HDD causing massive stutter in games

almightydutch · 30 Nov 2011 at 12:04

Recently I have been experiencing massive stuttering in games. Now i'm not talking of fractions of a second stutter, i'm talking 2-5s lock ups of the game.
It seems to be mainly when playing BF2BC2 (not played much else recently as I cant play BF3 as my rig isnt exactly new, still C2D [email protected] and 9800GTX)

Anyway, whilst playing and i get this lag I have noticed the HDD is making a very straneg noise....almost like beeping but in a mechanical way. I have a feeling that the HDD is about to die but I have ran what tests I know, including a SMART monitoring function whilst playing the game and it brings up no errors at all. Is there a definitive HDD tool that could check for all possibilities of a dying drive?

One thing I have noticed is that my PC in general feels slightly laggy at the moment. Not 5s lock ups like in games but certainly not as responsive as it should be. Again brings me back to thinking my HDD is on it way out but without having another drive to stick in and try a reinstall I'm a bit stuck and would like as much help as I can get.

almightydutch · 30 Nov 2011 at 12:24

4gb Ram installed but in an XP system so 3.(whatever) it can use.

I am planning an upgrade over Crimbo to i5/2500k/SSD which will have Win 7

almightydutch · 30 Nov 2011 at 14:02

Is there any other kind of gaming?

I have BT FTTC, so have 37meg/8.5meg broadband. Ping time is always 12ms or less so i dont think its broadband as its always rocketship downloading/surfing/gaming and from what I can tell it never drops out.

This is a definate hardware issue, there is too much lag on the PC in general terms. All spyware/malware/virus checks reveal nothing and no unwanted processes lurking about. To be fair i run with 28-32 processes when gaming depending on what I load up so there isnt any nasties in the OS causing it.

What are the best HDD testing tools about? something that could potentially spot temp problems on the drive like, failing to spin up properly, or catching errors fo the drive?

almightydutch · 30 Nov 2011 at 14:23

Ahh didnt think of manufacturers testing tools. DOH!!!!

I'll have to check what it is as I cant remember whilst i'm at work.

Would the mechanical beeping worry you? I've messed with computers for years and have never heard anything like it? Its almost like the drive is spinning back up but its not quite the same noise so it does worry me as last night i had almost 8s of it before the gameplay came back to normal and the noise stopped.

almightydutch · 30 Nov 2011 at 19:54

Back up's in process as we speak. Found an old 250 Gb drive at work. It wont fit everything but i'll get enough including wiping some crap of my only other drive.

Credit card at the ready too though, i can feel a shiny Christmas coming on.