Need some help please!!

[tcthegreat]

Hey there.

Alright my computer constantly is freezing. Im fairly certain it is my hard drive because when it freezes it makes a funny sound. It made the same sound with my old hard drive untill I got a new one then it stopped for months and now keeps freezing again.

Does anyone know how to stop this? could it be cause I am downloading and uploading too much for my harddrive to handle thats all I can really think of unless. I also left my old hard drive in for extra storage is there a way that this harddrive could still be affecting my computer eve tho it is not in use? Thanks a lot

[LPDad]

We need a whole lot more info than you have provided.

A harddrive should be lasting 3+ years under moderate workload conditions.
What is your OS?
What kind of Harddrives are you running?? (size=?? age=??)
What temps are you running on your processor/mobo?

What kind of freezes are they?? bluescreen, simple lockups, etc?
Error messages if any??
have you CLEANED your HSF and intake fans??

more info, specific info would help.

[berks]

my old computer used to do this all the time. I tried a lot of different things to fix the problem but in the end i reformatted my computer and the problems was gone. This in my opinion would be the last resort unless you like doing.

[tcthegreat]

The HD is a brand new maxtor 80 gig HD.
My 40 gig western digital did it
and also the other 80gig maxtor froze the same way. im running windows xp. its not the os cause i had 2000 pro on it as well same thing. i dont know what the temperature is or how to clean the fans out tho? The freeze is just locks and make a sound repeating sound Thanks

[RipperRoo]

considering that fact that you have tryed it with 2 different hard drives and 2 different operating systems and the problem is still happening, i wouldnt expect the freeze to be caused by the hard drive,
LP's suggestion of cleaning the dust buildup from your heat sink and fan on your cpu and cleaning out the dust buildup from your case fans would be the best way to go, even if overheating isnt the problem, its a good idea to keep things clean.

what are you doing with your pc when it locks up, is the system under heavy load?

if you want to find out the temp your cpu is running at, motherboard monitor is the program you need, and its available from the link below, other app's in the list that might help are SANDRA Standard benchmarking and diagnostic utilities (Shareware) & the CPU Stability Test (Freeware)

LINK

[LO There!]

It does sound like it's S/W locking your sys.
As to why? when the OS runs out of RAM it does save to the HD! - could be, just that, this is what's is happening?! ie the sound!
however you may also have a bad program running, which is not giving back the ram to the OS, = freezing!
List what's running when it freezes.
Have a look at your startup! stop any programs. ART etc that you do not use everyday.
Can't think of anything else at the moment, so best of luck.

[rastagard]

I went through several hard drives a few months back. They would clunk, then freeze. Sometimes I could get them to run, sometimes that was all she wrote.


It was always the drive with my OS on it and even though the store gave me a new replacement it was a major hassle.


I never figured out exactly what caused the problem, but I am pretty sure it was from heat buildup in my old case. I have since built a new machine, with a large spacious case and 6 fans and have had no more problems.


My old Dell came with a 12 gig HDD originally and a single fan in the back.It was never meant to hold 3 80 gig HDDs. I also had all the expansion slots filled. I had added 2 extra fans, but the case wasn't made to accept any extra fans so their effect was debatable.I started to keep the side panel off and that helped. But to say air circulation in that case was poor would be an understatement.


I would be interested to know the specs of your computer, especially how many fans