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ANSWERED 5/7/08
Question:
John asked, "I formatted my computer because it was slow (going to 100% CPU usage constantly for no reason), sometimes everything would just freeze. After formatting, the computer seemed ok for a bit but then started being slow again. I just had 2 1-gigabytes of RAM put in, replacing the 2 512s I had. It SEEMS to be faster but when I start Windows, the sound is distorted like it's struggling. A diagnosis done by Best Buy confirmed everything is ok and working. Even with 2 gigabytes, it is still slow. I have a 1.73 ghz Pentium M running on Windows XP with 60 gigabytes hard disk My question is: is it possible my hard drive might need to be replaced?To be more specific, my computer is the Sony Vaio FS980"
Answer:
Thank you John for including all of the details. The details you provided makes it easier to diagnose the problem. First of all, I guess you bought your Sony laptop before reading my post about how Sony products suck. In any case, if you do a clean install of Windows XP and you are still experiencing the same issues that is not a good sign because it looks to me like a hardware problem. But before we go on, are you sure that after the clean install of Windows XP, you didnt install anything else? I just want to eliminate the fact that maybe some software programs you are installing are causing the issue. So if its a laptop hardware issue, I would say that it's either the memory (RAM) or the hard drive. You said that you changed out the memory, so that eliminates that. So it might well be the hard drive. But before you go and throw more money at it, Im not sure if its really worth it. You took it over to best buy and had them check it out. You bought 2GB of laptop memory, which aint cheap. And next you might "try" to fix it by replacing the hard drive? Here is my advice:
- Try Googling and see if anyone else is having similar issues.
- Call Sony support to see if they have anything useful to say.
- You can try installing some programs that specifically test out the different parts of the computer (ie. Memory, Video Card, Hard Drive) to figure out which part is having problems.
- You can try swapping out parts, but that might be difficult and expensive.
- Sell your laptop.
- Get a Dell laptop instead. I can help you find one :)
8 comments:
Wow. I am not sure how I found your site to begin with but I'm glad I did because you seem to have good advice =)
Anyway, I formatted my computer because it was slow (going to 100% CPU usage constantly for no reason), sometimes everything would just freeze. After formatting, the computer seemed ok for a bit but then started being slow again. I just had 2 1-gigabytes of RAM put in, replacing the 2 512s I had. It SEEMS to be faster but when I start Windows, the sound is distorted like it's struggling. A diagnosis done by Best Buy confirmed everything is ok and working. Even with 2 gigabytes, it is still slow.
I have a 1.73 ghz Pentium M running on Windows XP with 60 gigabytes hard disk
My question is: is it possible my hard drive might need to be replaced?
To be more specific, my computer is the Sony Vaio FS980
No John, Im not stumped. Just waiting for more (if any) questions. Please post your comments to the corresponding blog posts to avoid confusion.
Also, Im glad you like my site. Please tell your friends and family about it.
Thank-you for the response. Unfortunately, my laptop is under warranty for 1 more year at Fry's electronics and I don't really want to replace my computer only after 2 years. Before I had the Dell 600m with 1.5 ghz pentium M 512 RAM. In the end the processor and motherboard needed to be replaced after only 2 years and the hard drive went out (Thank God it was still under warranty!).
The only programs I installed would be Warcraft III, Norton Internet Security 2007 (I heard it was a mistake to renew my subscription), Mozilla Firefox, iTunes, Quicktime, Realplayer and Yahoo Autosync. Warcraft III, Frozen Throne and Norton was installed through a purchased CD. Mozilla, iTunes & Quicktime, Realplayer and Autosync were downloaded from the official sites. I also installed something called WC3Banlist and WinPCap (required to run WC3Banlist) but my friends use it also and haven't had any problems. I was recommended by Best Buy to use a program called CCleaner to clean the system out.
I installed everything before adding my pictures to the hard drive and the system seemed to run fine. However, once I uploaded my pictures to the computer, it started to slow down. All pictures were either taken through my camera or a friend's camera...but is it possible one jpg file could be infected? Norton's scan says everything is clean.
John,
Are the applications you stated above installed BEFORE or AFTER you reinstalled Windows?
Also, wanna play war 3 against each other. What's your screenname?
roger
Everything was installed after I did a complete system restore. My computer slowed down after uploading the pictures.
I actually don't play melee games. When I go on Warcraft III I play DOTA. If you're into DOTA, my screename for the West realm is: BraveBeliever
Uploading pictures should not slow down your system, unless you are reaching the maximum limit of your hard drive. I think its actually probably one or more software programs that you installed. Also, check to see if you have a lot of these different applications running in the background. I see a lot of programs that I stay clear away from because they are too obtrusive. In otherwords, these are programs that start up when Windows starts up and "linger". They run in the background using up resources. Norton, Realplayer, Yahoo Autosync might be some of the culprits. If I were you, I would uninstall ALL programs and then see if you are having the same problems. Then I would install only one program at a time per week. That way you can test which application is causing the problem. If you still think that uploading pictures is an issue, you can reformat your hard drive again, then upload pictures. Are you using a software program to upload your pics?
I only play melee for War 3 :(
I upload all my pictures from data DVDs.
To answer your question: yes, I bought this computer before reading your post about how Sony sucks. In fact, I remember commenting how my camera sucks...hasn't given me problems lately but I am probably making my next camera a Canon since they use sD cards. My video camera is a Canon and I love it =)
I was told IBM Thinkpads are AWESOME but are also expensive.
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