[Skinwah]

I had a problem where my CPU usage was constantly at 100%. I read the topics on this problem and done everything it asked. It has gone down but is still very high (using 50%+ when idle sometimes), yet other times it is absoloutely fine. I have scanned for virus's etc with an up to date version of AVG.

While doing all these things i had to reboot several times, and this took forever. Eventually the machine would not restart. It would get to the bit where it tries to boot from CD (there was no CD in the drive and im sure it wasnt trying to boot from the CD) and it said disk read error and asked me to ctrl-alt-del to restart (also there was a very audible click from what i think was the hard drive). This happened several times.

Eventually i got further and booted with the last known good configuration and am using the machine to write this. The CPU usage seems to be calmer but starting windows still takes forever (and im scared to shut down now )

Any ideas what it could be? thanks for any help in advance.

(something i have noticed that is strange is when i go into my system properties from control panel it doesnt tell me about my processor anymore. It used to say Intel 2.6ghz now it only says 1.9gb RAM. not sure if it means anything but i thought it worth mentioning)

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a couple of things you can try ..Chkdsk and also lets see if the drive reverted from DMA to PIO mode
Right click on my computer...then properties..

Click on the ...Hardware tab then the ...Device Manager... click the + beside IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers .... right click on each Primary and Secondary IDE channel choose ...Properties... click...Advanced Settings... tab. and list what you find as the Current Transfer Mode. for each device listed for each channel...
if any are in PIO mode...
EXAMPLE ..the Primary IDE channel shows its in PIO mode

Right click on the Primary IDE channel and choose ...Uninstall.......Accept the change...then reboot let Windows reinstall the channel and the devices assigned to it ...IMPORTANT.. then reboot again


Should the channel go back to the PIO setting again in the future it indicates a problem with your hard drive. You must keep your backups current ... I highly recommend keeping FREQUENT backups anyway...just in case your hard drive fails....

Using Chkdsk

Chkdsk is a utility designed to check the integrity of the data on a computer's hard disk drive as well as find and fix errors which could corrupt such data.

Running chkdsk on your Windows XP or 2000 system can repair minor Windows problems

There are several different methods that can be used to run chkdsk
start with this one.....

1. Click the Start button then... Run
2. In the Run window's Open box... type in ... cmd
3. Click OK and an MS-DOS-style black screen will appear in a new window
4. Run chkdsk by typing one of the the following commands where the cursor is blinking...
chkdsk /r and then press ...ENTER...

typing chkdsk c... /f /r will both fix errors and recover lost data. Running chkdsk with both the /f and /r options can often take a considerable amount of time depending upon the size of your hard drive and the amount of data stored on it

OR
chkdsk c: /f and then press ...ENTER...

Typing chkdsk c: /f will only fix errors that are encountered but its much faster


5. With either command, a message will appear that says...chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? <y/n>"
6. Type y (for "yes") and then press ...ENTER...
7. A message will appear that will say...This volume will be checked the next time the system restarts
8. Type exit and then press ...ENTER...
9. Reboot the computer as you normally would and chkdsk will automatically begin running after your reboot... While chkdsk is running you will see a light blue window with a dark blue band at the top and bottom. Chkdsk will display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage.
You cannot do anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your computer....
NOTE
THERE ARE 5 STAGES...
it may even back up at times and go over the same part again...let it run even if it "sticks" at a percentage of completion and appears to hang...DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER while chkdsk is running or you will have problems...this can take a long time on huge hard drives

[happyrock]

a couple of things you can try ..Chkdsk and also lets see if the drive reverted from DMA to PIO mode
Right click on my computer...then properties..

Click on the ...Hardware tab then the ...Device Manager... click the + beside IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers .... right click on each Primary and Secondary IDE channel choose ...Properties... click...Advanced Settings... tab. and list what you find as the Current Transfer Mode. for each device listed for each channel...
if any are in PIO mode...
EXAMPLE ..the Primary IDE channel shows its in PIO mode

Right click on the Primary IDE channel and choose ...Uninstall.......Accept the change...then reboot let Windows reinstall the channel and the devices assigned to it ...IMPORTANT.. then reboot again


Should the channel go back to the PIO setting again in the future it indicates a problem with your hard drive. You must keep your backups current ... I highly recommend keeping FREQUENT backups anyway...just in case your hard drive fails....

Using Chkdsk

Chkdsk is a utility designed to check the integrity of the data on a computer's hard disk drive as well as find and fix errors which could corrupt such data.

Running chkdsk on your Windows XP or 2000 system can repair minor Windows problems

There are several different methods that can be used to run chkdsk
start with this one.....

1. Click the Start button then... Run
2. In the Run window's Open box... type in ... cmd
3. Click OK and an MS-DOS-style black screen will appear in a new window
4. Run chkdsk by typing one of the the following commands where the cursor is blinking...
chkdsk /r and then press ...ENTER...

typing chkdsk c... /f /r will both fix errors and recover lost data. Running chkdsk with both the /f and /r options can often take a considerable amount of time depending upon the size of your hard drive and the amount of data stored on it

OR
chkdsk c: /f and then press ...ENTER...

Typing chkdsk c: /f will only fix errors that are encountered but its much faster


5. With either command, a message will appear that says...chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? <y/n>"
6. Type y (for "yes") and then press ...ENTER...
7. A message will appear that will say...This volume will be checked the next time the system restarts
8. Type exit and then press ...ENTER...
9. Reboot the computer as you normally would and chkdsk will automatically begin running after your reboot... While chkdsk is running you will see a light blue window with a dark blue band at the top and bottom. Chkdsk will display the specific stage it is checking as well as the percentage of completion of the stage.
You cannot do anything else on your computer while chkdsk is running. When chkdsk is finished, it will automatically reboot your computer....
NOTE
THERE ARE 5 STAGES...
it may even back up at times and go over the same part again...let it run even if it "sticks" at a percentage of completion and appears to hang...DO NOT TURN OFF THE COMPUTER while chkdsk is running or you will have problems...this can take a long time on huge hard drives

[SRX660]

Sorry Happyrock, we were both answering at the same time.

I don't know if this will help because you may have a hidden virus. I would first do a checkdisk to see if it will correct the problem.

RUN A CHKDSK:

1.Click the Start Button, select Run
2.Type cmd.exe
3.At the command prompt type chkdsk /f
4.If the prompt asks you to schedule at system restart hit 'y' on keyboard and hit enter.
5.Restart computer
6.Windows will fix all disk errors.

If you have a XP CD,
1. Click Start > Run > type sfc /scannow. Insert your OS disc and click retry. Windows will now restore missing or corrupt files from the DISC.

If this does not fix the problem i would make sure you do not have a virus on the computer.

http://www.geekstogo...-Log-t2852.html

SRX660

Edited by SRX660, 20 September 2008 - 12:31 PM.

[Skinwah]

I have checked all the IDE channels (3 primary and 3 secondary). They all have the same settings in advanced settings:

Device 0
Device type: Auto detect
Transfer mode: DMA if available
Current transfer mode: Not applicable

Device 1
Device type: Auto detect
Transfer mode: DMA if available
Current transfer mode: Not applicable

Im going to run chkdsk now.

[Skinwah]

I have run chkdsk now. It did not indicate anything was wrong. Start up still takes a very long time, between the black windows loading screen and the blue log on screen i waited for about 5 mins with a blank black screen. I had a cursor and could move it about normally but that was all. It eventually carried on. The simplest tasks are shooting my CPU usage up very high and causing things to stop responding or take a very long time to load.

Im going to try running some more virus scans now. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks for the help

[happyrock]

no problem SRX660...your usually the one with fast fingers...
AND HE IS RIGHT ON THE SCANS...COULD VERY WELL BE MALWARE

I'm still leaning towards a transfer speed problem because it takes so long to load
anytime your using more than 10% of the cpu cycles accessing the hard drive your NOT using DMA

go here and get HDTUNE...launch it...click on info tab...get a screenshot for us...

Edited by happyrock, 20 September 2008 - 03:23 PM.

[Skinwah]

 HDTune2.bmp   129.21KB   206 downloads

[happyrock]

now benchmark the drive and post a screenshot....

[Skinwah]

Here is the Benchmark test, i dont know if it means anything but something in my PC was seriously grinding during this test.

 HDTune_Benchmark.bmp   128.93KB   192 downloads

Here is another test as i noticed the other one was incomplete.

 HDTune__Benchmark2.bmp   128.37KB   205 downloads

Edited by Skinwah, 21 September 2008 - 07:54 AM.

[happyrock]

its definitely the hard drive...that was the grinding noise your hearing...
backup any data you can't live without NOW...the drive is dying..I'll get a link to a maxtor hard drive tool and post it in this post in a little while...it will test the drives health

Edited by happyrock, 21 September 2008 - 08:10 AM.

[Skinwah]

Ill start backing things up now, and drop by for the link when its up.

Thank you for the help

[happyrock]

maybe someone else knows where to get the maxtor HD tool...since seagate bought them out I can not locate the right testing tool... unless the seagate tool will work on the maxtor drives...
edit...
thanks to...Leurgy... ...he says the seatools will work on the maxtor drive...get it here...

Edited by happyrock, 25 September 2008 - 06:43 AM.

[SRX660]

Yes, the Seatools works on the latest maxtor drives. If needed, i do have the maxtor max blast utilities stored on a CD in my collection somewhere.

You can download the maxblast software from seagate if you think you need it.

http://www.seagate.c...p/maxblast-eula

http://www.seagate.c...000dd04090aRCRD

SRX660

[happyrock]

Yes, the Seatools works on the latest maxtor drives. If needed, i do have the maxtor max blast utilities stored on a CD in my collection somewhere.
SRX660

me too... probably take a hour to find though..

[Skinwah]

Hey guys, just thought id update you on my problem.

After running (and passing) every conceivable test for the hard drive i was at a loss. Eventually my friend brought round some new wires and i gave the inside of the PC a good cleaning. Looks like (somehow) the actual wire connecting the hard drive was faulty as everything is workin fine now. Typical

Thanks for all the help, ill be keeping alot of the tools i downloaded trying to fix this