Random freezes - Maybe not so random

graeme_2 · 13 Feb 2006 at 12:27

Over the past day or two my pc has been suffering from random freezes for a second or two every say 15-20mins. Annoying but I could live with it. Just now its started doing it every few seconds, certainly not acceptable! (Reboot has stopped it for now, but im sure it will start up again soon)

Thing is just before it freezes I can hear one of the hard drives click, could it be this thats causing the problem. And does that mean I should start backing up data before my drive dies on me?

Just done it again

Im gonna go check if my drives are healthy, got hdtune installed. (Just done it again, for 30secs this time :mad:

)

The only thing ive changed recently is the cpu and chipset cooler, and this is a fresh install of windows. (3 times in that sentence!)

Any help would be appreciated.

Defcon5 · 13 Feb 2006 at 13:26

Have you run memtest and occt/prime?

Blue Cypher · 13 Feb 2006 at 13:33

I would back everythin up, it does sound like the hdd is struggling there, computers tend to freeze or lock up if it cant find the information on a hdd, but you say you just got a new procesor too? well you could try talkin th cpu out and putting it back in to see if it was in properly, but i really doubt its that, maybe you should think about a new hdd.

graeme_2 · 13 Feb 2006 at 13:41

but you say you just got a new procesor too?

No Looking back it does look like that, what i actually meant was a new cpu cooler and chipset cooler.
Ran hdtune on my main drive, everything is fine there. However my second drive has now disappeared, and it seems the freezing has stopped. Looks like I have found the culprit, as that drive contains my page file so I guess it was trying to acess that.

Now then how to back up from a drive that isnt being recognised, and perhaps more importantly where to put it all!

Blue Cypher · 13 Feb 2006 at 13:46

Originaly posted by Graeme 2
Now then how to back up from a drive that isnt being recognised, and perhaps more importantly where to put it all!

Thats the Million Dollar question!

graeme_2 · 13 Feb 2006 at 14:52

Well this is odd. I thought I would check the warranty status on the drive. Its still covered, but they ask you to run powermax (their diagnostic program) on the drive first. I ran it, did the tests that dont delete any data and it comes up fine. All tests passed. The drive is now recognised again and its not freezing. Although it did make a loud clunk whilst testing.

Might just get the thing replaced anyway. They will even send the new drive out first so I can copy data across, which is good of them.

Edit: It came back! Windows just popped up with a delayed write error as well. Time to rma it.

Blue Cypher · 13 Feb 2006 at 15:00

Hey yeah thats a good turn up! I wouldnt trust drives that make "clunking" sounds myself.