Micro-freezing and Hard Lock Ups

[raoul_1101]

Hello,

Its been a long time since I've been here, but alas, I'd love some troubleshooting help. I am running a new-sh computer and am experiencing a few different problems. I suspect they are hard drive related.

First, there are a lot of micro-freezes; the computer locks up for about half of a second up to 2 seconds, and returns. There are no errors or anything of that nature, nothing indicating anything is wrong. This is very apparent when browsing the web (nothing intensive running), where my mouse will stop moving for just a short moment. It happens a lot- 4-5 times a minute.

The more major issue is hard lock ups. For the most part, I've only seen this when accessing my 4TB HDD which I use for large files. I've been trying to use Ubuntu's torrent when I first noticed it. I've tried to torrent Ubuntu (mind you, this is perfectly legal before anyone gets up in arms) the past three nights in a row, and the machine has locked up every time, maybe an hour or so in. Suspecting it was the hard drive, I ran a Sea Tools diagnostic (long scan) over night. And that locked up too. I've since run a number of scans using sea tools and they've passed, the freezing seems to be very intermittent, and I've not really seen it lock up (to my knowledge) when I wasn't using my 4TB drive.

Attached are the specifications for the machine.

Note, the OS is installed on drive C, with most primary applications there, and other programs and User files are all on drive E. Drive F is the 4TB drive I use for large file storage, backups, misc, etc.

Thanks for any help!

 

[johnb35]

Your attached photo is too small to see. Disconnect the external to determine if that may be causing the issue. Otherwise it could be software or hardware related. Let us know if it still freezes after disconnecting the external drive.

 

[raoul_1101]

My apologies- I figured you'd be able to download the attached file for better viewing. My only external is a flash drive. The 4TB HDD is an internal drive. I could disconnect that for the time being? If this is the case, are there any tests or diagnostics I could run that might allow me to replace the device under warranty? Most companies wanted failed diags.

Are there any power saving processes or anything to that degree that might be shutting down the HDD after x amount of time (for instance, when the HDD is being used for, say, SeaTools, but the rest of the computer is sitting idle)?

EDIT: Also, very important information-

The CPU and Motherboard were recently RMA'd due to computer issues (that turned out to be the power supply- I didn't have hardware to test against). The issues had started *before* I replaced this hardware, so its very clear it is not either of those components.

 

[johnb35]

As long as your operating system isn't on the 4tb drive then you can disconnect it from the system. What brand drive is the 4tb?

 

[raoul_1101]

This is the drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145912

 

[raoul_1101]

I always come here hoping there is some cool solution to my problem where I won't have to open up my computer, and every time, its usually the simplest answer that solves it.

"Well, have you tried disconnecting it".

I wanted to avoid that because I was lazy, but after realizing it really was the only way to eliminate that variable, I did it. And so far, I've had no issues.

Thanks John for convincing me not to be lazy, here's to hoping its the drive.

 

[johnb35]

Just keep us posted but I'm pretty sure it is the drive. Might have to run a diagnostic on it.

 

[raoul_1101]

So far, everything seems to be performing better. Before I do anything else, I'm going to back up any information on the drive. I spoke to HGST and they will RMA it.

They are aware it passes diagnostics, I wrote a nice long lengthy explanation to them.

I'll update the thread if I learn more!