Problem...please help.

RMFRMF
edited September 2003 in Hardware
Hi Guys.

Since yesterday i have been having a problem with my PC. The problem started out of the blue and for some reason my PC has slowed down to a crawl.

Basically whenever i run almost any kind of program, even mirc my whole system bogs down, and even my mouse pointer jerks when i move it across the desktop. If i look at my CPU usage it is very eratic, going from 0 to 100% and back again constantly. I had figured that there might be a windows problem and restored my ghost image to see if it would fix it, but the problem remains. I also checked my temps with asus prob and they are fine, and i ran MEMtest to see if there was a problem with my RAM, but that is also fine.

If there is anyone who can help me with this problem i would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

Oh, BTW my specs are:

XP 1800+ cpu
ASUS A7V333 M/B
512 MB corsair XMS 2700 RAM
WD1200JB HDD
WD800JB HDD
Liteon DVD ROM
Pioner A06 DVD-RW


Thats about it. TIA
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Comments

  • synezesyneze Ontario, Canada
    edited August 2003
    First step would be to look at your processes and see which one is using 100%.
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited August 2003
    i recently encountered a piece of ad/porn software calling itself kernel32.dlI (not .dll) that would spontaneously eat up all system resources. like he said, look at the task manager to see whats using all the resources (first sort by mem usage, then next by CPU usage, close things that aren't essential) see if you can fix it that way. if it IS a piece of software, run an antivirus scan and something like Ad-Aware
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Thanks for the replies:)

    Ok, i have ran both norton antivirus and adaware but nothing comes up. And the thing is that ive just restored a perfectly good ghost image and it's still doing the same thing which is leading me to believe that there is obviously some kind of hardware problem.

    The process which is using 100% is always any program which i am running at the time, as i said before, even mirc uses almost 100% when i fire it up.

    I'm just about to format my drive and re-install the old fashioned way to see if that will make any difference:(
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited August 2003
    what are your temps like? i'm thinking maybe temp throttling is on cause your CPU is too hot, or i could be completely offbase. as things stand, i dont see how a format and reinstall could hurt
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    My temps are fine:( 42 degrees right now.

    I'll get around to reinstalling tomorrow and let you know if it helps. To tell you the truth i'm a lazy bastid, and i just can't be arsed right now:)

    Thanks again:)
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited August 2003
    A dead/dieing HDD can create unusual system loads and erratic behavior. Stress the HDD subsystem and see if it pukes.

    Also, same for bad cables.

    really, thats about all thats left. Only thing after checking temps, hdd, ram, and system processes would be to start swaping components. I highly highly doubt a mobo failure, but somethings oviously wrong.
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Oh dear. Not another one dying...please no. I have had 3 drives die on me in the last year already, all of them have startd with the letters WD and ended in JB
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Well i just benched the drive, and the results are pretty conclusive. It's not working. Have a look at the attached image to see what i mean.

    :mad:

    I'm going to switch cables and see if it helps.
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Same result with new cables.
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited August 2003
    Well, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I had a feeling it was drive related.

    I had a batch of WD JB's fail, 10 drives all died within weeks of being put into service. I'm seeing dieing Maxtors too, so the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

    The drives that have lasted the longest are the old IBM deathstars. We've got probably 50 of them in service for the last year. HeH, those were the ones I expected to fail ;)
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited August 2003
    Well, acually there is a _slight_ possibility of a bad mobo, and the controller is fubar. Odd's are it is the drive, but I wanted to add there is a chance something on the board is bad.

    I think swaping out that drive will restore your performance.
  • AMD-FanAMD-Fan Virginia Beach
    edited August 2003
    I have had bad luck with IBM drives specifically Deskstar 40gig
    75 GXP drives. I now have Western Digital 80gig Caviar drives
    with 8mb cache and have had no problems at all in raid O. All
    companies have problems with drives from time to time. I think
    if you ask around you can find a better/reliable model regardless
    of whom made it. Not all Toyota's are good but most are great
    if you get what I mean.
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Thanks a lot for the replies:)

    I formatted the drive this morning when i woke up and reinstalled all of my drivers and also all of the apps that i use frequently and then tested again with ATTO. The results seem to be back to normal now.

    I may be going out on a limb here, but i was thinking that maybe the DVD writer i had die on me the other day might have corrupted the drive to the extent that a ghost image wouldn't help. Is that at all possible?

    Here are the results.

    Thanks again for the help so far:)
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited August 2003
    holy crap thats a big difference... looks like you fixed your problem
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Well, it's gone back to 4mb/s again:(. Looks like the drive is screwed.
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited August 2003
    Its not uncommon for dieing drives to have bursts of life. Its what saves my ass in a failure and no backups ;)

    But, I still wouldn't rule out other possibilitys, but that would be the first component I swaped out.
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    This is getting stranger and stranger. The drive finally drew it's last breath yesterdayand as it was only 1 month or so old i returned it to the store immediately for a replacement drive.

