Can anyone diagnose this?

This is the second time in 3 months that this has happened to my computer. The problem starts randomly. I'll be surfing the net or playing a game when my computer makes that "clicky" noise as if it's shutting off, but the computer just freezes. A few seconds later it is back to normal. But every thirty seconds or so that "click" sound is made and the computer freezes. After a while I shut down the computer. I don't have this freeze problem anymore, but my PC runs insanely slow. I used to play Crysis on the high settings, but now I can barely play a flash game without massive slowdown.

Last time I fixed this by just formatting the hard drive and re-installing Windows. But now that it's happened again, I have a feeling it's a hardware problem. Are there any ideas?

 

I think your hard drive is dying. :cry I would back up any data you want to keep and get a new drive. Luckily, they are pretty cheap these days. You might try going to the hard drive companies website and download the diagnostic test for it.

You could also test it by booting off of a CD with the hard drive unplugged to see if it still does it.

E

 

I ran an independent hard-drive diagnostic and there were no problems except when I was running other programs. If I was running Mozilla or was playing a CD, then the diagnostic program would show a problem. I'm not sure if this is a HD problem or something else, because I am not too great at identifying problems with computers.

Also, I want to know what part of the computer makes the "shut down sound." I have a feeling it's that part, because the "power down noise" always happened before my computer died out on me.

If anyone could help, that would be awesome! If I can find out the problem now, that would help a bunch. I would rather get a diagnostic here instead of paying 'random computer store' an extra $50-$100 to diagnose the problem. I am a college student who has only $58 to survive on for the next month! Any help would be very much appreciated!

Eric

 

What do you mean by 'shut down sound'? Mine just plays a windows tune and goes silent.

E

 

By "shut down sound" I mean that power down sound that's made from inside the computer. Not all computers have it, but mine makes a little click sound when it turns off. I'm wondering if that's the power supply shutting off, or if it's the motherboard, or whatever. It's hard to explain, but hopefully someone knows what I mean.

 

If you're referring to the clicking sound that's almost like a switch type of sound, then I'd say it's either the hard drive as suggested already, or the power supply. Hard drives tend to make clicking sounds when they start failing. It could be that your drive is OK if just farting around in Windows, but as soon as you put any kind of load on it, it starts hesitating and slowing down. I've seen this before. Luckily it was caught just in time so we were able to copy the entire drive to a new one without any data loss. It made all the difference and now that PC runs perfectly. It could also be the power supply is dying and the output is wildly fluctuating. This can lead to flakey behavior and component damage. However, it is more likely the hard drive; if formatting fixed the problem temporarily, then it's time for a new hard drive. You mentioned that you ran an 'independent' drive test.... download the diagnostic for your exact make/model from the manufacturer. This should give you a better idea of the drives health.