OK, hear goes,

 

Last nite, while on the internet, i could hear noises coming from the pc. It was similar to the sort of noise you hear when the hard drive is looking for stuf, but it was a lot more scratchy, as if it had grit in it!!

 

Also this morning it was very slow at start-up, taking about 2 mins before my log-on screen came up :confused:

When it finally sorted itself out, I could hear this noise again along with a noise that sounded like it was switching a relay off. Similar to when you lose your internet conection, but I wasnt on the net at the time.

 

Right, before you ask, yes I have the latest worm patch and ive performed the search on my pc for it as well, so it aint that. I'm at work at the mo, so will see how it goes when I log-on tonight. Unless any of you clever chappies can diagnose it from this discription. Oh and i haven't performed a 'de-frag' recentley, so will do one of them later as well.

 

If it makes any difference i'm running the following;

 

1.8ghz processor

256 ram

60ghz hard drive

Windows XP

AOL 8 (isp)

Norton Anti-Virus and Firewall

Pop-Up Stopper and cleaner

AdAware

and some other bits-and-bobs, but not much.

 

Please help..................or is it fooked :mad:

 

Dave

case off, head in :)

 

listen for the cpu the psu and the harddrive

 

also listen to the graphics card if you have one with a fan, its the only way to track down where the problem lies if you think its mecahnical.

youve probably got some bad sectors, that windows cant access, i have exactly the same problem, when saving to a certain partition, it could hold out or the drive could fail completely, try doing a thorough scandisk and see if it repairs them,

Thanks guys, I'll try the scandisk, as I dont wana open it up at the mo as it's stilled sealed, cus it's under gurantee, and dont wana call out the engineer and find out its something i could do, so he charges me for it :mad: . I'll do the de-frag as well and see if both of them help.

 

Cheers, once again :cool:

 

Dave

 

I knew I'd find some cleaver persons on here who could help. :D

That should be sufficient to push a failing disk over the edge ! LOL ;)

 

I'd recommend backing up any data - whilst it's still there ....

 

 

 

Originally posted by daves_new_ZX

I'll do the de-frag as well and see if both of them help.

Thanks Andy, I'll do that :D Then wait for mi comp to go 'Ti**-Up' :mad:

 

Dave

You cannot do scandisk with Windows XP.

 

Open Command Prompt and run chkdsk /f

 

Then defrag.

 

Have you run Disc Cleanup in System Tools?

almost certainly failing hdd

You should have SMART in your m/c;

 

Is it enabled?

 

Go into set-up and see.

 

(SMART = Self Monitoring And Reporting Technology)

 

Fix-It utilities is a useful suite of programs.

Defrag? I'm sure that should help too.

Thank you very much guys.

 

All your help is very much appreciated. Although some of it was while I was sorting it out when I got home :D

 

Right here goes part two :p ,

 

I got home and booted up, and it took about 2 mins again to come up with the log-on screen, along with the strange noises again.

 

Waited for everything to calm down, then started a De-Frag. Came back about ten mins later and it had only performed 1% :confused: of the De-Frag. Now I'm not a paitent man :D , so I stopped it, cus it would have taken all night at that rate. Then I re-booted the pc, and ....................................... It's alright now :confused: , no noises, scratching, and no waiting. It's performing like it's suposed to!!! ;)

 

So, again, thanks

 

Dave

:D

The analysis tool in Defrag will tell whether you need to run

defrag.

Let it run while you do something else, watching the little

coloured blocks move about is of limited interest.