Faulty HDD cause of Slow System?

[chrigil]

Could a faulty HDD be the cause of a slow system?
Whenever I use Cinema 4D to build 3D scenes my system grinds to a halt. Admittedly the scenes are fairly big but on other computers it is never as bad as on mine.

To see if it would help I formatted the system as there was a lot of unnecessary stuff on it. When I was trying to perform a full i.e. Slow format using NTFS when installing Windows it came up with an error suggesting there was a fault with the HDD.
It was ok when I did a Quick Format but it wouldn't let me do a full format.

The 3D scenes are still just as slow as before?!?

Could this be the cause of the slow system or not? I'm gonna replace the HDD but to be honest I'm not too optimistic about this problem being resolved.

Any ideas?

 

[garebo]

Did windows fix the error on the hard drive and let you install win xp?
If so then it sounds like your hard drive may have bad sectors that windows would have fixed. Depending on how many bad sectors and the size or sizes of bad sectors, this hard drive may be failing.
You didnt state wether the hard drive was ide so i will guess it is, but you also didnt state if the drive is 5400 or 7200 spin, or ultra 100\133 or not, that would make a difference speed-wise.
Is the transfer mode listed as ultra dma in dev mgr\ide controllers?


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[chrigil]

Windows wasn't able to fix the problems which is why I ended up installing using the quick format.

The drive is IDE and its about 18 months old and I think its 7200 rpm.

The system is only slow on the 3D apps. The scenes are 180Mb in size which is admittedly pretty big but my point is it runs fine on other systems.



Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[edfair]

Yes, hard drives can have defects that can slow data transfer to the extent that jobs run exceptionally slow.

There are other problems that can mimic a hard drive problem and make you think your hard drive is failing.

The definitive test is generally the manufacturer's diagnostic, even though I have seen one or two that indicated OK by test but still stalled the system.

Cables can also create the problem. Any noise from signal reflection issues will force retries.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[chrigil]

I tried the Hitachi Diagnostic test and all came back fine.

I guess I'll find out when I install the new hard drive (it's installing as I type).

The drive was definitely old and with the price of HDD's rediculously low these days a nice new fast HDD can't do any harm can it



Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[chrigil]

Well I've just tried reinstalling Windows on the new HDD and it's given me the same error message.

Unable to install Windows on this partition. The disk maybe damaged.

This is crazy. It's a perfectly good disk and now I'm beginning to realise that the old one was perfectly ok too.

What do you think the problem is? Could it be the Mobo or Cables or what?

If anyone can offer any adivice I'd appreciate it. Why the hell does this always happen when you have a deadline???





Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[garebo]

Okay, if windows wouldnt install win xp on that drive, and given the other info you have stated, i would guess that there are too many bad sectors on that h drive and win xp is far too picky to accept that h drive. The reason it will "quick format" is because when you quick format windows doesnt check the h drive, it simply installs. But we shouldnt do that quick way anyway as we only set ourselves up for future problems after we have spent a ton of time doing prog installs, so best to know in advance like you did!

I had a recent prob with my system running slow and i believe i have it narrowed down to a problematic, slow hard drive as well. I cant say for sure until i run the hard drive diagnostics and if that turns out ok then installing win xp on it again and trying it on a new, fresh start. I havent done that so cant say for sure but i do believe its the h drive running slow due to some sort of problems. First i thought it was virus or malware, or the nic card, or this or that, but i believe its narrowed down to the hard drive. Im only saying all this to bolster the fact that its likely your hard drive is (was) the problem.
Especially if win xp didnt like it on install attempt.




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[chrigil]

Surely the fact that I've tried two different hard drives, one of which is nearly brand new suggests that it's a problem with something else in the system?



Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[garebo]

chrigil, i apologize, i didnt, for some reason, see that post of yours when i posted!
I didnt know that you have now tried two different hard drives, one brand new.
First i would suggest trying new or different cables, are they ide?
Can you easily strip out all pci, usb etc that you dont absolutely need to boot up to the windows install cd?
Even down to one ram stick.
Even unhook floppy drive for now, unhook all that you can.
Make sure bios is set to boot from cdrom, sorry, have to mention that, sure you already have done so.
Again, i apologize for not seeing your last post.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[ceh4702]

might be not enough power from the power supply or bad memory.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[garebo]

I forgot something, re-set the cmos, but you want to check the manual or mfgr website as how its done differs from one to another. So,like pc chips, want you to move jumper from pins 1 and 2 to 2 and 3 and reboot. Others, if you do that, you take a chance of frying the mobo, so you want to check that out before you do it.

