# Random or General Lockups

Sometimes a lockup is accompanied by a blank screen or a screen on which the mouse does not react to movement. In this case, there are a few ways to try to get the system to respond:

- Hold down the Alt button and press the Tab key. (This should minimize the window.)

- Hold down the Alt key and press the F4 key. (This should close the current window.)

- If your keyboard has one, press the Windows key. (This should bring up the Windows Start menu.)

- Hold down the Ctrl key and the Alt key, then press the Delete key. This will bring up the Task Manager. (From here you can manually shut down the game.)

If these steps fail to get you out of the lockup, you will have to restart your system. If you cannot turn the system off normally try holding down the power button for ten seconds.

Once the computer is back up, try the following to troubleshoot this situation:

- Make sure your system meets the minimum requirements for the game.

How to find the minimum requirements for the game

- Make sure your drivers and system files are as up to date as possible. The computer might be giving an instruction to a device that simply does not know how to proceed.

How to update drivers

- Make sure that there are no extra programs running in the background that might interfere with the game’s execution.

How to end your background tasks

- Some of these lockups could be sound related. Lowering sound acceleration is a good way to test this.

How to change your sound acceleration

- Check to make sure you have installed the most recent patch available for the game. To check for new patches:

1. Click the Start button (Windows button for Windows Vista) on the Windows Taskbar.

2. Select All Programs.

3. Click the game folder. (The default should be in the EA Games or EA Sports folder.)

4. Click the Check for Update or Auto-Update icon. (This will force the game to check for updates.)

If the above steps fail, uninstall the game completely and then reinstall it. Also, you may try the game on a separate computer. If the same thing happens, then it could be a defective disk.