    On returning home i promptly installed the drive and set it up accordingly and all seemed to be well again. When i woke up this morning my system had frozen so i hit the reset button to restart it to continue a file i was downloading. When the PC tried to reset i heard the drive spin up...click...spin up....click...spin up...click and so on, so i reset again with the same result.

    I then decided to remove my secondary ide cable so that only that drive was connected and tried to boot and it booted without a hitch.

    I then decided to connect my other drives back up again to see if i could recreate the problem again, but it booted anyway.

    WTH is going on with my PC? Any ideas?


    Thanks in advance again

    :confused:
  • AMD-FanAMD-Fan Virginia Beach
    edited August 2003
    Please tell us about the hardware in your system. Like what
    you have and how it is hooked up in relation to hardrive. Also
    what kind of power supply is in the system?
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    my specs are:

    XP 1800+ cpu
    ASUS A7V333 M/B
    512 MB corsair XMS 2700 RAM
    WD1200JB HDD
    WD800JB HDD
    Liteon DVD ROM
    Pioner A06 DVD-RW
    350 watt PSU

    If you need to know anything else just ask.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2003
    I skimmed thru the thread, so I may have missed it, but what brand of PSU are you using? The fact that the replacement drive refused to spin up, the old drive died, and you had a DVD burner die all within a short period of time implies one thing to me: bad power supply. If it's a generic unit, chuck it, burn it, smash it, blow it up, give it away, whatever- but generic power supplies aren't worth sh!t anymore. They were fine when the P3 was cutting edge, but the P4s, Athlons, and to a lesser extent the Tualatin P3s all REQUIRE a decent power supply. Generic units generally can't cut it anymore. Now, that's not true in all cases, I mean most (non-computer literate) people would consider an AMD cpu a genric cpu... but for the most part, there are only two brands that I would recommend without hesitation (Antec and PC Power & Cooling) and a number of others that are worth considering (basically anything on the AMD Approved Power Supply Vendor list should be decent)

    but yea, if you're running all that on a generic ps, that could very well be your problem.
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    Originally posted by Geeky1
    I skimmed thru the thread, so I may have missed it, but what brand of PSU are you using? The fact that the replacement drive refused to spin up, the old drive died, and you had a DVD burner die all within a short period of time implies one thing to me: bad power supply. If it's a generic unit, chuck it, burn it, smash it, blow it up, give it away, whatever- but generic power supplies aren't worth sh!t anymore. They were fine when the P3 was cutting edge, but the P4s, Athlons, and to a lesser extent the Tualatin P3s all REQUIRE a decent power supply. Generic units generally can't cut it anymore. Now, that's not true in all cases, I mean most (non-computer literate) people would consider an AMD cpu a genric cpu... but for the most part, there are only two brands that I would recommend without hesitation (Antec and PC Power & Cooling) and a number of others that are worth considering (basically anything on the AMD Approved Power Supply Vendor list should be decent)

    but yea, if you're running all that on a generic ps, that could very well be your problem.
    Well the problem has resorted back to exactly the way it was with the drive that i've just had replaced. It's started clicking away again and crashing, and my hdd transfer speeds have gone back to 3 to 4 MB/sec.

    Could a faulty power supply really cause a problem like this? I mean, this drive is only 2 weeks or so old and it's gone exactly the same way as the old one i had, so i have to believe that the problem does not lie with the drives.
  • RobRob Detroit, MI
    edited August 2003
    Weak PSU, improper voltage levels, power line fluctuations, and improper cooling can all cause problems for drives.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2003
    RMF; a bad power supply can easily cause problems like this, as can heat. You'd better check both. What brand of power supply are you using? What size is it? and what is your cooling setup?
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    My CPU temp is currently at 47 degrees at the moment and my mobo is at 38 according to asus probe. That seems to be the standard for me as it's always been somewhere around those temps no matter which cooler i've had in the whole history of the time that i've owned this CPU, which is currently being cooled with a coolermaster X-Dream.

    I'm using a 350 watt PSU. I can't tell which brand at the moment, i'd have to take it out and have a look. I'll do it in the morning when my download is done.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    Your last resort would be a new PSU and I suggest you don't go cheap on them. They can easily phuck up your system. Go with well known brands like Antec, Enermax and other stuff that most people use.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2003
    RMF, ok... the cpu cooler is fine, but what about case fans? the cpu cooler (obviously) won't do anything for the drive, and 7200rpm drives get hot enough to need some airflow...
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    I don't think the cooling is the problem. I have 2x WD's stacked together with a case temp of 48°C and they have been running fine for months.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2003
    blackhawk, most likely it's the ps, however that kind of setup is far from ideal and not recommended at all. You may be faced with a drive failure or two of your own within a year or two of you don't start cooling those things properly.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2003
    Probably but by the time they die I would already need a new one. Gotta have more space for "bible music" :D
  • RMFRMF
    edited August 2003
    I have a really nice case. It's a coolermaster ATC-210-VX2 which has an intake and an out-take fan, and the drives have never felt overly hot. So i don't think that heat is the problem.
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