UPDATE: I was finally able to run the DLGD tool successfully, and the drive passed all the checks. Seems like I’ve got some other problem. Still, if anyone has any suggestions, I would be very grateful. Thank you!
I’m experiencing a possible hard drive failure, but I was hoping y’all could give me some guidance.
I have a WD7500BPKT 750 GB HDD and I’ve been experiencing random freezes on my laptop computer. My specs are:
ASUS N61Jq-X1
Windows 7 Pro
Intel i7
AMD Radeon HD5730
6 GB RAM
That’s all the pertinent info I can think of, but let me know if you need anything else.
The freezes began a few months ago. My computer would completely freeze, the image on the screen would freeze, and no input would be recognized. The HDD light would shut off, I couldn’t hear the disc spinning anymore, and the only way to reset it would be to hold down the power button. It would then restart immediately, with just a, “Windows did not shut down properly” message. There were no blue screens, no error log, no overheating, no system restore, nothing. Just freezing.
It seemed to happen only when I moved the computer, so some looking around indicated that there might be a loose connection or a faulty motherboard. Recently, it had began to happen more often, from once every couple of days, to once every half hour. I can only use it when I keep it completely still, but sometimes that doesn’ even work. Then sometimes I have it on my lap and can move it and it’s fine. Very tempremntal. Also, I’ve been having slow boot times ever since the freezing started, though I do have a lot of background programs that start up at boot.
I’ve gotten a new battery and power cable, I’ve updated the BIOS, all the drivers, everything I can find that’s software related. I’ve opened it up and everything that I can see looks like it’s connected securely, with not visable damage and no movement when push or pulled. And it’s so clean in there you can eat out of the case.
I’m no computer wiz, but I think I’ve basically narrowed it down to a hard drive failure or a faulty motherboard. To check the HDD, I downloaded WD’s Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostic tool. The problem is, I can’t get a test to complete. Everytime I run the quick test or the extended test, which I’ve done repeatedly, the computer fails and freezes. I’m never able to see the test results to see if the drive fails. I’ve kept it completely on the level, haven’t run any other program, I’ve even shut off my wireless router so there’s nothing transmitting in the background, and it freezes. I’ve also run CHKDSK, but the program just closes before I’m able to see results. I’m about to run a defrag report and see if anything happens.
I left the computer on last night with the extended test running, and this morning it was frozen. Then I had two back to back freezes this morning, and now it’s been running for a few hours backing up my data with no problems. I’m backing up in preparation for replacing my HDD.
I really like my computer, it’s my baby, and I would really like it if someone can put my fears to rest, tell me it’s my **bleep** HDD and I can go buy a new one and put all this behind me. Of course, if there’s any other possibilities I’m open to any and all suggestions.
Thank you all in advance for any help you can offer me!
