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My computer respons too late.
My computer respons too late.
When I click someting on my computer (taskbar, menu, Back button, view button or anything), many times my computer just freezes for about 10 seconds to one minutes or more. This is happening more and more severe.
I even formated my harddrives and installed my WinXP two fresh times since yesterday but this "not-responding-for a-while" thing seems to happen more often. I used a different video card but it happens the same.
If it helps, I used to have a problem with my previous vedio card where I had to force my computer to turn off (reset) to reboot about ten to fifteen times. When I did that(reset), I heard some annoying sounds (high pitched bee bee bee bee...sounds). It looked like it was comming from my harddrive but I'm not sure.
I suspect my harddrive is dying.
Please, help me with this.
Thx in advance.
*WinXP, k7t turbo raid mother board, 256 mem, 2 80 gig hard disks, now nvidia mx400.
*I used this computer for over six months with no problems.
When I click someting on my computer (taskbar, menu, Back button, view button or anything), many times my computer just freezes for about 10 seconds to one minutes or more. This is happening more and more severe.
I even formated my harddrives and installed my WinXP two fresh times since yesterday but this "not-responding-for a-while" thing seems to happen more often. I used a different video card but it happens the same.
If it helps, I used to have a problem with my previous vedio card where I had to force my computer to turn off (reset) to reboot about ten to fifteen times. When I did that(reset), I heard some annoying sounds (high pitched bee bee bee bee...sounds). It looked like it was comming from my harddrive but I'm not sure.
I suspect my harddrive is dying.
Please, help me with this.
Thx in advance.
*WinXP, k7t turbo raid mother board, 256 mem, 2 80 gig hard disks, now nvidia mx400.
*I used this computer for over six months with no problems.
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Hehehehe you weren't there Steve when I started. :>)
I would also gather it to be a Hard drive problem. When you computer is "hesitating" for that minute or so, it is trying to access the bad hard drive and is having difficulty. First thing i would do before checking anything is to BACKUP anything that you want to save! IF your hard drive is bad, you will thank yourself for backing up your stuff before the drive actually goes bad. If it is not the drive, then at least you have a backup of your data. Then mess with the rest of the stuff to see if the issue resides elsewhere. But I firmly think it is a hard drive problem.
What brand is the hard drive? What size hard drive is it? How old is it?
It also may still be under warranty. Most of the HDD manufactures carry a 3 year warranty or sometimes up to even 5 years. They won't guarantee any data but you can return the bad drive for a new one.
some HDD manufacturer's websites:
www.maxtor.com
www.wdc.com
www.fujitsu.com
www.seagate.com
www.IBM.com
Most of them have diagnostic software as steve said. So try those on your Specific model drive.
What brand is the hard drive? What size hard drive is it? How old is it?
It also may still be under warranty. Most of the HDD manufactures carry a 3 year warranty or sometimes up to even 5 years. They won't guarantee any data but you can return the bad drive for a new one.
some HDD manufacturer's websites:
www.maxtor.com
www.wdc.com
www.fujitsu.com
www.seagate.com
www.IBM.com
Most of them have diagnostic software as steve said. So try those on your Specific model drive.
ASKER
I will try to use diagnostic tool for my harddrive first. If no problem are persent there, I'll try to swap my ram. Then I'll try to check my power supply and fan.
I'll let you know and give one of you the points :)as soon as I get the problomatic device.
Thank you all.
I'll let you know and give one of you the points :)as soon as I get the problomatic device.
Thank you all.
ASKER
I will try to use diagnostic tool for my harddrive first. If no problem are persent there, I'll try to swap my ram. Then I'll try to check my power supply and fan.
I'll let you know and give one of you the points :)as soon as I get the problomatic device.
Thank you all.
I'll let you know and give one of you the points :)as soon as I get the problomatic device.
Thank you all.
Go into the BIOS and check the temperature of the CPU and motherboard. Anything over 144 degress is generally pretty bad. The beep beep beep you were hearing MIGHT have been the heat alarm...
Only a suggestion, but easy to diagnose...
Only a suggestion, but easy to diagnose...
Disable your nic if you are not using it.
The freezing is your ethernet card trying to obtain a dhcp lease.
The freezing is your ethernet card trying to obtain a dhcp lease.
ASKER
The CPU's temperature is 134 F and I don't have temperature infos for other devices. And discard what I said about the beep beep sound. It's something else.
But, I have to admit that I feel like I experienced lesser freezings when I used my com with the case open.
I don't want to disable my nic because I need to surf the internet. And I can surf the internet fine.
Even while all the buttons or task bars are not clickable (freezed for a short while), I am able to move my mouse.
I tried to use WD harddrive diagnostic tool but I get a stupid error message, saying, "Do you want to send the error message to MS database?" I'm using Windows XP.
What should I do? I cannot use WD diagnostic tool to determine if my harddrive is dying?
But, I have to admit that I feel like I experienced lesser freezings when I used my com with the case open.
I don't want to disable my nic because I need to surf the internet. And I can surf the internet fine.
Even while all the buttons or task bars are not clickable (freezed for a short while), I am able to move my mouse.
I tried to use WD harddrive diagnostic tool but I get a stupid error message, saying, "Do you want to send the error message to MS database?" I'm using Windows XP.
What should I do? I cannot use WD diagnostic tool to determine if my harddrive is dying?
have you checked your eventlog?
What does it say?
What kind of harddrives do you have?
I ask this because every maxtor that I have ever bought has had similar problems.
If your harddrive is having problems, you should at least see errors in your event log.
Start, settings, control panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.
