PC laggy and sluggish when connecting additional hard drives

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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Hey guys, weird problem here. The 2TB internal drive in my PC started slowly dying in December, and my brother got me an SSD for Christmas. I installed it, and it works amazing, flawlessly, and I love it. When I attempted to make my old dying drive a secondary hard drive, Windows recognized it fine (despite the SATA connection broken off) and I was able to salvage what I wanted from it. The speed of the transfer was blazing, and I was pretty happy, but I noticed Windows getting insanely laggy and sluggish.

The mouse would stop moving every few inches, and the keyboard would stop responding. Instead of normal lag, such as me typing this sentence, nothing happening, and then it appearing in full a few seconds later, when the lag would catch up...it would be a jumble of letters. For example, if I typed "wow my computer is going slow right now" it would come out "wom mpui gin sright n". That's a new type of lag for me, as my PC has never had issues. I assumed this was due to the death of the drive, and Windows having problems recognizing it or reading it. Sure enough, when I disconnected it, everything ran smoothly.

I have an iOmega 2TB external drive (LDHD-UP3 - don't judge, it was on sale) that I'm not too fond of but I use regularly for storage and backup. I usually have it plugged into the back of my PC, and this presents a whole other issue (which I need another thread for), but I've dealt with it fine and it normally works all right. However, I found out it's USB 3.0 compatible, and my PC has 2 3.0 outlets on the top, so I wanted to keep it plugged into there. But, when I do that, I experience that exact same type of lag as before, when the internal hard drive was plugged in. It's persistent and near-constant, but it stops the second I turn off the hard drive.

I've disabled antivirus, I've ran disckchecks, I've formatted...none of it makes a difference. Does anyone know what would be causing this with 2 separate hard drives connected in completely different ways? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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Sorry, I should have done that in the first place. Here's a screenshot of my system details, let me know if it's missing anything.

WjPWbqe.png
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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I actually never thought about that. That's pretty weird.

qRvRo8a.png
 
So out of 10gb, you have 2gb free. Why is 3gb cached?

It would lso help if you could post your complete and detailed build.

eg

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
Storage: Seagate 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Hybrid Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Video Card
Case: Corsair Graphite Series 230T Orange ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus BW-16D1HT Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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CPU: AMD FX-8150 Eight-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Liquid Cooling
Motherboard: Gigabyte 2AC8
Memory: 10.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 664MHz (9-9-9-24)
Storage: Crucial 512GB CT512MX100SSD1 SATA Disk Device
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series 2GB
Optical Drive: hp BDDVDRW CH28N SATA CdRom Device
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1

I have this, with a modified graphics card and hard drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883157329

I also have no idea why my RAM would be cached. It wasn't me, as I don't even know how to do that.
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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Modified HP. This is everything I could pull up:

Manufacturer Gigabyte
Model 2AC8 (CPU 1)
Chipset Vendor AMD
Chipset Model RD9x0
Chipset Revision 02
Southbridge Vendor AMD
Southbridge Model SB910/950
Southbridge Revision 40
System Temperature 43 °C
BIOS
Brand AMI
Version Ang_716
Date 4/5/2012
Voltage
CPU CORE 1.380 V
MEMORY CONTROLLER 1.512 V
+3.3V 2.892 V
+5V 4.959 V
+12V 8.112 V
-12V (8.880) V
-5V (8.880) V
+5V HIGH THRESHOLD 2.782 V
CMOS BATTERY 1.620 V
PCI Data
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x16
Slot Designation J6B2
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 0
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x1
Slot Designation J6B1
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 1
Slot PCI-E
Slot Type PCI-E
Slot Usage In Use
Data lanes x1
Slot Designation J6D1
Characteristics 3.3V, Shared, PME
Slot Number 2
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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Small update, I just noticed it's actually lagging literally everything. When it's acting up, web pages won't load. They'll either hang on a loading spiral or say it couldn't be reached. The second I switch it off, they load fine. WTF could be causing that?? I hope it's not the motherboard. :-/
 
If you've loaded a lot of stuff, it could be the ram. There's only 4gb free.

It could be your power supply - those voltages aren't near where they should be. I'd also check the readings in bios. No matter what, I'd replace it anyway.

I think the mobo is the weird one with a 14pin psu connector? If so, you'd need to get a 24 to 14 pin adapter (eg eBay)
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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I actually just installed and started using the new hard drive, so there's almost nothing loaded. Standard programs and music, and one game. Good Lord. I had a feeling I should have built it myself when I got a few years ago. Luckily, it's insured for the full price so I always have that as a fallback. It would be nearly impossible to tinker too much, the case is fairly small and everything is packed in there tighter than I've ever seen. I had to ask my sister for her help so she could use her tiny hands to get inside and disconnect things.
 
lol.

Trying to upgrades pre-builts can be a pain. There's usually not much available info eg dual or triple channel ram, approved ram list, max ram speed etc. And quite often they make them so you can't upgrade them eg non atx power supply and power supply connections on motherboards etc.
 

greycobalt

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Mar 27, 2014
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Ugh, that's the worst. At the time I was busy with a new job, and I needed a new super computer for work and gaming, and I didn't want to bother with researching a bunch of individual parts. Of course, in hindsight, I'm kicking myself right now, but hopefully once this inevitably starts dying a horrible death I can get the money back and build a decent one.