Re: Lock, Freeze, Hang, Crash?

[Beverly Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH1 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL>]

Michael Collier <mci -at- LUBRIZOL -dot- COM> asked about lock, freeze,
hang, and crash. Here's my idea of what the words mean, from a
user's standpoint:

Lock:  Everything locks up. Keyboard input has no reaction and
the mouse no longer functions. Dead in the water. A warm boot
(ctrl-alt-del) usually won't work. A system reset, or cold
boot, is the only solution.

Freeze and Hang: These two are very similar. Some functions
appear to lock up, while other functions remain operable. For
example, the computer may freeze while reading in a file. The
read operation kinda hangs there in an incomplete state, yet
using the mouse you can still pull down menus or switch to other
windows. Sometimes, especially if you're on-line, this situation
can be waited out and normal operation will eventually resume.

Crash: This is when whatever you're doing just disappears into
thin air. The computer either leaves you sitting at a DOS
prompt--with or without an error message--or spontaneously
reboots. This is similar to spontaneous combustion, except
there is usually no smoke.

Who needs a more technical term? I think the above terms are
fairly widely understood by most computer users.  8-)

   =*=   Beverly Parks -- bparks -at- huachuca-emh1 -dot- army -dot- mil   =*=
   =*=     Huachuca : That's pronounced "wah-CHEW-ka"     =*=
   =*= "Unless otherwise stated, all comments are my own. =*=
   =*=   I am not representing my employer in any way."   =*=