It certainly wont hurt to re-set the power supply as well.
Remove the main power cord from back of case to wall, make sure the power switch on the back of the power supply is in the on position.
Now press and hold the main power-on button at the front of the case for at least one minute. Let it go after a minute and then switch the switch on back of power supply to "off" and reconnect the main power cord to the back of the case, turn the same switch at the back to "on" The computer may seem like its powering on and stop, that is normal and will stop. Now quickly press and let go of the front main power-on button as you normally do. That causes a reset.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[edfair]

I'm curious. I've drained supplies down to insure a proper cold boot before but I've not been aware of a reset capability. Is this something that a system manufacturer has implemented or a power supply manufacturer?

I could see the keepalive circuitry powering up the primary power long enough to discharge the high capacity caps in a fraction of a second and the power switch draining down the keepalive power until the low voltage fell enough to lose the latch but all of this should happen whether or not the mains switch is thrown. And I assume that it would work the same way on those supplies without a mains switch.


Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[garebo]

Edfair, im not as technically able to state the obvious as you, but i do think what i said pretty much equates to something similar to what you said, if you can get around that statement,lol I only know that doing this will re-set the power supply. I learned that by accident. I do charity work and get older P2, P3 , even P4 units, parts, etc, and i build computers out of the donated parts or even whole computers, and they go to schoolkids who dont have one at home.
Anyway, while doing this i discovered a phenomenon. I have this $10 power supply tester that i use just to test a power supply to make sure its not dead in the water right off the bat. It doesnt do what a dig multimeter does, but i didnt have one then and so i used this. WEll, sometimes i would get the mobo, ram, cpu installed on the bench and it wouldnt boot. I learned that many times all i had to do was connect the ps tester to the power supply and the power supply would go on. Then i plugged the power supply back onto the mobo and surely it would fire up. After doing this too many times i knew i was onto something. So all i can say is there is some circuitry in some or maybe all power supplies that sometimes has to be re-set before the power supply will turn on again. You can use a power supply tester to do that job or you can use my explanation as above, both will do the same job as far as i know. I have tested both and they seem to work equally well. But i did get a digital multimeter to replace the power supply tester
as it tests each rail individually and you can test for a power supply that is going to fail shortly via lack of voltage as per the test. But, of course, i have everything on my PSU, my other fav rant.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[garebo]

After reading my own statement, let me make it clear that i believe the manual re-set method does the same as using a power supply tester to re-set the power supply. So i believe they are either one and the same or at least the end result ends up to be the same.
But i do know that since then i have had plenty of people call me to tell me they have their mobo out of the case, the ram and cpu\heatsink\fan setup all installed and no go. I tell them to bring it over that way and bring their power supply. I use my power supply tester on the power supply and get it going. Then i hook up the power supply to the mobo and all is well, most of the time. Between doing this for others and myself, i have done it probably over 100 times now. Of course there is the odd time that this fails but its only because the power supply wasnt at fault in the first place for those.
And i have also noticed that this happens a lot less with P4 cpu's installed, so i also think it has something to do with both the mobo and the power supply, they are not all wired the same or the newer P4's are wired a bit different so this power supply problem happens a lot less with newer P4 cpus installed.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[edfair]

I suspect that we are both commenting on the power good line failing to come up correctly if the supply isn't shut down long enough for some capacitors to discharge. If that line doesn't come up the processor clock doesn't start ticking and the processor sits there dead.
Yours seems to be the proactive approach while mine is more passive.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[garebo]

I dont have that much knowledge of that stuff, but, yes, now that you explain it that way, it makes sense. After all, caps do hold a charge.

Your way is the same except you dont unplug the power supply at the wall (mains i think you call it)? Is that it?




Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[edfair]

Since the switch effectively disconnects the external power that is all that is needed. If no switch then the wall (or UPS switch) is the only choice.

 

[garebo]

I will have to try it your way, but no doubt you are right. I can tell you know more about it than i do,lol. I only know the outcome and kind of guess at the reason, where you have the technical reasoning all worked out!


Good advice + great people = tek-tips