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System starting to show its age


Silearth

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It still feels like yesterday--the day my boxes arrived at my front door and I built my rig. But my my baby is starting to show her age.

 

Computer had been freezing up randomly until one day it stayed that way with random blips where I could get in a mouse click or two.

 

I noticed that the drive activity light was lit constantly the entire time. Suspecting hard drive issues I checked the warranty. I was still covered but I would have to send it out before I got the replacement. They recommended downloading Seatools.

 

To make a long story short, Seatools repaired my drive(more like marked the bad sectors and recovered the data to another part of the drive) Everything was fine.

 

Had the same issues today, but luckily, there was only one bad sector on the drive. Wow, is two years the going rate for a hard drive these days?

 

But I did have my eyes on a terabyte model.......

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2 years? Probably for some models. I'm sure there's some better rated drives that cost a little more than normal. I sort of have the same issue: My rig's 2 OLD hard drives are both going bad. Sometimes they simply decide not to boot up when the computer does. It's a little scary. That and the fact that most of everything in that rig is aging causes me not to be able to play much of anything.

 

We weep for our machines! :cry:

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My suggestion is get yourself a decent Seagate or WD (1TB drives are going for $70-80). While you have your system open, use a can of compressed air and blast out all the bunnies. Send the current drive in under warranty and then use it as a secondary drive once it's back (might make a good option for your page file or your browser cache).

 

Oh, is your current drive size still in active production? I returned a drive for buddy and he got a freebie upgrade from 200MB to 250MB because that's what they had in stock. (Also, the drive you get back might very well not be the drive you send it; but it will be freshly refurbed and generally have a revised warranty period on it. I can say nothing but good things about Seagate's warranty program.)

 

This might also be a time to review your cooling fans. Are they making any noise they shouldn't? Easy to add a fan or two to your order for just a small increase in shipping cost. (Or specifially search for items w/ free shipping on Newegg like I do :) )

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My suggestion is get yourself a decent Seagate or WD (1TB drives are going for $70-80). While you have your system open, use a can of compressed air and blast out all the bunnies. Send the current drive in under warranty and then use it as a secondary drive once it's back (might make a good option for your page file or your browser cache).

 

Oh, is your current drive size still in active production? I returned a drive for buddy and he got a freebie upgrade from 200MB to 250MB because that's what they had in stock. (Also, the drive you get back might very well not be the drive you send it; but it will be freshly refurbed and generally have a revised warranty period on it. I can say nothing but good things about Seagate's warranty program.)

 

This might also be a time to review your cooling fans. Are they making any noise they shouldn't? Easy to add a fan or two to your order for just a small increase in shipping cost. (Or specifially search for items w/ free shipping on Newegg like I do :) )

 

My current harddrive is a seagate barracuda. Good idea on the RMA. I RMA'd a WD drive years ago and ended up with a larger drive in return (I think I may still have that one)

 

As for cooling fans, I replaced two of them last year because the bearings were going out. Couldn't find anything but sleeve bearing fans. I was more than willing to put out a bit of extra cash for dual ball bearing fans even if it meant loosing the lighted fans.

 

I tend to clean out my case once a week. Got a real dust problem.

 

Now, a couple of days ago, my computer stopped booting altogether. It would blue screen and then restart. I ran Seatools for DOS and it could do nothing for me. On a whim, I pulled out my video card and the slot cooler and restarted the system.

Windows booted right away. I ran Seatools and it found two more damaged sectors(think I have a total of seven now).

 

The system is running very smoothly now. I am still replacing the hard drive, though. And I am thinking about the powersupply as well. I currently have a

"RAIDMAX HYBRID 2 RX-530SS 530W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular LED Power Supply". I didn't think that I was putting much strain on it with my config.

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