HD lamp indicator flashing when pc inactive

Dear All,

I have a problem with my pc. The hard disk lamp indicator at the front panel of casing always flashing when the pc is left inactive more than 2 minutes. And then when I click the mouse, the flashing stop immediately. While during the use of pc, the lamp indicator only flashing when the active program read and/or save data. I check that the anti virus program is not active nor scanning for the viruses during the inactivity of the pc. Fyi, I use motherboard Intel SE440BX-2, Pentium III-450MHz, Windows 98SE with 20 GB Maxtor HD, 256 MB SDRAM in a single module. Why this happen? And how to solve the problem? Please help me! Thank you very much for your kind support.

Ciao,

Che

 

Sounds like something is writting to your harddrive.
Antivirus would be one of the first things I check,
You may want to also check some of the other obvious things.
Scan Disk / Defrag.... They may be schedualed to run after x amout of inactivity.

Also if you are running a 3D screen saver, you system may be reading data from the HD to run screen saver.

Or if you have an active connection to your ISP, something may be keeping an active port open. IM's, Outlook being open, Etc.

 

You can also try using CTRL/ALT/DEL to End Task on the running programs one at a time, testing after each, to see if any of them are writing to the hard drive. Don't End Task on Explorer or Systray, it doesn't hurt to leave Systray running and shutting down Explorer is likely to shut down Windows.

 

Thanks for your help. I uninstalled all programs that run in background, like anti virus, firewall and internet security. I also disable power management, both in BIOS and Windows. As I said there is no active programs in background during the pc idle state, like screen saver, internet connection, IM, etc. As suggested, I did press CTRL + ALT + DEL and End Task all active programs in the list, except Explorer, Systray and Taskbar that still active. But the problem remain exist. I wonder what's wrong with my pc. Any other suggestions?

Che

 

I noticed you left Taskbar running. That's not a standard Windows program (at least not on any Win9.x system I've ever seen) - might try closing it too.

 

There is a dandy little utility called InCtrl5 that can be used to track and record/report disk activity. It is normally used during installation to see where files are placed or altered. It can be used even when not installing something, just to see what's being written on the drive and where, etc.

I think it might be of some value in solving this mystery. It's freeware!

 

Thank you for all replies. I downloaded the software InCtrl5. Based on this program, I found the cause of the problem. It's MS Office 2000 SP1 (also MS Office XP) that always changing the registry, win.ini, system.ini, autoexec.bat, config.sys, even msdos.sys! While closing the running program, like taskbar, etc, make the Windows can not be shutdown.

Now the problem is solved completely.

Thank you very much for all the attention, time, patience, and support from you all. May God bless you!

Che