D901c Computer issues

hey guys, backed up with school again, i miss this place. Having some issues and I'm back for your expertise!

SO, every now and then my computer HARD locks... meaning sound loops, screen stays on what it was, can't use the keyboard, mouse, no ctrlaltdel.... so i have to hard reboot (hold power key)
...when i start up it takes about 3 minutes to get to the login screen, AFTER the vista loading bar... (bear in mind i reformatted two weeks ago)

SO, my online gamer nerd friends agree its definitely my HD... which is a 3 yeard old 7200 RPM drive that used to get HOT, like 60 degrees hot... so i bought a cooler. (my drive sucked...) but this isnt bad, gives me an excuse to put a copy of windows 7 i have on a new SSD

HOWEVER, lately, my LCD screen does this thing like once every hour.. where it jumps up, or to the right, for like half a second. THe whole image just shifts and comes back... So now I'm thinking... GPU? (which btw, i used to OC to play BFBC2 for like 3 months before i fixed up an old desktop)

So, its PROBABLY a hard drive, and new symptoms say gpu maybe... Do these issues sound familiar to anyone? anyone agree with me? disagree?

thanks again NBR... u guys rock!

 

Are you high?

 

umm... no?

i was really surprised to see THIS as the first answer i get on nbr....

anyone else wanna comment? or explain why i might seem high?

I want to make sure this is the issue before i spend more money on this thing.

 

First off, if you suspect the hard drive you should test it. What brand/model of Hard Drive is it? there are a lot of free tools out there that will let you know if your hard drive is failing.
Once you eliminate or confirm it as the cause you can move on.
Good luck!

P.S. You seemed High because it was hard to understand your post with all the acronyms and your thoughts were unfocused and basically all over the place.

 

ST9160823AS
is the drive... seagate 160... it used to get like 60C without a cooling pad... and its not like i ever used it on a bed or anything. With the cooling pad its always in the high 30s...

Whats a good free program I can use? I'm ready to pull the trigger on a cheap SSD that keeps going out of stock on newegg. I want to buy it before it goes up, but only if i need a new HD.

 

There are plenty of programs, just try a search on google for HDD SMART check or go to the Seagate home page and check if they have some tool for hd diagnostics.

 

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