Key signs of incipient HD failure?

Dear wise brethren, I need advice!

My laptop has all sorts of sw related problems, but I fear the HD is acting up too.

Reason: after 8 h of intensive use, I get total freezes that require resetting, and resetting itself won't work. I get boot processes either partly or totally stuck, sometimes with the read/write LED solid on, and the machine eventually reboots in safe mode. Yet, if the machine hasn't been turned off or let rest for at least several minutes w/o much load it will boot normally (sauf a good run of Scandisk...). This never happens when the laptop is cold.

I even got one "test" or diagnostic screen briefly come up that I had never seen before - which is not BIOS, not DOS, not safe mode - just smtg like "press F?? for testing... "

Moreover, it often refused to shut down. A huge improvement is obtained if before shutdown I let it rest for just 5 min. after closing all applications. Now, I checked with a thread, process, & memory managers - NO threads get closed nor memory freed just by letting the machine rest, which begs the question if this is heat related.

This has 2 1/2 yrs on it, maybe avg 4-12h/day incl. weekends, with a lot of travel, and two full reinstalls.

Could it be a flaky HD?

What other signs I should look out for?

TIA!

 

Maybe if you post a Make and Model number, someone will have an answer for you.

 

It sounds more like it's a heat related problem. The harder you work the CPU, the hotter it's going to get.

That may be letting the CPU cool down just enough to get below the critical temp.

You might want to check out one of the CPU cooling programs such as Rain. Don't have a direct link to any, but a Google search should find one.

 

What about the power is it running on batteries??
Or on normal power?
Batteries may be low!!!

 

recap:

Laptop suffers from temporarily unrecoverable crashes when hot, after 8-10 hrs at work.
Letting it cool down seems to resolve the issue.
Question is... is the HD failing? Or smtg else?

Here's the additional detail:

- Toshiba Satellite 2540CDS
- CPU AMD K6-ii @ 333MHz
- always used plugged in
- (!!!) crashes do not seem related to CPU load, since the fan turns on and off quite reliably and responds to CPU temp only

If this were a CPU temp problem, it would crop up within minutes, not after 8 hours. Booting in DOS gets the fan spinning within 2 minutes max from a cold start, but does not lead to crashes.

Are there any telling signs that smtg may be wrong with the HD?

Or, how do I check if eg it's an overheated but possibly unmonitored northbridge?

TIA

 

It sounds like a borderline overheat problem.
I would make sure the inside of the case is clean.
And the heat sink and fan are clean.
And that the ventilation openings are not obstructed when in use.
Dirty serfaces will not exchange heat as well as clean ones.

What about the ambient temperature in your work area?
does it go higher at times?

 

This is clearly heat related, though it could be the I/O chipset or anything else between the drive and the CPU. The earlier advice to clean everything is sound and can be very helpful. You can also remount your CPU using the silver based heatsink compound made by Antec (www.antec-inc.com), assuming it is removable and not glued in place. Also you can buy and add heatsinks for other chipset pieces that don't have them (if they will fit in your case) and engage them by using thermally conductive epoxy (sold by Omega, Thermalloy, and others).

One note of caution is that you not use compressed air to spray the accumulated dust from fan blades. I damaged more than one fan's bearings before learning not to do that. Use alcohol on the end of a soft brush to clean the blades one-at-a-time, holding them still by sticking spray can straw or Q-tip between two blades, but not by pressing on a blade with your finger. Don't forget to clean all blades equally and on both sides, or a bearing destroying imbalance can result.

Replace the fans if you think you can't clean them or think they have become sluggish from bearing wear. You must choose a replacement fan by its specs: same size, same current demand, same or higher CFM rating. Not all fans the same size have the same performance.