# Computer freezes after starting task - needs a manual reboot

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/computer-freezes-after-starting-task-needs-a-manual-reboot/40038>\
**Category:** Builder\
**Created:** [May 14, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/computer-freezes-after-starting-task-needs-a-manual-reboot/40038 "2024-05-14T18:13:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nanraj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nanraj](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/nanraj)\
**Post date:** [May 14, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/computer-freezes-after-starting-task-needs-a-manual-reboot/40038/1 "2024-05-14T18:13:41Z")

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- Computer freezes on the “Attempting to measure frame rate…” screen when attempting to run the task (the computer must be manually powered down in order to restore function, as even ctrl-alt-delete doesn’t work).

- Before launching the task, we receive no errors, except for a “warning” that certain parameters are not known to this version of psychopy but have come from our experiment file (saved by a future version of PsychoPy?) and that our experiment may not run correctly in the current version.

- However, I’ve downloaded the most recent version of psychopy (2024.1.4), and attempted to run it not only in the latest version, but also 2023, and 2022, without any luck.

Please help.

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**Author:** ![TParsons](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/tparsons/32/8301_2.png) [@TParsons](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/TParsons)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 9:24am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/computer-freezes-after-starting-task-needs-a-manual-reboot/40038/2 "2024-05-15T09:24:23Z")

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I think the first thing to try is running in pilot mode - click the toggle in the Builder toolbar to switch between pilot and running modes (the Run button should change to be orange) and then try running. This will run the experiment in widowed mode so you can at least terminate it without shutting down your whole computer. If you do that, do you get any further information in the Runner window once it’s closed?

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**Author:** ![nanraj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ba9def/32.png) [@nanraj](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/nanraj)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 9:02pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/computer-freezes-after-starting-task-needs-a-manual-reboot/40038/3 "2024-05-15T21:02:53Z")

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Hi there, I tried running the task in pilot mode, and while it launched in windowed mode, the computer unfortunately froze again, and I was only able to exit by manually restarting. I’ve attached an image of the information that displayed when I attempted to run the task.

 ![IMG_2551](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/uploads/psychopy/original/3X/1/a/1a70c009b345ff7ee20cca361e4d4d1285b78a9a.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TParsons](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/tparsons/32/8301_2.png) [@TParsons](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/TParsons)\
**Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 9:52am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/computer-freezes-after-starting-task-needs-a-manual-reboot/40038/4 "2024-05-16T09:52:39Z")

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Is it your entire computer that freezes? If so that sounds like maybe something in the experiment is filling up your RAM or something - do you have any large stimuli, or stimuli loaded in a loop with the potential to be infinite?