My computer freezes/stutters

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cr00mz

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Sep 8, 2014
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I have a problem with my computer freezing stuttering quite often. I suspect it is the HDD but i do not know how to fix it, i have done malware scans, virus scans, i even tried Memtest thinking it might be a problem with the RAMs.

But i believe it is the HDD because whenever these freezes occur the light on the PC (a light with a cylinder underneath) shines constantly. These freezes vary in length, from short 2-3 seconds to longer upwards of 30 seconds, depening on what i am doing or have done. During gaming these freezes last a lot longer than during regular internet browsing. If there is anything else that i need to provide just ask and i will try my best.

Thanks in advance.
 
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olsaltydog

olsaltydog

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Can you agt least give some of the specs on your PC, the light you mention does indicated activity with the HDD but knowing what your playing and what your playing on can help inform us if you are just bottlenecking or if the actual HDD is getting ready to crap the bed. Even then if you think the system is getting ready to crash, try and make a system back up or file backup asap. You may have a few corrupted files but it should salvage some of your belongings on your pc.
 
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cr00mz

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Here are the specs

Corsair VX 550W PSU
ATX 12V V2.2, 80 Plus, Standard, 1x 6pin, 1x 6+2-p

ASUS P5Q SE2, P45, Socket-775
DDR2, ATX, GbLAN, ICH10, PCI-Ex(2.0)16

Intel Core? 2 Quad Q9400 2,66GHz,
Socket 775, 6MB, 1333MHz, Boxed med fläkt

ASUS GeForce GTX 660 2GB DirectCU II OC PH (GTX660-DC2OCPH-2GD5)

Lite-On DVD+RW burner IHAS124-19
SuperAllWrite, 24x8x16DVD+RW, SATA, Black

Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2GB
Kit w/two matched Value Select 1024MB

Corsair Value S. PC5300 DDR2 2GB
Kit w/two matched Value Select 1024MB

Western Digital Caviar GreenPower 500GB
Sata 3 Gb/s, 32MB Cache

Seagate Barracuda® 2TB
SATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3.0), 64MB Cache, 7200RPM, 3.5"

Additional information:

This has been going on for months, so I don't know how serious it is the hdd has not died yet. The Seagate HDD is bought 6 months ago, so if there is a problem i think it must be the WesternDigital one, perhaps i could install windows on the seagate and remove the westerndigital?

Some more information, my DVDrom does not work, i can open it and put discs in it, but it will not read the discs. Could this have something to do with the freezings?

last bit of information, i have run chkdsk and it found no errors. I have reformated the computer, but that did not help. I have tried the westerndigital officla HDD diagnostics program but it found no errors. I have CrsytalDisc S.M.A.R.T program, and it shows reallocated sectors count as 0.

The games i run are Diablo 3 Teamfortress 2 and Left 4 Dead 2, very resource light games

I am not a computer wizard, but i very much doubt it has to do with bottlenecking. Thing is i can just sit and listen to music through youtube and have everything just momentarily freeze.

The hardrive is 5 years old in november, so i suppose it is quite old.

If you need more information just ask.
 
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olsaltydog

olsaltydog

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With a drive that old, I always put the failure as incoming, it will be only a matter of time. You can swap the OS to the Seagate which could not only solve your problem but give you enough time to start looking into a new build. Lets be honest though, your system has some old stuff in comparison to today's parts, and the speed of everything trying to run today could bog your system down. Add in the older drive and your speed issue could be cumulative. At this time you could start having any problem from caps, chips to anything going bad. I would not recommend investing more into this rig, but start looking into another.
 
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cr00mz

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Yes i suppose you are right. I do not have the money for a new computer right now. But when i decide to upgrade or build a new one. What can i keep and what can i replace? Where i live a upgradekit consisting of motherboard+cpu+ram can be purchaased. My GPU and Seagte HDD are no more than 6 months old so obivously i will keep them. Can i keep my Tower? my PSU? etc. etc.

Thanks again.
 
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olsaltydog

olsaltydog

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That is an added option to increase RAM, he can go up to 16GB with his motherboard. I just wasnt sure if spending that bit of money on DDR2 at this point would be worth it versus saving it for updating the entire system. Your thoughts on when to possibly forgo an upgrade like that and just endure for a few till you can upgrade entirely?
 
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cr00mz

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Nope not hitting 4 GB. It usually stays at around 2-3 gb though depending on how many tabs i have open in Firefox. Right now 2 tabs, VLC (music) and uTorrent and it sits at 2,11 GB, but perhaps that is normal?
 
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delellod123

delellod123

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I agree with the full upgrade. Old chipset, old ram, old low clocked CPU all going to hold you back. DDR2 ram is expensive, now that it is so old (on that note, all ram is now expensive for whatever reason).

What is the CPU temperature prior to Freeze? old computer, maybe a fan died or the Thermal paste dried up?
 
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cr00mz

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Sep 8, 2014
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I will check CPU temp, I doubt it is thermal paste as i have replaced it twice in the past 1-2 years. I dont know about fan, i have 2 fans i think. One on the CPU, and one in the back that just sits in the tower.

I still think it's the HDD, but i have not been able to find errors, is there perhaps some other tests i can do? As i said this has been going on for months, perhaps over a year. If the HDD was going to die, wouldnt it have done that already? Will try to remove install windows to the new HDD to the weekend and see if that has any effect.
 
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olsaltydog

olsaltydog

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Some times you wont find any errors, as the errors in a hard drive might only happen while the freezes are occurring, other then that the system is working fine so no errors. The problem with older systems are components become less stable and minor issues can began building into a catastrophic failure. Take a HDD for example, one may have it on for a while and the it runs fine, finally power the system down and the drive may not start again. Micro cracks found in chips may not go noticed while the chip is expanded under heat, let it cool and the crack breaks the link and you have a failed chip.
 
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