ question(s) and answer(s):

 - Dumping the freeze:

   - **Hard Freeze**: [CrashOnCtrlScroll][1], to initiate a manual crash dump.

   - **Soft Freeze**: [ProcDump][2] (former ADPlus), to initiate a dump of a hanging process.

 - Troubleshooting the dumps:

   - Make sure that [automatic restarts are disabled][3] and the [memory dump settings](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/254649) are right.

   - [WhoCrashed](http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed), to check the dump to see if something obvious is hanging the system.

   - [Debugging Tools for Windows](http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx), for in-depth analysis of the dump.

 - Troubleshooting the computer:

   - [Check the event logs][4], just in case they caught something...

   - Make sure your BIOS is up to date, the BIOS settings are right and no overclocking is applied.

   - [Check for memory errors with MemTest86+](http://www.memtest.org/).

   - [Check for disk errors](http://superuser.com/questions/157266/when-to-stop-using-a-hdd-what-rules-software-apply/157276#157276).

   - [Check for stability errors](http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=36).

   - Disconnect any hardware that you don't need, to rule it out.

   - [Check the temperatures][5], clean the fans. Check the connections, cables and transistors.

   - Check for incorrect motherboard voltages in the BIOS, correct them there.

   - Try to update all the drivers, remove unnecessary boot entries and software.

 - Other reasons:

   - Insufficient/problematic PSU, replace it by a more powerful one.
   - Corruption or faulty system drivers beyond a level that you could fix, a reinstall is required.
   - Faulty hardware, try to replace individual components with spare parts to see if it has an effect.
   - Still have issues? You're asking too much of your system, give it a rest and upgrade... :-)


  [1]: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244139
  [2]: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd996900
  [3]: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315192
  [4]: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427
  [5]: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php