Hardware Computer problems

[S0NlC1]

hello all,
my high end computer is having a big of issues. the other day, I came home from school, and found out that my computer was turned off. I thought; this is strange, as I left if turned on before I left to go to school. (turned out that it crashed from a blue screen)

when I tried to turn it on, the fans/lights came on for a few seconds, and then shut down. it did not boot, and did this process about 4 times.

Finally I turned it on AGAIN, and it continued to boot up. the computer usually takes under 15 seconds to be fully turned on, and have all the aplications/progams loaded and ready to go, but this time, it took about 10 minutes just to get to the login page. once my computer was booted, it took forever for all the apps to load up.

once everything was loaded, my computer was running very slow, I mean VERY slow. Slower than my 11 year old windows xp.

I decieded to check task manager, and when I did, I went to the process page, to see what was going on. It says my PC's cpu was being maxed out at 100% hence making it slow. I checked the process tab, and clicked CPU to see in order what was using the most CPU power. Nothing was, thats what is so strange.

normally my computer purrs away using about 23% CPU with all programs running, but now I had most programs closed, nothing that I could see was using all the cpu, but it was being maxed out at 100%

what should I do?

I took apart my computer, to see whats wrong, and also cleared out the dust aha, but there was nothing I could see was wrong with it technically.

I am worried, and not sure what to do. Is my CPU dying? do I have a virus? or is there something else I can do to fix this?

I have trend micro internet security, and it says there are no viruses .

thanks for your time and help,SONIC1

 

[Originality]

Sounds to me like either the CPU is being throttled or HDD IO commands are choking up. One of them is probably on its way out.

I think there was a way to check for CPU throttling using CPU-Z, but I can't remember the details...

 

[Thanatos Telos]

Change your font color by clicking that button next to the font selection. I can't read it because of my theme.

 

[trumpet-205]

It is very rare for CPU to go down, my suspicion is on HDD.

 

[S0NlC1]

if it is a problem with my Hard drive, do you think it would be with my 60GB SSD drive which the operating system is installed on, or a problem with my second 2TB hard drive which all my infomation/data goes onto to?

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

Try booting a live cf of Linux and see what happens Linux in live as far as I know doesn't touch your hard drives till you open them

 

[W.I.C.K.E.D.]

I would check a few things. Just to start off, I would try a simple file transfer, say something about 3gb. Check the write rates and make sure they are on par with what you are used to. Optionally run a hard drive utility so that you can monitor the read rates as well. If these both seem fine, open the task manager or even cpuz to make sure all cores are functional. I don't know what the other user meant by never seeing a cpu die. Maybe on home builds you don't often but that's maybe what, one computer every few years? I work as a network administrator/engineer, and processors do die. Seriously though, check to make sure all cores you have are running. Throttling is definitely a possible cause, but I wouldn't expect this unless there is a heat issue. Let us know what processor and motherboard you are using as this can help. Also, is this a first generation ssd? I ask because there was a high failure rate when the technology was brand new so that is a possibility as well. You could run a quick install of windows on another drive and set it as your primary. If boot times return to normal, I would think that it is the ssd.


Edit: P.S. Check your system logs, they at times can help you in determining the root cause of your issue.

 

[S0NlC1]

I would check a few things. Just to start off, I would try a simple file transfer, say something about 3gb. Check the write rates and make sure they are on par with what you are used to.

Well, when I first turn on the computer, and it goes full speed, the transfer speed is like it usually is, but after the computer has idled for a few minutes, it slows down, the cpu gets maxed out, and the data transfer speed slows right down.

Optionally run a hard drive utility so that you can monitor the read rates as well. If these both seem fine, open the task manager or even cpuz to make sure all cores are functional..... check to make sure all cores you have are running. Throttling is definitely a possible cause, but I wouldn't expect this unless there is a heat issue.

I will try this

btw, I dont think there would be any heat issues, because I have duel fans and a liquid cooler + lots of vents around the tower.

Let us know what processor and motherboard you are using as this can help. Also, is this a first generation ssd? I ask because there was a high failure rate when the technology was brand new so that is a possibility as well. You could run a quick install of windows on another drive and set it as your primary. If boot times return to normal, I would think that it is the ssd.

I am not sure what generation it was, but this is the exact item I got when I bought my computer 1 and a bit years ago:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/PCMeal-C...pt=AU_comp_dekstop&hash=item35b11298ea&_uhb=1

I am not sure if I can run another install of windows, because that is my only hard drive. the other (internal) hard drive (2TB) has all my stored data on it.

Edit: P.S. Check your system logs, they at times can help you in determining the root cause of your issue.

where can I check them? I have the notes of the blue screen if that helps?

 

[Originality]

So it takes a few minutes to slow down? That's a different story... Most likely a memory leak in one of the processes or possibly TRIM not working anymore on the SSD (that would be in line with the IO choking up I mentioned in my earlier post).

 

[S0NlC1]

So it takes a few minutes to slow down? That's a different story... Most likely a memory leak in one of the processes or possibly TRIM not working anymore on the SSD (that would be in line with the IO choking up I mentioned in my earlier post).

at first, when I first had the problem, it was straight away, but now since I have tried to clean re-install the OS, it takes a few minutes before it starts to slow down. Then, if it slows down, when I put it into sleep mode for a few minutes, and wake it up again, its goes fast. As usual though, after a few minutes, it slows right down again.

also, even when it does go fast, I still get poor performance from what I used to get when it worked properly.