[abigailone]

Hi,

hope this is posted in right place ?

Recentlty started having a few problems with Acer Aspire laptop around 6 years old. sometimes when I turn it on at the OS start up screen the drive begins to make the noise it usually makes when doing something but it doesn't stop. it just goes on and on, in task amanger CPU usage runs at about 70% while this is happening, also the keyboard becomes very very slow to respond and sometimes does not respond at all - I am having to use USB keyboard to type this. also, if I try to shutdown it just hangs and even won't shut down when I hold down the power button for quite a while, I have left it and sometimes it has taken an hour to switch off. I have been on a malware forum and did extensive checks and scans etc and the helper advised me that the didn't believe it was a malware issue and directed me here. The frustrating things is sometimes evrything works perfectly well,. any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

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Sounds like it may be a failing hard drive.

Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools

Hard drive diagnostic utilities are used primarily for determining the physical condition of your hard drive, (drive integrity and read/write verification). If you are having computer problems which you suspect are hard drive related, you can test it with one of the following:

• Fujitsu
  http://www.fujitsu.c.../utilities.html
  
• Hitachi "Drive Fitness Test"
  http://www.hgst.com/...ownload.htm#DFT
  
• Samsung
  http://www.samsung.c...port_HUTIL.html
  
• Seagate / Maxtor "SeaTools"
  http://www.seagate.c...nloads/seatools
  
• Western Digital
  (Use the "Find by Model Number" on the right)
  http://support.wdc.c...oad.asp?lang=en

If it passes the HD Diags, run CHKDSK next (to ensure that the Windows file system is okay):

How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

[SpywareDr]

Sounds like it may be a failing hard drive.

Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools

Hard drive diagnostic utilities are used primarily for determining the physical condition of your hard drive, (drive integrity and read/write verification). If you are having computer problems which you suspect are hard drive related, you can test it with one of the following:

• Fujitsu
  http://www.fujitsu.c.../utilities.html
  
• Hitachi "Drive Fitness Test"
  http://www.hgst.com/...ownload.htm#DFT
  
• Samsung
  http://www.samsung.c...port_HUTIL.html
  
• Seagate / Maxtor "SeaTools"
  http://www.seagate.c...nloads/seatools
  
• Western Digital
  (Use the "Find by Model Number" on the right)
  http://support.wdc.c...oad.asp?lang=en

If it passes the HD Diags, run CHKDSK next (to ensure that the Windows file system is okay):

How to perform disk error checking in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

[abigailone]

Thanks for that, will give it a try. How do Ifind out wh
How do I find out the drive manufacturer?

[SpywareDr]

Look at the sticker on the drive, or use Device Manager to get the model# and then Google it, (the model#).

[abigailone]

OK thanks, how difficult is it ti put a new drive in a laptop? I appreciate the OS would have ti be installed etc but wondered from a hardware angle

[phillpower2]

Have you established the brand of the HDD and run the diagnostic tests as suggested by the Doc?
The reason I ask is you are asking for guidance on replacing the HDD when it has not been suggested.
You havn`t provided the aspire model number so we can`t provide the exact details but if you have established
that the HDD is bad and needs to be replaced the attached video will enlighten you;

[abigailone]

Hi, thanks for that. I was just thinking ahead about the drive really - as a last resort. I haven't been able to find the manufacturer of the drive, it is not in device manager. There are a couple of what look like serial numbers so I will google them as suggested. A couple of the links provided above are broken, the samsung and fujitsu ones I think. The model for information is Acer Aspire 3002LC. It has been working perfectly well for a couple of hours this evening but I have just turned it back on to get these serial numbers and it is playing up again, CPU usage straight away stuck as 70% from power on, keyboard not responding,applications taking forever to open and I have tried to turn it off and it is just hanging and pressing the power button and keeping it pressed does nothing. It seems I have to leave it to do whatever it is doing, it will eventually close down. Like I say working fine earlier on. When I can get back in I will try and find the manufacturer.(using another device to do this)

[phillpower2]

Another way of finding out the info you require is by checking the boot order in the BIOS, check what is listed for primary master and secondary master, to get into the BIOS;
Reboot the system and at the first post screen (where it is counting up memory) start tapping the DEL button
This will enter you into the BIOS/CMOS area;
Find the Advanced area and click Enter;
Look for Boot Sequence or Boot Options and highlight that click Enter, you should find what you need there, do not be tempted to change any settings simply exit when done.
The specs for your laptop list only a 60GB HDD which is minimal, how much storage space is available on the HDD?

