Need some help

[Rikadyn]

So this morning, I got on my desktop for a bit of minecraft. Booting minecraft froze the pc solid, so I hard restarted, and it took like 10-15mins too boot and when it finally did boot windows faded in and out slowly when opening/closing.

Booting goes: bios screen black screen bios screen black screen then will usually boot but the starting windows animation will be choppy

running ram diagnostics atm, but only cause i have no clue what else to do...


Win 7
16gb ram
windows is on an SSD

[thesameguy]

I would stop immediately and back up your hard drive, then run a full surface scan on it. It *sounds* like a failing hard drive. Could be something else for sure, but I wouldn't risk your data.

Edit: Derp, just saw it's an SSD. You can't really run a full surface scan on that. The manufacturer may provide a reliability tool you can use - do NOT use a conventional tool. That it's an SSD makes it sound even more like it's early drive failure.

[Rikadyn]

Did a system restore and that seemed to help the functionality, but the boot into it was still slow as shit. Started a backup onto one of my 1tb HDDs so we'll see when that's done. If it is the drive failing it's better than my GPU going bad, but there were no signs before this. Also I can double the capacity of my SSD for half what I paid for it now so that's nice...

[thesameguy]

I have seen that slow as shit behavior happen when an SSD starts failing as it madly scrambles to read data from dead spots and then reallocate elsewhere. If you can, try doing a clone to any other drive just to see if booting that drive instead fixes the issue.

I would say it's highly unlikely it's the GPU - maybe board/ram/cpu, but probably the drive.

[Rikadyn]

Update; I did a system restore after the initial problem, as windows had updated before the problem occured, and that was the last thing that happened. System restore restored functionality to the system, though the initial boot was still slow. Windows tried to update last night and this morning it was acting funny again. Doing another system restore to see if it once again corrects the issue.

[Rikadyn]

Didn't help with visual stuttering, updated the graphics card driver, didn't help. Yet minecraft plays fine, but anything else is eh, streaming video is stuttering like mad

[thesameguy]

Have you tried a different drive? That's really where I would go. Sounds like the system is having problems writing temp files. Can you play videos off a flash drive (specifically, off a flash drive) without issue?

[Rikadyn]

Video plays off of flash drive and D and E drives without issues. Like anything runs okay, but transitioning between programs is slow and laggy.

[thesameguy]

Bad C:. can't write temp files reliably. :)

[Rikadyn]

is Crucial still a good brand for SSDs?

[thesameguy]

I think so. Samsung is my go to but I have a lot of Crucial drive in the field as well. Do you have an old HDD or something you could clone to for testing?

[Rikadyn]

Potentially. My tower allows like 6 3.5 drives , 4 of them are quick swap ,anyway, I could move my photos to my other 1tb hdd and clone to my photo drive.

[thesameguy]

Seems like a good approach vs. just buying something. Did you happen to check out the drives using ssdlife, crystal disk info, or hardware monitor? They might tell you something too.

[Rikadyn]

2021

2020

SSD Life says my SSD is fine o.O, though i don't know what to make of the SMART readout

[thesameguy]

Whoa, me neither! Have you ever checked to see if TRIM is enabled on the drive?

[Rikadyn]

Trim is supported and enabled according to SSD Life, then again i only learned that TRIM was a thing going through this. Starting to wonder if it could be something in Windows went corrupt and is just fucking things

[thesameguy]

Because of the weird SMART data I would consider going down the clone route as it's a pretty painless free test. I think the video test is a good one, and because video plays fine off flash drives we can rule out all sorts of other hardware and software. The variable really is the boot drive, and that is why I would work on an elimination test. You could try an sfc /scannow and see if that turns anything up - it's also free and painless.

[Rikadyn]

Yea, still plan on doing a clone first, copied the hdd off to a external drive already. Working on this while i have 4 papers due within the next week on my also slowly dying laptop

[Rikadyn]

So far, created the clone with Reflect, and booting from it is about the same as from the SSD.

Yep boot finished after 10mins, and all the problems persist

doing sfc scannow now

[Rikadyn]

sfc found errors, said it repaired them, but problems still exist

[mk]

It's still pointing towards the disk.

Was SSD connected when booting from HDD?

[Rikadyn]

It's still pointing towards the disk.

Was SSD connected when booting from HDD?

nope.

Also I did SFC on both hdd and ssd and got errors

[mk]

Was HDD in earlier SSD connector?
If so then try different one.

You can't write ECC errors, or any errors, so it's tilting to mobo's direction.
Quite odd anyway.

Is it possible that the machine has a small cache ssd somewhere?

ps.
just few days ago I found a disk that had mostly every 255th block in error state.

[Rikadyn]

Was HDD in earlier SSD connector?
If so then try different one.

You can't write ECC errors, or any errors, so it's tilting to mobo's direction.
Quite odd anyway.

Is it possible that the machine has a small cache ssd somewhere?

ps.
just few days ago I found a disk that had mostly every 255th block in error state.

No, SSD was disconnected, the HDD was on it's own connection that it had always been running on (I have 2 1TB HDDs for Storage and the SSD for boot.)

