System hangs, runs normally, hangs, runs normally...

[babaghan]

What would cause a computer to work normally for 5 minutes, freeze up for 2 minutes, run normally for 5 minutes, etc... It's a Dell chassis, mobo, and PSU, but with a BFG 7950GT and a WD 150GB Raptor. Working normally before a recent Vista reinstall. Dell loads their systems with plenty of crapware so I decided just a plain OS with a few of pics and videos would suffice. It boots up normally. Dust has been blown out of the chassis. When the system works, it works good. Windows doesn't report any conflicts, latest drivers and all updates. Norton 360 is all in the green. I've never encountered this problem before.

 

[ZOldDude]

What would cause a computer to work normally for 5 minutes, freeze up for 2 minutes, run normally for 5 minutes, etc... It's a Dell chassis, mobo, and PSU, but with a BFG 7950GT and a WD 150GB Raptor. Working normally before a recent Vista reinstall. Dell loads their systems with plenty of crapware so I decided just a plain OS with a few of pics and videos would suffice. It boots up normally. Dust has been blown out of the chassis. When the system works, it works good. Windows doesn't report any conflicts, latest drivers and all updates. Norton 360 is all in the green. I've never encountered this problem before.

Working normally before a recent Vista reinstall.

Load XP on it.
You could also use TuneUp Utilities to correct/clean/defrag the registry...then use it to defrag the HD it's self.

If the HD is old it may have a problem reading parts of the platter...run SpinRite 6.0 on it (may take 10 hours but refreshs the HD and corrects/restores all data...also know to repair "bad sectors").

 

[babaghan]

Thanks, ZOldDude. I won't load XP onto the drive. The hard is defragmented. The hard drive is also less than two years old. I'll give TuneUp Utilities a try.

 

[ZOldDude]

Thanks, ZOldDude. I won't load XP onto the drive. The hard is defragmented. The hard drive is also less than two years old. I'll give TuneUp Utilities a try.

The HD is at least half way over warrenty....besides age/hours of use...other things happen to cuase them to have trouble reading data even befor a compleat corruption/loss.
SpinRight 6.0 fixs those issues....it will recover corrupted data...it will refresh the whole HD and -prevent- corruption. Find/read about it @ www.grc.com or listen to the Security Now podcasts on TWIT or d/l them from GRC.

I have used SpinRite on two drives that failed to boot/gave "no disk" system errors after an electric stom and they are running just fine with no data loss.

I only say use XP as it takes less ram and runs everything both faster and without driver/hardware problems.

 

[babaghan]

SpinRight, Ok. I checked their website and I'll spend the money if nessessary to get that drive working correctly. I'll check the disk for errors next time I reboot the computer which should be in about 2 minutes.

I'm grasping at straws here, but could Intel Matrix Manager cause this type of problem? This is the wife's Dell computer which had a 2 disk RAID 0 array. It was showing errors on the array, so I deleted the array, added one of my Raptors to the system, removed one the 320GB drives, then reinstalled Vista. In the Dell bios, it recommends leaving the Raid array on even if the system no longer has a RAID array. The setup then is the Raptor which the OS/data and the 320GB drive used only for backup.

 

[ZOldDude]

It's been about an hour....that thing boot up?
If your running Spinright on it right now it will take about 10 hours for that size drive!

 

[babaghan]

The OS boots up nicely, no problem there. I'm running check disk on it right now. I'll buy Spinright if other free options fail.

 

[babaghan]

Check Disk didn't find any errors. Formatted the drive, reinstalling Vista now. I have to go to work now - 4 days of 15 hour shifts, so I won't have any time for this alleged computer "hobby" until Wednesday. Curse computers.

 

[ZOldDude]

Check Disk didn't find any errors. Formatted the drive, reinstalling Vista now. I have to go to work now - 4 days of 15 hour shifts, so I won't have any time for this alleged computer "hobby" until Wednesday. Curse computers.

Shot me a PM and let me know how things work out.

 

[Shadow703793]

@OP: download UBCD, Zero write the drive. Then and run their HDD tests (SeaTools DOS for Seagate drives,etc). This should show up 99% of all HDD problems. Some times you can even be able fix some bad sectors if there are any.

 

[babaghan]

Reformatting the Raptor didn't work. The Vista reinstall took too long. I then installed Vista on the system's WD 320GB drive I intented to use for backups. The Vista install went *way* faster and the system no longer has the problem, therefore I conclude the Raptor has a defect of some kind that Check Disk can't find. On my next day off from my job (Wednesday), I will use one of the above programs, and hopefully correct, the problem. I really don't want to toss out a 10k HDD.