Storage Solutions PC running slow, due to bad HDD?

Status
Not open for further replies.
imkaush

imkaush

Galvanizer
My Good People,

We have an issue with an old P4 PC in my dad's office.

The usage is basically Tally 9, MS Office, Internet Browsing.

It was working fine until recently, it has started running very slowly...as in it lags a lot.

The PC "engineer" has told its due to old CPU/Mobo and need to upgrade them.

But I decided to intervene and as an first step, I uninstalled all the unwanted programs(toolbars,etc) installed in it, and disabled all the unwanted startup programs, and disabled unwanted Services.

But still the problem persisted...so I decided to check the HDD using HD Sentinel and it shows the the following report:

-- Physical Disk Information - Disk: #0: SAMSUNG SV0411N --

Hard Disk Summary
-------------------
Hard Disk Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0
Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : IDE/ATA
Disk Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82801DB Ultra ATA Storage Controller - 24CB (ATA)
Disk Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 0, Device: 0
Hard Disk Model ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : SAMSUNG SV0411N
Firmware Revision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : UA100-08
Hard Disk Serial Number . . . . . . . . . . . . : XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Total Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 38201 MB
Power State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Active
Logical Drive(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : C: [WINXP] D: []
Current Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 28 °C
Power On Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 573 days, 9 hours, 19 minutes
Estimated Remaining Lifetime . . . . . . . . . . : more than 1000 days
Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ##################-- 94 % (Excellent)
Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : ##############------ 70 % (Good)

The drive found 4 bad sectors during its self test.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
The hard disk is operating in UDMA mode 2 (33 Mbytes/sec) which reduces performance. It is recommended to use a 80 conductor IDE cable if the controller supports higher data transfer rate(s).
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.
No actions needed.
Click to expand...

Definitely the HDD is failing, but is it causing the slowdown, or is it really the CPU/Mobo...

PC Config:

System Information
--------------------
Windows Version . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3
CPU Type & Speed #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz, 1500 MHz
CPU Type & Speed #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz, 1500 MHz
BIOS Manufacturer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Award - Phoenix
Physical Memory Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 2031 MB, Used: 575 MB (28 %)
Display Adapter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
Display Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : 1280 x 720 (32 bit)
Printer #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Auto HP LaserJet 1020 on SIGMA2
Printer #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Auto Send To OneNote 2007 on SAM-LAPTOP
Printer #3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Canon MF4320-4350
Printer #4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Canon MF4320-4350 (FAX)
Printer #5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Foxit PDF Printer
Printer #6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft XPS Document Writer
Printer #7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Nitro PDF Creator 2 (Reader)
Printer #8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Send To OneNote 2007
Network Controller #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek RTL8139/810x Family Fast Ethernet NIC
Network Controller #2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . : D-Link DWA-525 Wireless N 150 Desktop Adapter #2
Optical Drive
Click to expand...
[DOUBLEPOST=1369738001][/DOUBLEPOST]Guys... any help![DOUBLEPOST=1369803627][/DOUBLEPOST]Come on guys...anyone??? :(

Thanks in advance!
 
Try scan disk and defrag. That's about all u can do till you RMA the drive .

Sent from my Micromax A110 using TechEnclave Forum mobile app
 
Since it's a Samsung drive, give 'Seatools for DOS' and 'Seatools for Windows' a try.
I think there are some options in them, specifically in the DOS version that might be useful. I think there is an option to set UDMA or do some repair thingy. Not very sure but worth trying.
 
  • Like
Reactions: imkaush
There could be many different reasons for the lag.

1) Check the memory health. Bad or failing memory can cause lag or stutter-ish moments in UI interactions. Search for tool called Memtest, download and follow instructions to test it.
2) Check the dust status inside the cabinet, CPU heating up and/or CPU fan slowing down or halting because of dust buildup in the fins can cause the CPU throttle to kick in. P4 CPUs are not known for their thermal/power efficiency and are easy to get hot.
3) As mndar mentioned, UDMA mode getting turned off can be one of the main cause of "lag" or "stutter" in daily operation. google for "Checking and fixing UDMA in Windows XP". You should find plenty of info on how to go about.

Do a check based on above mentioned points and report back your findings and see if it fixes the slowdown.

EDIT:

I read your HD Sentinel report again and it does say that HDD is operating on UDMA mode (albeit Mode 2).

The drive found 4 bad sectors during its self test.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
The hard disk is operating in UDMA mode 2 (33 Mbytes/sec) which reduces performance. It is recommended to use a 80 conductor IDE cable if the controller supports higher data transfer rate(s).
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.
Click to expand...

Find out if you can set the UDMA mode to higher (4-5, depending your chipset's capability).
 
  • Like
Reactions: wingmysoul, Crazy_Eddy and imkaush
YoGi-Sama said:
There could be many different reasons for the lag.

