I am having a hard time pinpointing the problem.

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tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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Oct 11, 2011
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Hey all,

So, lately my computer has been plagued by a lot of strange issues. When I start the computer it hangs at the "starting windows" screen for at least ten minutes. I can't hear hard drive activity of any kind while it sits at this screen either. After that ten minutes I'll hear it start tapping into the hard drive and bam it loads up fine. Now once it is up and running it is generally fine but lately it has been acting up during regular usage too. I will be on the internet and it will constantly go into not responding for just a few seconds. Sometimes i'll click an application and the computer will become unresponsive and then freeze for 2 or 3 minutes. It generally comes out of these not responding episodes but I cannot figure out what's wrong. I thought it might be the GPU drivers so i rolled them back to the most recent non-beta driver and it just crashed. The psu is going on 4 or 5 years old same with the RAM, the rest of the system is only about a year or two old.

Specs are in my sig.

Let me know if you need more in depth information.

Thanks
 
Solution
Tom Tancredi
Okay that in Safe Mode (which DOES NOT load stuff on startup) does the same thing as normal boot, means it is highly likely a issue hardware wise, which narrows it down to the HDD, I/O on the Mobo, RAM and PSU, least likely a virus, but can hide in the MBR (called a root kit) which alot of times can't be detected. The DBAN solution just wipes it out that way and lets your Windows go really clean.

First I would open it up and clear out the dust inside with canned air, as well as use a paint brush on the grills, fans and vents on all components (PSU, GPU, CPU). Then I would download and run Memtest against the RAM, as well as HDTUNE to test the drive.
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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Okay lets do some obviouses;
1) Boot the computer but hit F8 when you see the BIOS (white text black background) and go into Safe Mode. Does it do it then as well?
2) If it doesn't do it in SAFE mode then you have something slowing it down when in normal mode or your profile is messed up.
3) If it still does it in SAFE mode then either Windows has a issue or your hardware has a issue. The obvious easier step, run Windows Easy Transfer to backup your data to a external drive. Download and use DBAN to wipe the drive, do a clean install of Windows, run Windows Update for all updates and options (NOT Bing), then install drivers (Use Slim Drivers to make sure they are up to date). Download from www.filehippo.com AVAST! or AVG and install. Download and install MSI Afterburner.
By doing all these steps each layer challenges the system in another way, so we see if we can 'cause' a problem thus narrowing down the level where the issue occurs, if it does pop up again at all.

That would be my steps to see if it resolves the issue or not immediately via software, then look to testing the hardware against this 'good image'.
 
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tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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It's a terabyte and it's not even half full so that isn't the problem. I booted in safe mode and ran virus scans nothing came up but it did take forever to load up. It took about the same amount of time actually. It said "booting in safe mode" etc then it went to a black screen and stayed their idling for a good ten minutes. I will try running a check on windows and then i'll attempt a clean install if nothing else helps. By the way, is there a way to check and see if it is possibly a program that is making it hang on startup? I think I might try nuking the hdd because I really don't have anything of importance on it. I'll do a fresh install and then see if the issue persists. Would creating multiple partitions possibly help in the future?
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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Okay that in Safe Mode (which DOES NOT load stuff on startup) does the same thing as normal boot, means it is highly likely a issue hardware wise, which narrows it down to the HDD, I/O on the Mobo, RAM and PSU, least likely a virus, but can hide in the MBR (called a root kit) which alot of times can't be detected. The DBAN solution just wipes it out that way and lets your Windows go really clean.

First I would open it up and clear out the dust inside with canned air, as well as use a paint brush on the grills, fans and vents on all components (PSU, GPU, CPU). Then I would download and run Memtest against the RAM, as well as HDTUNE to test the drive.
 
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Solution
tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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Ok I will dust it off and try out memtest and hdtune and see if that helps. The RAM and PSU are the oldest pieces in my computer so I would point to them first as the culprits. We'll see what happens with that. If all else fails i'll try and reformat and reinstall windows. If that fails well, I'm not sure what to do then.
 
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tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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Yeah I defraged the drive, ran all the standard checks on files etc etc. No errors were found in any of those tests. I'm trying out memtest right now nothing is showing up as of yet and the first pass is 80%. I'm going to let it run overnight but usually if the RAM has an issue it'll show up right away. I'll try hdtune if this yields nothing.

 
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tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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Ok so nothing showed up for memtest but i did do hdtune and the graph looks odd. I don't know exactly what it means but I'll post a pic here.

GetAttachment.aspx
 
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tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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Well the picture didn't really work well but I can give you the results at least.

Under Transfer rate:
Minimum: 18.7 MB/sec
Maximum: 130 MB/sec
Average: 96.9 MB/sec

Access Time: 23.3 ms
Burst Time: 144.0
CPU Usage: -1.0%

Hopefully you can kind of get an idea of the graph from that little picture.
 
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Tom Tancredi

Tom Tancredi

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Okay so we sort of eliminated alot here in this process. Based on what you found I would try the following:

Go see if there is any BIOS updates to the Mobo.
We have assumed all through this no OCing, correct?
I would do first is eliminate Windows as a issue, run from the Orb Windows Easy Transfer to backup your data. Then download and run DBAN to wipe the drive. Do a clean Windows Install, do all updates including options (except Bing), then install all drivers also using Slim Drivers to make sure they are up to date. During this if you see on a BootOS (DBAN) and reboot (after the wipe) the system is still doing the same thing (your pulling data from CD then from HDD) that would indicate then it is a I/O issue and then the Motherboard. If DBAN works 'faster' then the HDD, then your HDD is dying.
 
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tatter_punch

tatter_punch

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It was the hdd actually. I threw in my old 750gb and it booted right up no problems. It's weird nothing showed up on hdtune with the old one.The PSU and RAM could be on their way out as well however. They are getting fairly old but for now, the hdd was the problem. I just reformatted the drive and installed 7. Thanks for all of your help all, much appreciated.
 
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