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Author Topic: strange grinding noise  (Read 2704 times)

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ObliviousHarmony

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strange grinding noise
« on: December 13, 2008, 07:26:20 PM »
Hello. Currently i Have in my PC:

Q6600 2.4 ghz
8800gts 312 DDR3
2gb of ram
500gb WD sata HDD
Sound Blaster Audigy
500watt PSU

Alright so my computer has up and decided that it hates me. For about three months it worked without any major issues. I noticed some absurd artifacting with my GPU but decided i'd just replace it eventually. My problem is that recently my computer has gone nutty. Whenever I decide to do anything (open photoshop, install programs, ect) it starts to give me laggy sound. Windows itself takes about 5 minutes to get past that initial loading screen and then 1 or 2 minutes to actually load my user. Under a normal circumstance I would just guess CPU but it's stranger. Once photoshop opens it gives a GPU error, whatever, I get it, it's broken. Yet it works fine, no lag, nothing. I render videos, and nothing. I open fallout 3 and it lags until it gets to the menu and the sound is fine for the rest of the game. It seems to only lag on loading screens. About an hour ago I started hearing loud grinding noises from inside my case. All of this leads me to believe it may be my HDD. It seems that the sound skips any time the HDD is accessed but I'm not sure. So I wanted to get a second opinion.
I ran a CPU stress test and it never got above 60C at 100% for 3 hours. I ran a ram test for 20 minutes with 0 errors. My GPU gets up to 72C with artifacting almost nonstop :P In games there are specific models that seem to make the oddest thing ever occur. Giant triangles of the models texture stretch into the air to the edge of the screen..... It only happens with specific models and such though. In fallout 3 there are certain places that massive grey triangles cover the screen but if I don't face the model it's fine. In another game a large triangle comes out of the neck of one of the female character models. It's odd.. In any case, what do you think could be the windows Lag and sound skipping issue?

killerb255



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    • Experience: Expert
    • OS: Windows 7
    Re: strange grinding noise
    « Reply #1 on: December 13, 2008, 08:46:55 PM »
    Two problems at the same time:

    1) Hard drive is going bad.  If the grinding noise is coming from the hard drive, that's means it's about to crap out on you.  Back up your data as soon as you can 'cause you may not get another chance...

    2) Video card.  99% of the time artifacts on the screen mean a video card problem.  The other 1% of the time it's drivers. 

    So...you have your marching orders.  Replace both the hard drive AND the video card.
    Quote from: talontromper
    Part of the problem is most people don't generally deal with computer problems. So for most they think that close enough is good enough.