Weird freezes after opening too many media files at once

I was cleaning my main storage HDD a few nights ago. I selected multiple video files preparing to delete them but instead accidentally opened them all at the same time. So about 30-40 instances of the VLC player started up at once. Computer become super sluggish and unresponsive. I tried for a while to close the instances but after a few minutes the computer just froze and become completely unresponsive with a weird mechanic sound looping. Not any sound of any of the video files, but rather a creaky rapid sound loop sort of like the old modems used to make when you'd start them up.

I hard restarted my rig and didn't think much of it.

However the last few days I've had similar freezes completely unprovoked while just browsing the internet. With the same sound.

I have pretty much had my rig running for the last 3-4 years and have barely had any freezes/BSODs during this time period, and none like these ones. Which have now happened three times the last two days.

Specs are in the attachment.

Any ideas where I should look first? What could I possibly have "broken" or messed up by opening too many media files at once? Thanks.

 

Pretty hard to diagnose but I would delete your video drivers, get all the versions deleted with a drive cleaner and reinstall the latest driver. There is a chance it got corrupted.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/display_driver_uninstaller.html

 

All right, I'll do that this evening.

So your first instinct would be that something got interrupted driver-wise? Rather than that I managed to mess up something in the hardware, like the HDD or something?

 

Gotta bump this.

I cleared and re-installed all the drivers. Freezes keep happening every other day.

Any other ideas?

 

When the sounds come up, I'd listen to where the HDD is at. It may be failing. Hope you have backups, you may need to buy another drive very soon to replace it.

Essentially you put quite a load on that drive to open 30+ video files at once. How old is that drive?

 

It's 3 1/2 years old.

The looping sound in question comes from my speakers. There may have been some sounds underneath it the HDD makes but I haven't listened close enough.

I just use that HDD for storage. I have an SSD where my OS is installed.

I do keep my computer on 24/7 and it hasn't ever frozen/crashed while I was away/sleeping. Only when I'm doing something on it.

 

Any chance it is getting hot?
Check all the fans, especially the CPU and video and that they are clean.

 

Sounds like interference somewhere. If the speakers are making that sound, I'm guessing an issue with wiring. Just a thought.

Unplug the speakers and see if any odd sounds are coming from somewhere. I'm still thinking that drive may be going out. But, this is just my humble opinion.

 

As long as I keep my case clean my temps are alright. I have had a few hard crashes because of the GPU overheating over the last few years but during those the computer just shut down, no looping sounds.

I'll try quickly unplugging the speakers the next time.