Computer keeps freezing after about 10 minutes

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Shatto

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Mar 9, 2013
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My girlfriends computer started acting up. First we thought it was Skype causing everything to freeze, upon further inspection, her disk usage is consistantly around 100% unless we turn searchindexer off, then it seems to settle down. If she does certain tasks like try to analyze her HDD for a defrag, it freezes, if she tries to install windows 10, it freezes while downloading, she normally leaves her PC on and in the morning since a couple days ago (after a windows update) she wakes up to it being frozen and has to restart.

She got CrystalDiskInfo but for some reason it can't detect her disk. She got WD data life guard and ran a test, it passed.

When it does freeze, her second monitor goes black.
Is this a sign of the drive failing or something else?
She has tried a system restore but it always fails
Told her to order a new HDD just in case

This is her PC http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c03517389
Except she has a new PSU and GPU, GTX 960
She's using windows 8.1
Even checked her temps, everything is around 40-50C
 
Solution
D_Know_WD
Of course, if the HDD is failing, the best thing would be to just not use it. Reading, writing and testing could speed up the degrading process. This is why I've mentioned that the first thing you need to do is to just back the data up. :)
Also, I believe that there are some websites that offer some cloud storage space(which I think i free of charge). You can consider this as well. :)

D_Know_WD
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nitrium

nitrium

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Jul 27, 2009
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Sounds like an HDD that has just about had it. You should have a look at the drive's S.M.A.R.T. data, using Speedfan or whatever (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php).
Also how full is the drive? When HDDs (or SSDs for that matter) get very full (<10% free) they invariably lose a lot (or all) of their usual performance.
Definitely back up all data from a drive that is acting that flakey.
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Hi there Shatto,

I would also say that the first thing you need to do is to back up the data stored on the HDD. Though, this is not necessarily HDD related.
After that, you can try something simple as just attaching the HDD to a different SATA port with different cables(SATA and especially power one). Another thing you can do is disable several Windows services like: Windows Search, Superfetch and BITS. Then, you can try retesting the drive.

When a system starts freezing after a certain period of time, I would say that this sounds a lot like overheating. Try to increase the fan speed either through BIOS or via some third party software.(it will not hurt to open up the computer case and boot up in order to see whether the issue persists or it will take more time to start freezing.

Another thing you can try is to bot up into safe mode and see whether there will be any performance difference.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD
 
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Shatto

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Mar 9, 2013
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Thanks, I will try some of your suggestions, if say none of them work and it is the HDD, is there anyway to perhaps preserve it a little longer till she gets her new HDD and is able to transfer some stuff? She has a small flash drive she put some important stuff on but not nearly all that she wants to save, would leaving the HDD alone keep it semi stable till then? Would running more tests on it possibly damage it faster?
 
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D_Know_WD

D_Know_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Of course, if the HDD is failing, the best thing would be to just not use it. Reading, writing and testing could speed up the degrading process. This is why I've mentioned that the first thing you need to do is to just back the data up. :)
Also, I believe that there are some websites that offer some cloud storage space(which I think i free of charge). You can consider this as well. :)

D_Know_WD
 
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