Stange things happening to my computer.....

SWPIGWANG · Post by **SWPIGWANG** » 2004-06-10 02:38am

Well, for the last little while my 2 year old laptop have been acting up, so there is what happened.

1. My HD sometimes spins around at high speed for no reason (accessing bad files?), and it leads to XP going into BSOD.
2. My Windows XP got corrupted, installed Windows 2000 to replace it
3. One of my Avi files disappeared before my very eyes while it is still being shared on shareaza. When Shareaza tried accessing it crashed.

Appearently one of my mp3's fat allocation is far off. A 4:23 minute mp3 at 128k bit rate should not take 94.13MB. The sounds of it seems to indicate it cross shared some clusters with other files.

Scandisk doesn't seem to work, need some other software to do the job.

So any ideas?

Sarevok · Post by **Sarevok** » 2004-06-10 02:55am

Your computer seems to be in deep trouble. Reformating your hard disk and reinstalling everything would probobly be the solution.

Stuart Mackey · Post by **Stuart Mackey** » 2004-06-10 05:56am

Your computer is possesed, and only I can conduct the exorsism. Send me $ 3000 and I shall sweep it cleen of all the evil wee boogers.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2004-06-10 06:28am

Your hhd is suffering failures. Running a scan disk will probably reveal corrupted sectors like crazy.

You need to get the hhd replaced.

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2004-06-10 08:24am

The HD seems to give up the ghost.
A good advice:
Buy a new one!

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-06-10 08:54am

Sounds like a HD issue, try swapping the hardrive with another, working one. If you still have the problem it could be something on the motherboard, in which case you might as well just get a new machine.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-06-10 02:28pm

Yep, dying HD. Toshiba and Hitachi probably make the best of the laptop hard drives at the moment; the former has a 16MB cache 5400RPM and the latter offers an 8MB cache 7200RPM drive (but its pricey).

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-06-10 02:50pm

Is there really that big of a difference between the 7200rpm and 5400rpm hardrives? I've yet to see any myself.

Alferd Packer · Post by **Alferd Packer** » 2004-06-10 04:34pm

InnocentBystander wrote:Is there really that big of a difference between the 7200rpm and 5400rpm hardrives? I've yet to see any myself.

Well, the specifics varies from HD to HD, but generally the faster-spinning ones have a better average seek time. Of course, your actual mileage will vary, but faster = better, so....

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-06-10 04:38pm

Faster is better, but is there any noticeable difference. I don't like to dwell on the inconsequential. If it saves me a couple seconds of loading time for, say, Bf1942, that's not really worth anything. Then again, if it gets up and picks up my dry cleaning, then I might consider it

desertjedi · Post by **desertjedi** » 2004-06-10 06:44pm

If you are loading very large files, like editing movies, I think the faster drives make a world of difference. Between my computer and my buddy's, mine is much faster on the Photoshop and video editing side then his is.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2004-06-10 07:50pm

desertjedi wrote:If you are loading very large files, like editing movies, I think the faster drives make a world of difference. Between my computer and my buddy's, mine is much faster on the Photoshop and video editing side then his is.

While desertjedi is right, I venture that's ALL the difference you're going to notice. Unless you regularly work with large files, I'd pay it no heed. Indeed, the SLOWER drives mean less of a heat dissipation problem (especially in a Laptop).
While I agree that it sounds very much like a bad HDD, more information might help.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2004-06-10 08:46pm

desertjedi wrote:If you are loading very large files, like editing movies, I think the faster drives make a world of difference. Between my computer and my buddy's, mine is much faster on the Photoshop and video editing side then his is.

Thats good to know, ya know, someone should compile a big list of how each variable affects computers and to what degree.

SWPIGWANG · Post by **SWPIGWANG** » 2004-06-11 01:38am

That sounds bad.....

*starts backing up*

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-06-11 11:30am

It's noticible to me. Faster hard drives not only transfer data faster, they also take less time to seek. As for heat, the Hitachi 7200RPM drive is only marginally warmer than the Toshiba 5400RPM drive (and doesn't use much more power).