HELP: Hard Drive Malfunction (?)

Hi,

I'm a newbie here and I'm very attracted to all the great responses/help I've seen here in solving computer problems.

Unfortunately, I have a problem of my own.

Lately I've noticed that my hard drive (or so I think it's in that area) is having trouble maintaining a high speed spin. Actually I don't think what I'm hearing is the hard drive itself but perhaps a fan in the immediate vicinity? But anyways, it sounds like it can maintain a low speed spin, but when it really gets going, it only lasts for maybe 4 or 5 seconds before I can hear it wind down only to rev back up again. This weird oscillation developed only recently and I'm sure it's not normal.

I'm running an HP L2000 laptop with an
-AMD Turion 64 2.00 Ghz processor
-Gig RAM (more like 894MB)
-32 bit operating system
-80 Gig HD
-Radeon Xpress 200M graphics card (which is just about the worst)
-And I've recently upgraded to Vista Enterprise. So could this problem stem from the new OS?

Running video games has been a horrific flop (in America's Army 2.8 for example I've noticed regular lag spikes that coincide with the 'whrrrrr' oscillations). And I've also noticed that running even Spybot produces similar symptoms to the point of tremendous mouse lag (Logitech G7).

So to all you computer specialists (I'm sorry I just feel "geek" carries a negative social connotation), PLEASE HELP ME!

Thanks in advance,
George

 

Is the fan and case vents clean of dust and gunk?
Do you have any temperature monitoring software installed (cpu temp,etc) if so look at these logs.


Justtwoshotsinthedark

 

I don't have all my applications back yet, but I'm pretty sure this problem is not the result of overheating. Just by touch, the area is only as warm as the other areas. My computer has overheated in the past and the system just shuts down. This problem starts as soon as I execute a processor hungry application. However I will take your advice and spray the area down with compressed air.

I'm embarrassed to say this, but I did knock on my computer in that area out of rage, to which the computer immediately retaliated by shutting down... But started up again when I pressed the ON button.

I'm worried there may be actual physical damage. Is this possible/does my symptoms coincide with such physical damage?

And if so, is there a safe way to check it out by myself without risking any more damage (like static)?

Thanks

 

I guess if you happen to have had a temporary lapse of composure at the time that the HDD was spinning you could quite possibly have damaged a disk.
Try running scandisk and see if you get any errors.

 

So did these problems happen before you 'upgraded' to Vista?

Not sure the psu is man enough for your requirements longterm either.

What do the processor usage % say and the event logs when the glitches occur?

Studio T

 

most of the time if its the hard drive you will notice major lag, or lots of locking up and a lot of heat coming from the drive, when they start to make a lot of noise, and its a mechanical failure in the drive, they start to heat up a lot and perform very poorly, if it's not acting very strange then its probably a fan, you can rebuild a fan by taking the sticker off the back and popping the pin thru the rings and soaking everything in WD40, or you can spend like 2$ in gas and 5$ on a new fan, depends how cheap you are

 

Just ran through Scandisk. When I checked it was at 44% of stage 5 without any errors. Then I checked again (next commercial break) it was at 45%. Then, it went to the login screen. I'll run it again later just to be sure, but I think it'll come out clean.

The lag bumps definitely started after installing Vista, but to be honest I've only noticed it after my slight expression of anger. Actually I only got peeved because of lag, SO, hopefully this problem is not the result of any physical damage.

But before Vista, all the programs ran fine. I'm not sure at the exact usage % the bumps occur, but I can safely assume it to be around 100%. I just expect to hear that constant high rev "whrrrr," but rather the "whrrr" comes in spikes. Kinda reminds me of a car with idling problem.

I've been hearing how programs still run better on XP than Vista, but I haven't yet read about any problems similar to my case.

Again thanks

 

Yeaa.a.ah Man!
Keep us posted


Studio T

 

Wow... all I can say is "I is noob"

For the first time, I popped open the back of my laptop. I figured something was up, and maybe a quick look-see will give me more insight in solving the problem. After a laborious hour, in which I spent 30 minutes on the phone calling up a friend to have him download the pdf manual and walk me through each step, and also dropping the hard drive on my foot, thar she was on her back with the covers off. After much spraying with the recently purchased compressed air I noticed a grayish substance on the inside of my fan. Low and behold it was a clump of dust. Actually I probably tweezer-ed out enough to fill a bottle cap.

So this was my culprit. I'm thinking as the dust built (the last time I had sprayed out the inside was at least 6 months ago), the fan just pushed it into an area which the dust had gotten stuck. And the dust just ended up building up till it eventually began to jam the fan.

So now I believe my problem is solved, for as I am typing this, there is the smooth "whrrr" of the fan soothingly spinning in the background.

MORAL: DON'T BE A NOOB LIKE ME AND REGULARLY SPRAY OUT THE DUST!

Again, thanks to all and your suggestions and comments