pc makes continuous grinding sounds

R

Ralph

I have Windows XP Pro on a Compac Deskpro. My question is: the PC
makes continuous grinding sounds; sounds like it's constantly writing
to the Hard Drive.

I looked at the Windows Task Manager and it shows CPU usage constantly
changing about about once per second from 0% to 2%, back to 0%, then
4%, then 0%... -- but I am not doing anything!

When I look at Processes in the Windows Task Manager the ponly
Processes active are the "System Idle Process", with a value that
varies from 92-97 under the CPU column, and taskmgr.exe, with a value
that varies from 2 or 3 under CPU column.

And the small indicator light on the front (indicating HD activity)
also blinks green corresponding to the noise...

I am not knowlingly running any programs or activities in the
background.

This does not seem normal. Any ideas why my PC is doing this? Can I
make it stop?
Thanks!!

I am not super-PC literate, so dont be afraid to ask me a question that
might appear dumb : )
(I know sometimes very simple questions fix problems of all kinds. I
hope that's true in this case! )
 
G

Grok

Ralph wrote:
| I have Windows XP Pro on a Compac Deskpro. My question is: the PC
| makes continuous grinding sounds; sounds like it's constantly writing
| to the Hard Drive.
|
| I looked at the Windows Task Manager and it shows CPU usage constantly
| changing about about once per second from 0% to 2%, back to 0%, then
| 4%, then 0%... -- but I am not doing anything!
|
| When I look at Processes in the Windows Task Manager the ponly
| Processes active are the "System Idle Process", with a value that
| varies from 92-97 under the CPU column, and taskmgr.exe, with a value
| that varies from 2 or 3 under CPU column.
|
| And the small indicator light on the front (indicating HD activity)
| also blinks green corresponding to the noise...
|
| I am not knowlingly running any programs or activities in the
| background.
|
| This does not seem normal. Any ideas why my PC is doing this? Can I
| make it stop?
| Thanks!!
|
| I am not super-PC literate, so dont be afraid to ask me a question that
| might appear dumb : )
| (I know sometimes very simple questions fix problems of all kinds. I
| hope that's true in this case! )

If the harddrive is grinding backup your important docs/data off the
harddrive right away as it might be failing. You can run checkdisk and the
like .. but first thing, get important stuff backed up onto, say, CD-Rs.

Harddrive failure is not that rare. I've found it most likely to occur on
new drives as the factory botches will usually show up quickly within the
first few days or so. Although failure later in the harddrive life cycle can
also occur.

Once you stuff is backed up you can investigate the drive's intergrity with
checkdisk and/or scandisk [win98 floppy] and so on.
 

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