[abigailone]

Hi,

drive has about 15GB free, I am struggling to find manufacturer using all the methods suggested so far, I have run chkdsk and it found errors and said I need to run chkdsk /f to fix them . I did this and it said it would do it on restart. On restart it runs chkdsk but reports no problems. But when I run chkdsk again from command window it finds errors again and suggests I run chkdsk /f again etc etc.

Would there be any other likely cause of my original problems other than a hard drive problem ?

Is there any other general diagnostic tool available for checking hard drive problems ?

[SpywareDr]

1) What is the model#/serial# you see in Device Manager?

2) CHKDSK cannot repair a failing hard drive. All hardware has a lifespan, and hard disks have a shorter life than most. Heads crash, bearings wear out, and motors fail -- and there is no software available that can fix these problems. That's why backups are so important.

[phillpower2]

Try this http://www.seagate.c...nloads/seatools it will work on some HDDs other than Seagate.
Do you have the XP installation disk? If you do you could try a repair installation using Chkdsk /r see below for how to"
To repair errors, locate bad sectors, and recover readable information, at the command prompt, type chkdsk volume:/r, and then press ENTER.

Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive the following message:
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)
Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then restart your computer to start the disk check
From your OP;

the drive begins to make the noise it usually makes when doing something but it doesn't stop. it just goes on and on, in task amanger CPU usage runs at about 70%

May suggest the HDD is having to work harder to find the necessary data, any other noise such as clicking or rattling?

[Macboatmaster]

Also running chkdsk /f or chkdsk /r the latter checking for and attempting recovery of data from bad sectors and then running JUST chkdsk which is what I think you meant will
invariably report errors.
CHKDSK on its own runs in read only state and all errors will be reported as such. - errors.

The read-only Chkdsk process involves three phases. If Chkdsk encounters errors in the early phases, Chkdsk might abort before it completes all three phases. In addition, Chkdsk is prone to falsely reporting errors when in read-only mode, and it might report that a volume is corrupted even when no corruption is present. For example, Chkdsk might report corruption if NTFS modifies an area of the disk on behalf of a program at the same time Chkdsk is examining the same area. To verify a volume correctly, the volume must be in a static state, and the only way to guarantee that state is to lock the volume. Chkdsk locks the volume only when you specify the /f, /r, or /x parameters. Thus, you might need to run Chkdsk more than once for Chkdsk to complete all stages in read-only mode.

Edited by Macboatmaster, 28 March 2011 - 02:59 PM.

[abigailone]

May suggest the HDD is having to work harder to find the necessary data, any other noise such as clicking or rattling?

Yes, there is definitley some clicking and in some instances there is a click which coincides with it all freezing up.

But as mentioned before this behaviour highlighted in your quote above appears to be random, I wouldn't say it is getting worse either or more frequent and I have not had a BSOD. It usually happens after a restart while machine has been on or not long after a start up from cold, again not every time though.

As mentioned I went to a Malware forum and some of the scans recommended caused it to do this also, e.g. I couldn't run DDS without everything locking up.

[Macboatmaster]

See my post above re chkdsk on its own in read only mode. You cannot rely on this.

You need to run that Seatools for dos.
Download the FOR DOS one to either a CD or a floppy if the laptop has a floppy drive and run that.
This is because the first and most important task is to establish if the drive is failing.
Clicking is a bad sign.
It could very well indicate that has the head moves acroos the platters, that is the read head is moving acroos the disc - platters., there is a mechanical fault on the drive.

The nest task is to get your data off the drive before you lose the lot.

[abigailone]

Backed up, previous experience taught me that.

Pretty sure the drive is Hitachi, the instructions look a bit tricky given at the above website and unfotunately I can't seem to get the user guide pdf to open up properly?

http://www.hitachigs...r_Guide_415.pdf