can someone please help me? motherboard/ram/hd problem?

angelic9144

Junior Member
Aug 9, 2006
16
0
0
Hi, i will try to make this brief :eek:). about an hour ago i was using my pc, browsing the net when all the sudden firefox started using all my resources and my computer just froze.

This is what happened next:

-it rebooted to windoze xp but froze again
-i rebooted
-my computer did not detect the hard drive
-it would not detect a drive for about 5 boots
-on the 6th try it found it and booted to windows, but it froze again right away and ran really slow.
-i checked to see if my sata cable came loose, changed it to another connection on my motherboard, dismounted the hd and reconnected everything
-i got it to find it safe mode so i could back things up
-the buffer level on nero kept fluctuating and it took 3-4x as long to burn the files.
-this made me think something is wrong with my hd, along with the crashes.
-system restore will also not work though it was just working the day before.
-the thing is, im using it now in windows just fine, except its still not finding the drive on about every other boot, and when i try to do things like burn a cd or disk cleanup, it takes FOREVER.

-i did a virus and spyware check too.

what do you think?

THANKS!! any help would be appreciated
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
9,558
0
76
It may be the hard drive, or the mainboard, or even your cable. Swap the cable first, though it's the least likely to be the problem. The best way to be sure would be to test another drive on the system, and test another drive in that system, see whether one or the other results in drives not being detected intermittently.

You can download diagnostic tools from the drive manufacturer, which can at least tell you whether the drive is physically failing or has an integrated controller issue.

Very small chance that it's the memory or CPU as well.
 

angelic9144

Junior Member
Aug 9, 2006
16
0
0
ok i ran memtest32, memory checks out fine after passing 17 consecutive tests.

the hard drive failed using the seagate tool from their website. it said it had indexing problems or something. the seagate prog also said it tested my motherboard and showed it to be fine. my pc booted up again to windows (am using it now) but it took awhile to load which it never has done before.

what would you say is wrong with the HD that is causing it to have indexing problems and act this way ?
 

Lord Evermore

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
9,558
0
76
I'm not sure what an indexing problem is exactly when it comes to hard drive failures. The software should have given you an error code or something. However it certainly sounds like you need to be making sure you have backup copies of all your important files, and should be looking into buying a new hard drive as soon as possible.

You could contact Seagate support to find out exactly what that error indicated, especially if the drive is still within warranty. Generally you can get them to ship you a replacement drive before you ship the old one, by providing a credit card number which they need just in case you fail to return the bad drive within the usual 30 day limit of receiving the new one.