Check the system log.
What does it say?
What kind of harddrives do you have?
I ask this because every maxtor that I have ever bought has had similar problems.
If your harddrive is having problems, you should at least see errors in your event log.
Start, settings, control panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer.
Check the system log.
ASKER
I'll check the event log tonight.
ButI suspect it will say anything because the hesitation (or freezing when lasting longer) wouldn't be reported to the event log. I don't know. Anyway, I'll check.
What about the error message that I'm having when I try to execute the WD harddrive diagnostic tool?
ButI suspect it will say anything because the hesitation (or freezing when lasting longer) wouldn't be reported to the event log. I don't know. Anyway, I'll check.
What about the error message that I'm having when I try to execute the WD harddrive diagnostic tool?
The Western Digital Data-Lifeguard Tools that you download from Western Digital creates a bootable diskette. You cannot create this diskette from their program if you are running Windows NT 4.0, 2000, or XP. Big help then huh???
Well, you can download an image from me. The image is just over 1MB and after running it, it will pop up a screen telling you to insert a diskette. It will then create a bootable Floppy.
Reboot your computer with this diskette in the drive and it will load the newest version of Western Digital Data-Lifeguard Tools.
I hope this helps.
Otherwise, you can download their program onto a Windows 95-ME machine and make the same diskette if you have one available...
The link - http://www.pc-pipeline.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=4
Well, you can download an image from me. The image is just over 1MB and after running it, it will pop up a screen telling you to insert a diskette. It will then create a bootable Floppy.
Reboot your computer with this diskette in the drive and it will load the newest version of Western Digital Data-Lifeguard Tools.
I hope this helps.
Otherwise, you can download their program onto a Windows 95-ME machine and make the same diskette if you have one available...
The link - http://www.pc-pipeline.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownload&cid=4
ASKER
One outstanding and obvious misbehavior of my computer is that it takes several minutes or forever to open "Add or Remove Programs" under Control Panel. When I try to open it to uninstall some prgrams, it takes several minutes or more or forever to open. It say ,"Please, wait while the list is being populated." And it stays like that too long so I just have to exit it.
This happens the same even just after I formatted my harddrive and installed a fresh Windows XP.
This happens the same even just after I formatted my harddrive and installed a fresh Windows XP.
windowsdoors in my opinion there is obviously something wrong with your machine itself. Go back to the first two comments that were made in this question. I think you will need to strip your system down to the barebones using only those devies needed to boot into the OS. If you have one or more RAM modules then play around with swapping RAM modules to see if you can identify if any one them may be faulty. The point here is something that is part of the machine is causing problems. It may even be the mother board.
Have you opened the Device Manager to see if it is reporting any problems with a device? Also you said you have two hard drives have you tried doing the installation on the other disk just to make sure it is not a hard drive problem.
Perhaps your BIOS is in need of an update.
Have you opened the Device Manager to see if it is reporting any problems with a device? Also you said you have two hard drives have you tried doing the installation on the other disk just to make sure it is not a hard drive problem.
Perhaps your BIOS is in need of an update.
I have found that just about any computer running Windows 2000 or XP populates the ADD/REMOVE Programs dialog box VERY slowly...
Yeah it does take a little bit of time to populate the Add/Remove programs list however I just ran it on my PIII 450 mahcine and it took under 15 seconds to do its thing. And I have a lot of programs and utilities and mess load of this and that in the list. If windowsdoors isn't embellishing when windowsdoors says "it takes several minutes or more or forever to open" then in my opinion something is not working properly.
Several minutes i guess is quite long....
ASKER
I found the problem.
It's wasn't memory, harddrive or mother board. It was an IDE cable connected to my harddrive to my cd rom. I swapped my memory-the same problem. I tested with another harddrive-the same problem. But I found my IDE cable was twisted badly. So I straightened it out (I even ironed it with my fingers :) I rebooted it. Bingo!!! The hideous problem is totally gone and my winxp also populates the "Add and Remove Programs" dialog box in under "1 second" where it used to take two to three minutes everytime it tried to populates it-Can you believe it?
Thank you all anyway.
*What should I do with my points. No one answered but this problem couldn't be solved by others because only I could know what the actual condition of my computer was (twisted cables). Do I have to give my points to anyone who I choose or Can I get my points back?
It's wasn't memory, harddrive or mother board. It was an IDE cable connected to my harddrive to my cd rom. I swapped my memory-the same problem. I tested with another harddrive-the same problem. But I found my IDE cable was twisted badly. So I straightened it out (I even ironed it with my fingers :) I rebooted it. Bingo!!! The hideous problem is totally gone and my winxp also populates the "Add and Remove Programs" dialog box in under "1 second" where it used to take two to three minutes everytime it tried to populates it-Can you believe it?
Thank you all anyway.
*What should I do with my points. No one answered but this problem couldn't be solved by others because only I could know what the actual condition of my computer was (twisted cables). Do I have to give my points to anyone who I choose or Can I get my points back?
You can choose or distribute your points anyway thqt you want or talk to a moderator and get your points back. The choice is yours :)
ASKER
Thx for your help anyway. It was the IDE cable that caused the hanging or freezing. Very surprised..., isn't it?
go to the manufacturer's website, and download the disk diagnostic tool, and check the disk
could also be a ram problem, if you can swap out the ram
also go to start -->run and type msconfig, uncheck all but systray and explorer, reboot and see if it acts better. If so, go back and recheck one at a time (reboot in between each one) until it slows down
also press ctrl+alt+del, and check the processes to see wha is eating the cpu cycles