[Rikadyn]

Wouldn't I see other issues if it was the motherboard? I mean I have run and accessed things off of my other drives without issue. Literally the only thing on my SSD has been Windows and a small number of programs (Antivirus, and such tools) everything else is ran off of the D and E drives. Also not surprised that the one named Blizzaga is the one slowing down...

[Yw-slayer]

It could be those ports in particular.

[Rikadyn]

well, next step probably should be a clean install I think, I mean i could change cables around. I mean everything worked fine till Windows updated on Oct 25th

[mk]

Do four HDD speed tests.

Drive as a system and data disk with original and different connection.

[Rikadyn]

I don't have time for a reboot this morning so.

Crucial M4 SSD - System

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 5530.464 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 2162.220 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1508.719 MB/s [368339.6 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1337.348 MB/s [326501.0 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 5294.273 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 2139.869 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 288.145 MB/s [ 70347.9 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 1005.619 MB/s [245512.5 IOPS]

Hitachi Deskstar (Clone drive)

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1334.378 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1309.294 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 10.171 MB/s [ 2483.2 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 11.010 MB/s [ 2688.0 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 996.229 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1308.718 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 5.243 MB/s [ 1280.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 10.842 MB/s [ 2647.0 IOPS]

WD Black (Main storage drive, more or less did this for more info)

Sequential Read (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1171.272 MB/s
Sequential Write (Q= 32,T= 1) : 1178.988 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 10.834 MB/s [ 2645.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 32,T= 1) : 10.470 MB/s [ 2556.2 IOPS]
Sequential Read (T= 1) : 1175.223 MB/s
Sequential Write (T= 1) : 1152.652 MB/s
Random Read 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 4.899 MB/s [ 1196.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KiB (Q= 1,T= 1) : 10.605 MB/s [ 2589.1 IOPS]

now, wtf does this mean?

[Yw-slayer]

That both your hard disks are operating at a similar speed, and that your SSD is much faster than both of them?

Seriously - I'd swap the ports around. As in: If SSD and HDD1 are connected to Ports 1 and 2, try and connect them to Ports 3 and 4 respectively (if you them). It's rare for MBs/Ports to go bad, but it does happen.

[Rikadyn]

You'd think the Sata III drive would be faster than the sata II drive, but first of the speed tests suggested...

Yea will swap ports later, only got an hour before have to go to class, and it takes 20mins to reboot

[mk]

Check also that all RAM is present.

[thesameguy]

Yeah, RAM would probably be my next suspect. A quick fresh install, or maybe booting a Linux Live CD might be a good test as well. I also like YW's idea of moving drives around on SATA ports - perhaps the issue is the integrated SATA controller.

[Rikadyn]

Ram passed the check completely and machine sees all 16gb

[mk]

Is it free?

All things combined it seems that your machine is swapping with boot.

[Rikadyn]

Swapping with boot?

[mk]

Swapping contents of RAM to disk file and back.

[thesameguy]

Oh, got it. That could definitely be an explanation, but with 16gb that all tests good it seems unlikely.

Have you looked in event log to see if there are any errors being logged?

[mk]

Before recovery try Windows install disk.
It'll give a clean time reference.

You can also try uninstalling single updates.

Swapping with plenty of RAM can still happen but something must eat the RAM first.
Rouge drivers were a norm one day.

[Rikadyn]

Anything specific i should be looking for in the event log. Some errors, mostly dns not being able to read the local host file

[Rikadyn]

also 5gb ram is cached 7gb free, only using 3.2gb

[thesameguy]

Anything in red, but I'd be focused on hardware related issues, like driver's crashing, errors from disk, etc. Things like DNS are *probably* not an issue, but unable to read from hosts is weird. That should basically never happen. Maybe you have a virus? Messed up hosts files are common attacks for them.

[Rikadyn]

Ran a scan with Avast when it started, found nothing, neither did malware bytes. Changing Sata ports did nothing. So far nothing has done nothing. I'm really hoping it's cause my windows fucked up (it's bootleg anyway) and not the mobo because then i would basically need to scrap the pc

No hardware errors on the event long, lots of software errors, mostly local host file

[Rikadyn]

ATM I am doing what I have done in the past right before throwing out 2 laptops. Building a linux boot usb...

[Rikadyn]

on a peculiar note, Windows Live Messenger just showed up on rebooting... Now I don't remember having that since it got merged into skype...

[mk]

(it's bootleg anyway)
If the machine is online all bets are off.

[Rikadyn]

Basically my next move is clean install of Win 7 Pro (friend is giving me a legitimate copy)

[mk]

All copies are legitimate, you can get your own from Digital River.
The key is what counts.

The DVD image you get from DR contains all versions of that architecture and the key selects the installed version.

[Rikadyn]

Yea he's getting me a key

[thesameguy]

I don't think Digital River is a thing anymore - IIRC all those links are shut down.

[mk]

And W7 DL form MS seems to be behind the key.

[Rikadyn]

I am not saying how we are doing it :P

Anyway, in the weirdest twist yet, everything started working fine, after I rebooted to start the clean install, only the reboot needed to update windows and seemed to skip going to bios, and just restarted windows...

Computers fucking confuse the shit out of me at times...

[mk]

System found it's unauthorized and crippled its self,
then reverted when authorized.

[Rikadyn]

It's not yet though