HArdware whirring slowing down PC
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nickmax1




Posts: 24

PostPosted: Thu, 27th Nov 2008 16:20    Post subject: HArdware whirring slowing down PC
I have a Dell Inspiron , about a year old (2.2 ghz, 2 gig ram, 1TB HD (3 partitions), ati 2600 video card) with Windows XP SP3 installed.
My problem is that every now and then (once or twice a day) the hard drive will slowly start making a grinding noise (as if slowly searching for something) and it takes up 100% of the CPU load. It can take anything up to 10-15 mins to stop and everything will resume as normal.

Its not my antivirus or anything doing some background check as i have tried many different ones (now using bitdefender total 2009)

Is there any way to check to see what programme is doing this? Have refomatted twice before but problem repeats. Is this a memory (virtual/pagefile) or otherwise?!?!?!

help!
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swingman




Posts: 3602

PostPosted: Thu, 27th Nov 2008 16:52    Post subject:
Check in your task manager which application is using 100% cpu at the moment of the freeze. When frozen, the computer will take a long time to access the taskmanager but it will tell you a bit more about the culprit. To avoid mucking around with the mouse hit the trusty old ctrl-alt-del to bring up the taskmanager a bit quicker.
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nickmax1




Posts: 24

PostPosted: Thu, 27th Nov 2008 17:58    Post subject:
cant access the task manager, even with ctrl-alt-del , when the hard drive stops the task man will pop up but by then the "culprit" will have gone.

I cannot predict when the hard drive is going to do its thing either so i cant have it open in anticipation.
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swingman




Posts: 3602

PostPosted: Thu, 27th Nov 2008 19:31    Post subject:
Does the freeze happen at a random moment or when you try to open some file? Did you have that partition system on all your installs? Maybe run a disk check util to eliminate the obvious hardware failure possibilty.
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nickmax1




Posts: 24

PostPosted: Thu, 27th Nov 2008 19:42    Post subject:
it happens randomly, happened last night whilst watching an .avi (futurama or something) and has happened simply downloading a torrent, or whilst streaming .avi to my xbox 360....weird. Maybe the hard drive is on the fritz but i have checkdisked it, defragged it, diagnosed it to death with no problems.

All of my hard drives are partitioned.
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Avenger007




Posts: 95

PostPosted: Thu, 27th Nov 2008 21:40    Post subject: Re: HArdware whirring slowing down PC
nickmax1 wrote:
Is this a memory (virtual/pagefile) or otherwise?!?!?

If this is the case then maybe a (background) program you're running has a memory leak. Monitor the memory for a while to confirm/rule out this possibility.
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nickmax1




Posts: 24

PostPosted: Fri, 28th Nov 2008 12:16    Post subject:
Avenger007,
Excuse my ignorance but how do i "monitor" memory? Is there some software i can get that can check this out for me?
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Lutzifer
Modzilla



Posts: 12740
Location: ____________________ **** vegan zombie **** GRRAAIIINNSS _______
PostPosted: Fri, 28th Nov 2008 12:44    Post subject:
the easiest way is to use the taskmanager. It lists how much memory is used up by a program. If any of the running processes eat up more and more over time, you ll see it there.
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moosenoodles




Posts: 18411

PostPosted: Fri, 28th Nov 2008 12:49    Post subject:
nickmax1 wrote:
Avenger007,
Excuse my ignorance but how do i "monitor" memory? Is there some software i can get that can check this out for me?


Leave task manager open after you boot up.......its handy if u got 2 screens as u can always leave it in view if ur playing a game or something else and it locks up..

p.s Hello Lutz banhammer, greetings to j00... lol
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Lutzifer
Modzilla



Posts: 12740
Location: ____________________ **** vegan zombie **** GRRAAIIINNSS _______
PostPosted: Fri, 28th Nov 2008 13:07    Post subject:
hey, it was only a short temp-ban and you guys kinda deserved it Wink
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moosenoodles




Posts: 18411

PostPosted: Fri, 28th Nov 2008 13:10    Post subject:
Lutzifer wrote:
hey, it was only a short temp-ban and you guys kinda deserved it Wink


I know Razz
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