Last leg?

[DaFees]

Hello all,

I come before you today with a problem. I think my computer is dying but I am not sure why. Biggest issues are that it seems overall performance is slowly getting worse over time and lately when I would restart my computer will lock up on the post screen.

I get the expected single beep which would say everything is ok, but it doesn't seem that way. Also I can hear my hard drives clicking few times during start up and once in a while during normal operation.

As for my hardware I have the following:

Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 Mobo
AMD Athlon 3200+ processor w/ heatsink and fan from box
3GB ram (2x1gb+2x512mb)
ATI Radeon X800 XL graphics card
Dual IDE DVD Burners
1x750GB WD Caviar Black SATA HDD (Primary OS Drive)
2x1.5TB Seagate SATA HDD
1x320GB Seagate SATA HDD
Audigy 2 ZS sound card
ANTEC 480W PSU
Windows 7 Ultimate x64

I should add that when I first built this PC back in 2005 I stupidly cheaped out on the PSU, but through advice I got on these very forums I replaced it with the PSU listed above. I've had my memory (the 2x1GB sticks) replaced once and I originally had a Geforce 6800GT which I had replaced once and am currently in the process of getting it replaced again, hence the ATI card.

For a while my computer had been running fine and I could do certain tasks like run an n64 emulator @ 1080p, but now that's not so easy. I know my computer could use an upgrade, but I need to make sure this one can continue to work until I basically build a new computer. Also before you ask the PC is well ventilated so I do not think think overheating the issue, but I won't doubt you if you can prove me otherwise.

That's all for now, if you need more details let me know. Thank you for your help and time.

 

[Motopsychojdn]

I'm wondering how or why you spent a shedload on two 1.5Tb drives when you could have built a newer system with the cash?

anyhoo, download hardware monitor, cpu-z and gpu-z, run them to get info on your system and let us know temps etc,
thats quite an oldtech gfx card as well, 256mb ddr3?
scratch that, its an old system altogether, your trying to run win7 64bit on 3Gb ddr, and that is probably the most suspect thing to my mind atm, can you switch back to xp32 bit maybe? I think youll see a difference there.
Moto

 

[mrmotion]

^ Holycow agreed!!! You got way to much going and not enough system for it.

 

[DaFees]

Ok, first, what do you mean I have too much going and not enough system for it. Are you implying that I don't have enough PSU power for what I am running? I mean since replacing my first PSU with the current one I have, since then I've only added 3 new hard drives and have upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista from XP. My machine ran fine when I had XP and 3 less hard drives and it initially ran fine when I added 3 drives and upgraded to 7.

I mean for the record my system does meet the min requirements of Windows 7.

Also per your requests I have some info from the programs you asked me to run:

Hardware Monitor reports:
My CPU: averages 39C (50C max)
My HDDs: averages 37C per drive

GPU-Z reports:
PCB Temp: averages 44C
GPU Temp: averages 57.5C

If you need any other information I can certainly provide it. Again, I do just want to add that since building this system in 2005, the most I've done really is add 3 more hard drives.

Also not to discredit anyone, but given the cost of 1.5TB today, how would that equal enough to build a newer system?

 

[jason gran]

i think he's implying that you have more storage than a western digital warehouse

 

[DaFees]

Well be that as it may, but perhaps I have a justification for all the space, because I'm pretty sure I do, otherwise I wouldn't need the space,

 

[jason gran]

my best guess is the operating system is too much for your specs.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

nah, he's in spec for Win 7. However, the system is over 5 years old. the 3200+ single-core AMD processor will run slow, but it will run.

Seagate drives can be noisy, but a clicking sound *could* mean one of the hard drives is failing. Depends on the actual clicky sound.

Overheating is not really the problem (50C at load is fine for that CPU, and actually quite low), I'd suggest there is a possibility of a mem chip failing if it fails at POST

 

[DaFees]

How do you figure?

Windows 7 system requirements:

•1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

•1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

•16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

•DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

----------------------------
My system specs:
2.0Ghz AMD Athlon 64-Bit 3200+ single core processor
3Gb of ram
750GB HDD as my OS drive
X800XL Radeon Graphics card (which is DirectX 9.0 w/ WDDM 1.0 driver)

I more than meet or surpass the system requirements of Windows 7.

EDIT - I can run Memtest to check my memory, but hope that isn't failling (because it's happened once before)

I know I was a noob five years ago when I bought a bad PSU, but tell me what exactly is the impact that a bad PSU can have? I mean can it have an impact, as in damage other components in my system?

Also, is there a test I could run to verify if a hard drive is failing?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

yes, a psu blowing can take other components with it

 

[DaFees]

Ok, well I've had my GPU replaced already and my memory as well. I am also no longer using the original hard drive I had in the computer when I first built it, so unless my motherboard or CPU could've gone bad and it is just now showing such fact I'm not sure other than the suggested bad memory that it is necessarily a hardware failure.