Vista running slowly and making odd noise.

[uhluhtc]

Hello everybody. I need some help with an odd tech problem. I'm working
with a Windows Vista HP Pavillion PC. No hardware has been modified. I'm
not sure which version I have, I think I have all but the most recent update.
I'm not sure if this is a hardware problem or not, but here goes. Anyway,
about 4 months ago, my computer started acting odd. It would make an odd
ticking, or clicking noise and start running slow. It sounds like an odd
tick-tock noise. It seems to originate in the front of the computer, lower
left side. Theres about a .5 second delay between the tick and tock noise.
It keeps making that noise about every 3 seconds. It will seemingly stop and
start doing this at random. The slow downs are always associated with the
tick-tock noise. I found out that when it's doing that, the computer starts
functioning worse in general. Instead of running at normal CPU capacity, it
limits itself to about 15% of it's power. Nothing huge is running in the
background to suck up it's power. It just goes into "dumb mode". When this
happened 4 months ago, I did a full system restore and that fixed it. Now
it's happening again. I've already done a system restore. However, it
doesn't want to boot up now. It's stuck on a please wait screen. So, has
anyone suffered through this problem and if so can anyone help me? If you
need anymore details, let me know.

 

[uhluhtc]

My bad. The computers not stuck on a booting up screen. I was just a bit
too impatient. However, I would still like to know about the tick-tock
noise. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bob F.]

My bad. The computers not stuck on a booting up screen. I was just a bit
too impatient. However, I would still like to know about the tick-tock
noise. Thanks in advance.

Sounds like a drive is about to fail. You need to back it up NOW, get a new
HD and install it. You're lucky when you get a warning like this. Most
times they just quit. But I've had them go like this also, clicking, slow
disk access and slow boot, then works ok but generally slow. It will start
losing files, if it hasn't already. You won't know until you try to access
a specific file.
Bob F.

 

[DL]

The hd manufacturer will have a free hd checking utility on their site

 

[mikeyhsd]

you might download and install Belarc Advisor.
run it and take a look at the S.M.A.R.T data for your drives.
it would show if it is possible beginning to fail.




(e-mail address removed)



Hello everybody. I need some help with an odd tech problem. I'm working
with a Windows Vista HP Pavillion PC. No hardware has been modified. I'm
not sure which version I have, I think I have all but the most recent update.
I'm not sure if this is a hardware problem or not, but here goes. Anyway,
about 4 months ago, my computer started acting odd. It would make an odd
ticking, or clicking noise and start running slow. It sounds like an odd
tick-tock noise. It seems to originate in the front of the computer, lower
left side. Theres about a .5 second delay between the tick and tock noise.
It keeps making that noise about every 3 seconds. It will seemingly stop and
start doing this at random. The slow downs are always associated with the
tick-tock noise. I found out that when it's doing that, the computer starts
functioning worse in general. Instead of running at normal CPU capacity, it
limits itself to about 15% of it's power. Nothing huge is running in the
background to suck up it's power. It just goes into "dumb mode". When this
happened 4 months ago, I did a full system restore and that fixed it. Now
it's happening again. I've already done a system restore. However, it
doesn't want to boot up now. It's stuck on a please wait screen. So, has
anyone suffered through this problem and if so can anyone help me? If you
need anymore details, let me know.

 

[uhluhtc]

Hm... Interesting theory. However, how would that explain the fact that when
I did a full system recovery, setting it back to day 1, that it stops doing
that? It's worked twice now to fix the noise. If it's a hardware problem, I
don't think that would fix it. My own uneducated guess would be that a
system file becomes corrupted somehow. I will look into that S.M.A.R.T data
thing. If it reveals anything, I'll let you know. Thanks again and if you
have any more ideas, let me know. I really want to know why I've had to lose
everything on my computer twice.