1) Check the memory health. Bad or failing memory can cause lag or stutter-ish moments in UI interactions. Search for tool called Memtest, download and follow instructions to test it.
2) Check the dust status inside the cabinet, CPU heating up and/or CPU fan slowing down or halting because of dust buildup in the fins can cause the CPU throttle to kick in. P4 CPUs are not known for their thermal/power efficiency and are easy to get hot.
3) As mndar mentioned, UDMA mode getting turned off can be one of the main cause of "lag" or "stutter" in daily operation. google for "Checking and fixing UDMA in Windows XP". You should find plenty of info on how to go about.

Do a check based on above mentioned points and report back your findings and see if it fixes the slowdown.

EDIT:

I read your HD Sentinel report again and it does say that HDD is operating on UDMA mode (albeit Mode 2).



Find out if you can set the UDMA mode to higher (4-5, depending your chipset's capability).
Click to expand...
Thanks bro for this checklist... Will report back with the results...
 
Use XP's task manager or Performance monitor (Start > Run > perfmon) to figure out where the bottleneck is.

If your HDD is operating at ATA/33 speeds, it would be the bottleneck. Check device manager to cross-check your disk drive's UDMA mode. The 865G chipset had SATA ports too, so it should support the highest ATA/133 speed. Swap the IDE cable, check BIOS settings, check Windows. Was anything done to the system before this lag started?

P.s. Don't bother with repairing bad sectors. If the Seatools utility 'repairs' a bad sector, it will still be weak, so its better the HDD controller just leaves the sector marked as bad to avoid writing data to it.
 
raj404 said:
Download antimalware software and scan for virus, good one is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO from http://www.malwarebytes.org/. , the FREE version works for 14 days. I would also suggest Ccleaner.
Click to expand...
Already have latest Kaspersky Internet Security license installed on it.
And removed unwanted software/temp files/fixed registry using CCleaner.

Crazy_Eddy said:
Use XP's task manager or Performance monitor (Start > Run > perfmon) to figure out where the bottleneck is.
Click to expand...
Already checked using task manager...but via teamviewer... will check again using task manager and perfmon... thanks...

Update: Just confirmed from seagate that, hdd warranty has expired... :arghh:
 
Just get a good working hdd from your friend and check it. IMO the culprit must be the HDD. BTW are you using intel original board - 865GBF. Sometime back i was using the same board and experienced some thermal issues, but luckily the board was under warranty and i was offered refund from intel.
So my advise is to check for thermal issues if any . I can recall that even i faced the same slow response issue, and i was asked to send the temperature details to Intel before RMA..
 
  • Like
Reactions: imkaush
Hi guys, dad is now keen on upgrading the PC (CPU+Mobo+RAM+HDD) as they are planning to have a incremental backup software on this PC which will backup changed data(tally/doc/xls/pdf files) from another server/storage PC on the network.

And these are the shortlisted configs:
CPU+Mobo:
AMD based(suggested by a client dealing in AMD procs and will provide best prices):
amd-athlon-ii-x2-270 OR amd-3-4-ghz-fm2-a4-5300
+ biostar-a960g

Intel based(suggested by the PC engineer):
intel-i3-3220
+ gigabyte-ga-h61m-d2h

RAM: Transcend/Kingston 2GB DDR3 Value model compatible with the Mobo selected.

HDD: WD 500GB.

Any suggestions/corrections to the above config(intel/amd) are welcome!

Thanks guyz![DOUBLEPOST=1372008973][/DOUBLEPOST]hey guyz...any suggestions...please!

:)
 
A couple of years back AMD was my favourite as NVIDIA based motherboards existed. But dont know about the present AMD based motherboards. The NVIDIA based motherboards are still rocking. Let the others give their suggestions. AMD or Intel ?? ..
 
If you choosing AMD setup, then with AMD 3.4 GHZ FM2 A4 5300 processor, you will have pick a FM2 chipset as Biostar A960G+ is a AM3+ chipset, which will work fine with your other shortlisted AMD CPU, i.e. AMD Athlon II X2 270.
For just routine office work load this AMD setup as compared to Intel is fine on performance basis, and on cost front it will be little cheaper than that of Intel setup.

imkaush said:
Hi guys, dad is now keen on upgrading the PC (CPU+Mobo+RAM+HDD) as they are planning to have a incremental backup software on this PC which will backup changed data(tally/doc/xls/pdf files) from another server/storage PC on the network.

And these are the shortlisted configs:
CPU+Mobo:
AMD based(suggested by a client dealing in AMD procs and will provide best prices):
amd-athlon-ii-x2-270 OR amd-3-4-ghz-fm2-a4-5300
+ biostar-a960g

Intel based(suggested by the PC engineer):
intel-i3-3220
+ gigabyte-ga-h61m-d2h

RAM: Transcend/Kingston 2GB DDR3 Value model compatible with the Mobo selected.

HDD: WD 500GB.

Any suggestions/corrections to the above config(intel/amd) are welcome!

Thanks guyz![DOUBLEPOST=1372008973][/DOUBLEPOST]hey guyz...any suggestions...please!

:)
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: imkaush
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom