[xk8]

Hello,

I've been experiencing lately quite a slow down in my OS (Windows XP). It used to be very fast and responsive, good performance but lately it's really been degrading in performance. I was quick to jump on the thought that there was a trojan/virus/etc. on my computer which was the culprit but after several attempts in trying to find the sucker I came up with nothing.

Meanwhile, I noticed once that when I was booting my PC, it was making some really funny rattling type noises which I was attributing towards something being loose but after a little while the PC being on, the noises would go away and I hadn't moved or shaken the PC. So, I started thinking that maybe it's my hard-drive going which could sort of explain the performance drop out of no where. These noises are consistently there when I turn off the PC for a while and then turn it back on. If I leave the comp running noises go away.

Some things that I'm experiencing right now is that sometimes my OS boot up takes longer than usual, logging into my account takes longer than usual. If I'm downloading something then my PC becomes super sluggish. Even moving the windows around at this point is irritating. When downloading finishes, the PC eventually returns to a stable state. Going to a website that is graphically intensive induces same behaviour of the PC. Sites take long to load but on my laptop through the wireless, they load considerably faster.

I'm leaning more towards a hard drive problem than anything else at this point but I wanted to get a second opinion on it.

I'll certainly appreciate any thoughts anyone has about this. Is picking up another drive and then imaging/restoring current drive looking probable in my near future?

Any fortune tellers here?

Thanks in advance,
a

Edited by xk8, 09 February 2009 - 04:35 PM.

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[pr0n]

there are 3 thins in a compy that can cause noise, fans, hard drives, other drives(CDs etc), the first thing I would do is check fans (the noise and slowness could be 2 different things) while you're getting that noise just stop each fan one by one with your finger for a second (don't just stick your finger in the blades)

if it's not fans, then test the hard drive like he mentioned, BUT... BUT BUT BUT BUT, the very second you see that it is the hard drive and you've eliminated everything else. immediately turn the machine off, get a new drive and copy everything over, every second a failing drive is running is 1 second closer to you paying a thousand bucks to have it recovered.

if it is the hard drive I suggest using a program like unstoppable coppier or tera copy to move data to a new drive as they are WAY faster than windows copy and paste and don't get killed by stupid errors.

[xk8]

thanks everyone.

i tried the diagnostic tools to do a test to see if my drive is faulty but it passes with flying colours. infact, when i opened up the case, i discovered that the drive is running very quietly and it's smooth sounding but the fan on my graphics card is making the brutal noise. i temp stopped the fan with my finger/pen and the noise goes away. so definitely, the noise is coming from my graphics card.

so i thought that maybe my graphics card is causing that slowdown but i don't really see any real symptoms usually associated with graphics card failure like something happening with the actual graphics.

card is ATI ALL IN WONDER RADEON 8500 DV

anyway, i was thinking that maybe if i switched my graphics card, it might resolve but i think that's just being desperate.

another thought that i had was that maybe there is something going with my network settings, or my TCP/IP setup. i'm thinking that because my computer seems to be acting fine until my internet activity increases and then it goes kapoot until i'm only really using internet to browse on small not so intensive pages. playing movies or multitasking with other apps seems fine as long as there isn't much networking type usage.

Also, because about a few weeks ago (maybe after this the slow down happened but i noticed it later), i installed some 'free' network traffic monitor and i'm thinking that maybe i messed something up in doing that. it's been uninstalled now but comp is still acting up with high usage of internet and internet activity

is there anyway to establish default settings for networking that are not so destructive to what's already setup?

maybe this triggers another thought in determining what could possibly be going on here. ??

thanks in advance for helping/reading,
a

[pr0n]

/*free*/ network traffic monitors commonly carry viruses.
you can try uninstalling that and see if it returns to normal, if it doesn't then it probably came with a 'free' virus also, in which case you need to refer to the malware forums as we aren't allowed to provide help with that here.

as for your video card keep a very close eye on that fan or just replace it. if it's just a really small one you can probably replace it with a chipset cooler or something like that available at your local computer shop or online. (make sure you replace it with an active cooling one, that means it has a heat sink AND fan rather than just a heat sink), or depending on the brand you might be able to RMA it with the manufacturer but be prepared to be without it for a few weeks while it's processed. if the fan stops spinning which is definitely a possibility you run the risk of ruining the card. if your video card is over heating the first thing you usually notice is fractals (pixels that turn a bright hot pink/green or blue color on the screen) or random BSoDs among many other things

Edited by pr0n, 09 February 2009 - 06:48 PM.