There is something wrong with my HDD & CPU

[Schwartz]

Hi,
whenever I do something demanding on my PC, mainly games, It starts to go all ape sh|t. The game will run at 50 fps and then drop to 1 or 3 fps for 30 seconds or so. I here my HDD making really strange noises when this happens(sounds like a scream).

And my CPU is going at 100% and when the game is not freezing it is at like +-90%.

What could this prob be? I think it might be my HDD?

 

[killadoob]

I would do a fresh install first.

A screaming hdd

 

[Schwartz]

I would do a fresh install first.

A screaming hdd

I am gonna do a fresh install when Win 7 full comes out.. not gonna do one now when it comes in like 3 weeks!

The HDD scares me.. I am gonna install a game on my other HDD and see if it slows

 

[Schwartz]

OK so it has the same problem on another HDD

 

[Antybubbs]

OK so it has the same problem on another HDD

i would wait for Win7 and do a clean install, you might find there is a 3rd party application running in the background when you ask alot of your machine.

What happens when you copy heavy files from the drive to another? does it produce the same sound?

 

[Schwartz]

no it only happens in games and when I sync songs on my iPhone (if there are more than 500 songs)

 

[///MoH]

CPU throttling back cause of overheating perhaps ?

Monitor your temps...

 

[Schwartz]

k so I just played for about 15 minutes before it started freezing... my temps were as follows:
Core 0- High:64 During freeze:55-60
Core 1- High:60 During freeze:50-57

 

[killadoob]

VGA card temp?

 

[lucifir]

it could be that hard HDD is crashing/has a bad sector and windows is trying to read it ... I know you tried the game on another HDD, but it could have nothing to do with the game, but rather some other process in the background. Try running a HDD diagnostic ... another possibility is that your graphics drivers might not be correct for ur card.....
also ... could be a heating issue on the graphics card and not the mob/cpu ... good luck

 

[Schwartz]

I am downloading the newest drivers for my card and will see if that helps! Will also run a HDD diagnostic test. And monitor my GPU temp.. thanks guys

EDIT: So I installed latest ATi Drivers and ran disk checks.. all came out clean! What program can I use to monitor GPU temp?

 

[lucifir]

not sure of a prog that will do that ... maybe someone else can comment .... but another thing to check is that you graphics card is seated properly ... and maybe try running a virus scan on your HDD with the windows and game install

 

[Schwartz]

I run Avast and Windows defender on alternating days.. so deff clean of viruses! I have googled GPU temp things but no results.From the feel of touch my GPU is crazy hot. It is definitely seated properly.

 

[rurapente]

Is it an AMD chip? its lying about its temperature and its glowing with heat

but seriously, im voting for graphics card overheat. are you sure that "scream" wasnt one of your fans RPMs getting boosted to try cool something down, either CPU, GPU, Northbridge etc.

Whats the system temp if you can check that?

 

[rurapente]

PCsToGo : remove the panel exposing the card.

Place a desktop fan RIGHT there and put it on full. (turn off oscillation)

Play again and see if it lasts longer, or changes habits. Then you know its definitely a heat problem. Maybe make sure none of the fans are dust clogged too.

 

[Schwartz]

Iare you sure that "scream" wasnt one of your fans RPMs getting boosted to try cool something down GPU.

Whats the system temp if you can check that?

I was about to post that the scream noise is in fact from my card!

How do I check my system temp? Is that like in-case temp? I am gonna clean out my cards fan now.. see if that helps.. otherwise on the weekend I will try the Fan thing.

 

[Subversion]

Try using Rivatuner to monitor the temps of ur card!

 

[rurapente]

PCs love collecting dust on the fans. i used to get our maid to clean around the machines all the time. until she discovered the best way to untangle the broom from the wires was to pull really hard...

 

[lucifir]

PCsToGo ... the more I think about ur prob ... the more I am leaning towards a software that is just hogging resources (especially since we checked the usual hardware that could cause the issue ... also since I re-read ur 1st post ) ... anyways .... try and see which process is using the most memory and processing (usually system idle process should be around 99 on a computer with not much load). You obviously should not be running any apps when u r checking this .... anyone else know what he could use to get a better idea of this ... other than task manager??

 

[Schwartz]

PCsToGo ... the more I think about ur prob ... the more I am leaning towards a software that is just hogging resources (especially since we checked the usual hardware that could cause the issue ... also since I re-read ur 1st post ) ... anyways .... try and see which process is using the most memory and processing (usually system idle process should be around 99 on a computer with not much load). You obviously should not be running any apps when u r checking this .... anyone else know what he could use to get a better idea of this ... other than task manager??

that was the first thing I checked... the thing using most CPU was always the task manager(besides game if its on) so I dont think anything else could be running.