Computer Problems

cSpooge

Hey guys,


My parents are having a problem with their computer. At random times (approx every 30 seconds) it will hang for a couple seconds then be fine again for a bit. The computer is relatively new (approx 11 months old) and the only non new part in there is their old HD.

I'm leaning towards it being a problem with the HD but I'm not 100% sure, anyone got an other possible ideas on what else it might be if I'm not right with it being the HD?


Thanks.

Fantasma

Maybe Spyware, Adware, Trojans, perhaps disk needs to be defragmented, several TSRs eating resources, old HD, overheating, invalid entries in registry.

Try doing some tune up and maintenance, clean up fans and parts with compressed air, uninstall crap, run a registry cleaner, use a good adware and spyware removing tool.

cSpooge

Fantasma wrote: »

Maybe Spyware, Adware, Trojans, perhaps disk needs to be defragmented, several TSRs eating resources, old HD, overheating, invalid entries in registry.

Try doing some tune up and maintenance, clean up fans and parts with compressed air, uninstall crap, run a registry cleaner, use a good adware and spyware removing tool.

that was my first thought, but doing all that didn't really do anything.

iTunesIsEvil

Have you tried watching the Task Manager to see if some process starts chewing through CPU time when that happens? If it's happening at a given interval like that just open the TM up and watch for something hogging resources.

altmann

defrag. Run in safemode see if problem still persists. If problem persists in safe mode it's most likely hardware or an F-ed up spyware.

cSpooge

iTunesIsEvil wrote: »

Have you tried watching the Task Manager to see if some process starts chewing through CPU time when that happens? If it's happening at a given interval like that just open the TM up and watch for something hogging resources.

the only thing that hits 99% is the system idle proc... which as far as I know it should be doing that when nothing else is running. Its not really a given interval just giving an estimation of the times on it.

TychoCelchuuu

I'd assume that the hard drive is going, but it would be a good idea to run Memtest or run it with one stick of RAM at a time to see if there's anything wrong with the memory.

yotes

To see if you're having HD problems, Start/Run/eventvwr.msc, any disk errors in the System Log = back up everything yesterday.

DO NOT DEFRAG PRIOR TO CHECKING. FOR REALZ.

cSpooge

could it also beat a heat issue by chance?

TychoCelchuuu

I've never heard of heat pausing stuff, but I guess if the processor's throttling down to keep from melting that might happen, or something. If it's an ASUS mobo they can use PCProbe to check on the temp; otherwise there are plenty of ways to see if it's way too hot. Worth checking out, at least.

cSpooge

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

I've never heard of heat pausing stuff, but I guess if the processor's throttling down to keep from melting that might happen, or something. If it's an ASUS mobo they can use PCProbe to check on the temp; otherwise there are plenty of ways to see if it's way too hot. Worth checking out, at least.

Nah its a disk error just from running some tests... Its odd though because windows is reading it as a SCSI drive when its a SATA drive... but I'm taking it in to get repalced today so no biggy.

stigweard

Check mem used / page file used / mem available. It might just be churning because they have less physical memory than the system is using.