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    T400 Hard Drive causing massive lag spikes

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by junkimchi, Apr 22, 2009.

  1. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    I first noticed this while i was playing Warcraft 3 and it couldn't have been the internet because its happening in even single player. In trying to find the source of the spikes i reinstalled almost every kind of driver imaginable but then I believe i found the source. When i was im'ing in pidgin, i realized that the same kind of spike was happening everytime i send a message. When i press enter, the hd activity light goes full on then the app spikes for about a seconds before sending the message.

    This all happens only after about 20-30 minutes after a clean boot. The HD also is constantly working with a nasty sounding pattern to it. These spikes also happen other apps such as firefox, chrome, and just having the laptop on....

    i've defragged multiple times.... can someone tell me is going on.
     
    junkimchi, Apr 22, 2009
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  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    What hard drive do you have?
     
    MidnightSun, Apr 22, 2009
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  3. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    I believe i have the 160 gb
     
    junkimchi, Apr 22, 2009
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  4. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    ok the pidgin lag stops when i'm running a benchmark..... which means the lag has something to do with the disk idle?

    my god this is annoying esp during dota...... any input would be nice
     
    junkimchi, Apr 22, 2009
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  5. eatbuckshot

    eatbuckshot Notebook Consultant

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    Do you have a Solid State Drive?
    this sounds similar to the intermittent pausing problems of badly made SSD's
    if you're drive IS NOT an Intel, or OCZ vertex, or Samsung ssd, it is probably a bad one, in which case you should replace with one of these
    or possibly look at ocz's forums for help

    If you have a hard drive?
    Sounds like some kind of program/service/antivirus perhaps is seeking your hard drive randomly prolonging any other accesses to the hard drive(like iming-logs, firefox-cache)
    get process explorer
    http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
    then try to identify any programs that are using the hard drive
    by adding a "I/O history" column
    View > Select Columns > Process Performance tab > Check I/O history > Ok
    Search for spikes in the newly created column or any kind of high usage

    that may help to identify the program that's causing this..

    if not reformat, install only the programs/drivers you actually need
     
    eatbuckshot, Apr 22, 2009
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  6. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    sigh no activity in the process explorer but the spikes still happen
     
    junkimchi, Apr 22, 2009
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  7. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    ok an update

    thought i might be vista, so i reformatted into xp. SAME PROBLEM. Hard drive makes a reading noise almost pattern-like every 1.5 seconds and the lag is apparent heavily. It definately is not my computer since its a 2.53 dual core with 2 gb ddr3 ram running xp. its the hd...... am i missing some driver or something?
     
    junkimchi, Apr 26, 2009
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  8. X2P

    X2P COOLING | NBR Super Mod

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    Please keep posts clean and avoid bypassing the language filter please.

    Thank you
     
    X2P, Apr 26, 2009
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  9. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    woa i had something in my post? I really had no idea nor the intent of bypassing anything....
     
    junkimchi, Apr 26, 2009
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  10. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    it happens alongside the common harddrive clicking....
     
    junkimchi, Apr 27, 2009
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  11. mullenbooger

    mullenbooger Former New York Giant

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    Download and run hdtune, bench is and check the smart values to see if there is anything grossly wrong with your drive
     
    mullenbooger, Apr 27, 2009
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  12. junkimchi

    junkimchi Notebook Geek

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    swapped out the hdd for a western digital scorpio black 320gb 7200 rpm and ALL problems are now gone. Stupid seagate....
     
    junkimchi, May 1, 2009
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  13. pacmandelight

    pacmandelight Notebook Deity

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    Was your 160GB drive a 5400 rpm or 7200 rpm?
     
    pacmandelight, May 1, 2009
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