The last week or so my computer has developed a strange issue.
Every few minutes I will be able hear something inside my laptop spinning up to full speed, then whatever I am doing will slow down. If I am gaming I end up with 1fps, if I am browsing the internet it just sort of freezes, cant type, cant click etc. If I am watching a tv show the picture will freeze although the audio will continue. After maybe 20 seconds or so it calms itself down and returns to normal.
I have performed numerous antivirus and spyware scans but found nothing untoward.
Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Or how to stop it?
Laptop is 1 year old. Vista, 4gig RAM, 2ghz Dual Core Intel, Nvidia Graphics Card.
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Do you have a disk in the DVD/CD drive? Freaked me out once when I forgot I left one in there. ;)
Damn, I got hopeful when you said that, but the drive was empty.
It could be a number of different things then. I would run a check disk on your drive chkdsk /r the r is for repair but it should tell you if you have bad sectors etc.
The other things that might spin up to full speed are fans. You might have a bad fan controller or something like that but that would not usually account for slow downs unless you fan is turning off then your overheating and it is revving up to compensate. We had some Dell's at work with that problem on the power supply. It would basically rev to full then stay full for long periods of time for no reason.
The solution for that was to update the chipset drivers for the mobo. You have to look up your manufacturer then find the latest chipset drivers.
Hmm what else causes laptops to rev up then perform slowly? Can you tell at all the location of the noise? is it on the left? on the Right? Centered? You could look up your laptop on the manufacturer support site and see a layout of the parts to get an idea of where something is going wrong.
Speaking of manufacturer sites they often have a diagnostic utilty that can be helpful. Make a disk from the .ISO and boot to it. Then it will run a series of tests and tell you what is failing.
Other things you could do are to look at the processes in Task Manager and see if something is suddenly eating up all your resources during one of the periods.
Thats just about all the troubleshooting 101 I can think of atm. :)
Edited, Oct 10th 2010 3:46pm by Shojindo
The other things that might spin up to full speed are fans. You might have a bad fan controller or something like that but that would not usually account for slow downs unless you fan is turning off then your overheating and it is revving up to compensate. We had some Dell's at work with that problem on the power supply. It would basically rev to full then stay full for long periods of time for no reason.
The solution for that was to update the chipset drivers for the mobo. You have to look up your manufacturer then find the latest chipset drivers.
Hmm what else causes laptops to rev up then perform slowly? Can you tell at all the location of the noise? is it on the left? on the Right? Centered? You could look up your laptop on the manufacturer support site and see a layout of the parts to get an idea of where something is going wrong.
Speaking of manufacturer sites they often have a diagnostic utilty that can be helpful. Make a disk from the .ISO and boot to it. Then it will run a series of tests and tell you what is failing.
Other things you could do are to look at the processes in Task Manager and see if something is suddenly eating up all your resources during one of the periods.
Thats just about all the troubleshooting 101 I can think of atm. :)
Edited, Oct 10th 2010 3:46pm by Shojindo
Given that you are running vista, This could possibly be the media sharing annoyance that is Windows Media Player. Check task manager near the shutdowns and see if wmpnetwrk.exe or wmpshare. something are runnning. If they are, they may be eating up all your available ram.
There are three possible sources for that spinning. The primary lapop intake fan, the hard drive, and the optical drive with media in it. If there is no disk, you can pretty much eliminate the optical drive, as I have never encountered a laptop one that would try to spin up without a disk inside. Usually the opposite problem is more likely.
The hard drive, it could be that, but we would need to see task manager to see what is going on.
I'm wondering if heat isn't an issue here somehow. The other comment about Dell laptops overheating and needing a bios update is a major potential issue, one I can confirm happens from time to time, especially on the Dell Latitude line. You may want to check your work area and see if any pieces of paper got sucked under the laptop and may be covering important intake holes. You also might want to try buying a disposable air spray can and blowing any dust that may be lurking out.
Try downloading the free program Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) and see if you notice any major heat spikes. Also check your hard drive for S.M.A.R.T errors and general health while you are in there.
There are three possible sources for that spinning. The primary lapop intake fan, the hard drive, and the optical drive with media in it. If there is no disk, you can pretty much eliminate the optical drive, as I have never encountered a laptop one that would try to spin up without a disk inside. Usually the opposite problem is more likely.
The hard drive, it could be that, but we would need to see task manager to see what is going on.
I'm wondering if heat isn't an issue here somehow. The other comment about Dell laptops overheating and needing a bios update is a major potential issue, one I can confirm happens from time to time, especially on the Dell Latitude line. You may want to check your work area and see if any pieces of paper got sucked under the laptop and may be covering important intake holes. You also might want to try buying a disposable air spray can and blowing any dust that may be lurking out.
Try downloading the free program Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) and see if you notice any major heat spikes. Also check your hard drive for S.M.A.R.T errors and general health while you are in there.
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