New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Help diagnosing problem

post #1 of 7
11/18/04 at 3:24pm
Thread Starter 
yesterday i started experiencing some odd behavior from my 4760. p4 2.66/512/ati9000-64

1. sluggish response; sound of hard drive churning, switching from program to program taking 30 seconds +.

2. BSOD during virus scan error message: something like 'kernel_data_page_error' and 'ntfs.sys' error

3. long boot time, windows startup sound 'gurgly'

4. i ran CHKDSK, performance is better, although i'm not getting usb 2.0 on my ports (plugging in card reader says funcitoning in usb 1.1 mode)(burning to external 4x dvd burner buffers run really low) and my IDE channel is showing PIO for one of the devices even though dma if available is selected (i'm not sure which drive; the other is dma mode 2).

at first i thought maybe HDD failing, but now the USB is slow and sound files playing funny, except the gurgling only occurs during startup. it might be a virus? although i'm running 2 antivirus programs (EZ trust and AVG)(also zone alarm) i did foolishly install a freeware app a couple days ago.

anyway, i'm overdue for a clean install of XP. just wondering if anyone had some idea what might be wrong.
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 7
11/18/04 at 5:29pm
The wierd noises you say you are hearing are consistant with the hard drive wearing out and about to fail. I would backup your data and preform a clean install to see if the problems persist. The failing hard drive could account for the other errors (except for the usb 2.0 issue). The last lappy I worked on had this issue (HP notebook) and it had a program that I ran the warned me about the HD. It had the repeated clicking and gurgleing noises you talk about. Good Luck.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 7
11/18/04 at 11:53pm
Definitely sounds like a failing harddrive. I would not even bother with a reinstall as it may only give you a false sense of security. If the drive is failing and files are becoming corrupt, it could cause any of those problems.

Also, running two AntiVirus programs simultaneously could cause you problems as most AV programs have on-access scanning which means that you have two programs and their associated subsystems attempting to access and scan EVERY file that you access...I would uninstall one of them, and not install two on any system from this point forward either.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 7
11/19/04 at 2:55am
Thread Starter 
thanks for the advice. i am now 5 weeks past sager's 1 year warranty, but looking at Toshiba's USA website it says

"Hard Disk Drives and Optical Disk Drives purchased as part of a complete system are warranted by the system OEM. Please contact your system manufacturer for further details. 2.5" Hard Disk Drive ("HDD") products purchased in the United States and Canada from Toshiba authorized distributors carry a 3-year limited warranty." so basically, drives in oem systems are crappier than drives they sell retail?

I think i should be able to expect more than 13 month life out of a hard drive. I'm not one of those that leave their system running 24/7 either. it's just kinda frustrating since i was stung by the IBM deskstar 75GXP fiasco a few years ago (i had bought 3 drives and all 3 failed within a year).
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 7
11/20/04 at 8:18am
This is one of those "you should have paid for the extended warraty" situations unfortunately. 1 year warranty on computer equipment is not enough under any circumstance or for any excuse. I also hope u backed up any important data.

hard drives are the most likely thing to fail in a system being that they are both electronic and mechanical, and especially in a laptop due to it being moved around so chances of it being nudged while running are much higher. heat is also an issue in a laptop of course.

may not hurt to try and contact toshiba to sneak a warranty through anyways. never know. Just play dumb and don't make mention of it coming in the laptop, though they'll most likely have tracked the sale. For a replacement I'd look at a seagate due to thier 5 year warranty... yes u heard me FIVE YEARS!!! Also, Western Digital has 3 years on their drives and makes an excellent product.

good luck.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 7
12/8/04 at 5:17pm
I just lost my Toshiba (oem) hdd yesterday and had a few similar warnings. XP startup was noisy but it got quite after if finished. MS Office runtime errors lurked prior to the startup noise, but I assumed a reinstall would fix that as usual. It didn't.

The noise got progressively worse, and I got everything backed up in time. I kept running it afterwards out of sheer sadism. But yesterday I got the dreaded OS not found message at boot.

I'm gonna try the sneak by oem on Toshiba suggested above, but I doubt it'll work.

I'm going with a Seagate if not. The Seagate Momentus series is supposed to be great for battery life as well.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/st...ch-roundup.html

Anything to help my power-munching toy be more "mobile"...
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 7
12/8/04 at 6:18pm
Thread Starter 

Clean That Heatsink!

update: i have run some drive checking softwares, and then a 'system restore' to a few weeks before the problems started which restored my DMA and USB to normal. but i started experiencing BSOD's having to do with MACHINE_CHECK_EXCEPTION or something to that effect, which research indicated a hardware failure along the lines of: bad memory, motherboard problem or HEAT problem.

so i finally opened up the computer: took off the access panel and four screws, PULLED FIRMLY on the heat sink (unfortunately my first attempt did not inlcude FIRM pulling and so i continued to disassemble nearly the whole computer before an email reply from Beachbum [thanks!] set me straight; the thermal pad acts like glue so u have to pull kinda hard). after removing a large blockage of dust and cat hair, i have not had problems since.



i forgot how relatively quiet this computer was when i first got it. i realized that over the past year the fans kept running more and more frquently and loudly, but it crept on slowly until one day i noticd 'how come my computer is so noisy?'; i knew in the back of my mind that it was a good idea to clean the heatsink, but i was procrastinating, and i didn't realize how dire the situation was.

anyway, here's a picture. good thing i had some arctic silver thermal paste handy and some pure alcohol for cleaning & re-applying the heat sink. note to sager: i think the cleaning of dust off the heat sink needs to be easier for your average joe computer user to be able to do, in order for Sager to start having broader appeal.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home