My system is failing. Argh!

[D+1]

I am probably going to just replace large chunks of my system (I've got an itch for more power anyway) but in the meantime I'm trying to isolate just what the problem is. I first noticed it when one fine day the boot-up took about 5 minutes. I get my screen giving me the option to go into bios, etc. but that screen hangs for a minute or two with no sign of change, then suddenly the hard drive will spin up and it will advance to a black screen, which hangs for a minute or so again, and then finally completes booting. This happens on EVERY bootup. Simple work-around: don't shut it off, backup files and pray.

But now it seems the system is hanging for maybe a minute or less at other times. I noticed while installing and reinstalling a few programs over the last few days that even some very small programs are pausing for an abnormally long period during installation. Because that CAN be normal behavior in installs I'm less sure of that being a Sign of the End Times, but with the boot-up thing I'm suspicious. But I've noticed other times when programs aren't starting up when they should.

Example, I was working on a Campaign Cartographer file and making some occasional notes in Word. I hit a button on my MS wireless keyboard and nothing happens. I repeat it a few times. I assume it might be an issue with the keyboard and go select it manually from accessories. There's a long pause and I get two calculator windows popping up.

So whaddaya think? My deduction so far is the hard drive is failing. I clean the system quite regularly for virii so that's not it.

 

[Zenon]

First thing I would check is the RAM. On my old PC, I had a stick of RAM going bad - I would constantly get the BIOS screen on boot (I imaging it was because the system memory would read a different amount from what it was supposed to be). Programs would act up, files would become corrupted during copies, etc. At first I thought it was the OS (I had Win ME), but even after trying to reinstall another OS, it kept hanging during install which indicated a hardware problem to me. It took me a while to track it to the RAM and it surprised me because I never would have imagined that as the cause.

If you have two sticks (or more) of RAM, pop one out (if your PC will let you run with one and doesn't need a pair). Test it out. If it work fine, then pop out the good one and replace the other one. See if the trouble comes back.

HD problems are usually (but not always) indicated by loud "clicking" from the drive. If your hard drive is S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) capable, locate and run the S.M.A.R.T. ultilities, specifically the drive confidence test. This should give an answer to your drive reliability.

Those are the two I would check before looking anywhere else, though I'm sure other here will have some other things for you to look at.

 

[Psionicist]

1) Check the power supply.
2) Check the RAM (www.memtest86.com).
3) Check the hard drives.