my computer is dying, help me

unwashed potato! · 21 Aug 2007 at 22:26

well i have no clue what is up with my pc but its driving me crazy.

its freezing every 1-5 seconds for 1-5 seconds with everything its doing, like the music is playing for a few seconds, freeze for a few seconds, play for a few seconds etc, same with firefox, browsing through folders etc

i am about to do a virus check but just see if any thing else i can do to see whats up with it.

when checking what processes are running none seemto be there out of the ordinery or taking up much memory.

please help

marc2003 · 21 Aug 2007 at 22:35

possibly hardware on it's way out? try downloading a diagnostic test from whoever manufactured your hard disk.

UniqueID · 21 Aug 2007 at 22:46

sounds like the computer is having trouble processing, how does the cpu usage look like in the task manager after one of these freezes?
otherwise yeah mobo/processer issue it sounds like.

unwashed potato! · 21 Aug 2007 at 23:29

UniqueID said:
sounds like the computer is having trouble processing, how does the cpu usage look like in the task manager after one of these freezes?
otherwise yeah mobo/processer issue it sounds like.

its stopped for the moment, though iknow it will be back as it went a came back a bit ago. Next time i notice i will have a look.

marc2003 said:
possibly hardware on it's way out? try downloading a diagnostic test from whoever manufactured your hard disk.

the hard drive is a samsung, i just googled and couldn't find what your talking about. where can i find waht i need?

marc2003 · 21 Aug 2007 at 23:48

your google powers are weak.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html

unwashed potato! · 22 Aug 2007 at 10:07

marc2003 said:
your google powers are weak.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html

thanks for that, seems a bit difficult though to do, not just a download and run sort of thing but i will give it a go.

looking at the cpu usage when its doing the freezing it is at 0% when it freezes, and then either 1% or 2% when its not, which can last for same random time, like 10 minutes, then 2, then 20 etc. Does this mean possibly the cpu is breaking? if so do they come with any garrenty over a year?

unwashed potato! · 23 Aug 2007 at 00:16

ok well after reading fully how to do the suggested diagnositc test i think i will leave it for a moment unless nothing else happens as it seems like a lot of work, e.g. having to backup all my files.

anyway some more information that may help in find a source of the problem:

the other i downloaded wamp (the windows php sql etc thing) so thought maybe that will be possible maybe its trying to connect or something and is taking all of the power? i uninstalled it and problem still there. so it might not be this but thought maybe it was a well known problem or somethintg that wamp does this?

when watching stuff on youtube the sound screws up big time, like crackles, freezes, goen if the video is playing, but music from winamp can be fine, though it isn't always but firefox sound can screw up whilst any other is still good. any thing i can do to test this?

i did a spyware check with spybot and virus check with aol's active virus shield finding nothing unuausal wth spyware and no virus.

when shutting down the pc goes same normal speed as before, and starting up i think is fine unti desktop starts loading making me think this is software and i pray pray pray not hardware, pray.

as it can sometimes go and then the freezing comes back also making me think its not hardware.

Im thinking mauybe a fresh install of windows is called for, only problem is my version of windows isn't too legit so worried reinstalling may leave me with having to go out and buy vista, which is fine as i will soon anyway but don't want to be left without the net to find out which i should get.

so anything else anyone can think of which will help find out the problem?

i changed the cpu usuage refresh rate and when freezing it goes still at 0% but when not freezing can be up to 80%, anyway finding out whats taking all the power? and also why it then goes to 0%

thanks, love you all

unwashed potato! · 23 Aug 2007 at 21:29

anyone able to help? the problem has gotten so bad now that it never isn't freezing.

i have been backing up files from copying them to other computers on the network but its taking forever to copy just one file, e.g. malcoml in the middle it takes around 30minutes to copy one episode,maybe more

this now making me think its almost certainly a hardware problem, and infact the harddrive.

i did a diagnostic test with Freshdiagnose, and it said the write speed of the hard drive is very slow, 0.39mb/s in fact. is thatlikely to be the problem? if so is it fixable and if not who doi contact about getting it fixed as its still in warrenty afaik.

marc2003 · 23 Aug 2007 at 21:51

have you ran the test i linked to? :confused:

Hutil (The Drive Diagnostic Utility) is made with the aim of testing a Samsung hard disk drive while it is installed inside a PC, regardless of the status of user's operating system.

unwashed potato! · 23 Aug 2007 at 22:00

marc2003 said:
have you ran the test i linked to?

trying to but seriously no clue how i go about running it? so i downloaded the Hutil204 (for fdd).exe and hutil_bootcd (for cdrom drive).zip

whaton earth do i do next lol?

im trying to understand what its telling me to do but seriously i don't understand how i run it. Please could you be so kind as to explain?

marc2003 · 23 Aug 2007 at 22:10

you'll need a cd -writer and a blank cd. the cdrom zip file contains an iso file which you need to burn as an image disk. use imgburn to do this. now boot from the cd and it will check your drive.

www.imgburn.com

unwashed potato! · 23 Aug 2007 at 22:33

marc2003 said:
you'll need a cd -writer and a blank cd. the cdrom zip file contains an iso file which you need to burn as an image disk. use imgburn to do this. now boot from the cd and it will check your drive.

www.imgburn.com

ah much easier, now i understand. ok i will do that in a second as its doing a disk check at the moment and its not looking good.

i think its called disk check, when you right click my computer, tools tab, then first check now button.

anyway it was saying each segment was unreadable, and is now deleteing index entries, whatever those are.

looking like its the harddrive so hopefully not going to cost much to fix.

ill do the test after its done the current one if you think its still needed?

unwashed potato! · 27 Aug 2007 at 23:08

how do i boot from cd?