ram or the hard drive?

[blue4paper]

Hello, I'm nearly 100% sure this is a hardware related problem, i'm just not sure if its the ram or the hard drive.

Symptoms:

The laptop (toshiba satellite l655) takes a long time at the loading screen. When I get to the desktop everything runs at a crawl. I tried opening only the task manager and it took over 2 minutes before it appeared. Chrome failed to open with a "Referenced Memory and I/O error status" error. Also, when I try chkdsk /r it always freezes at the same point which is phase 4/5 at the 10% mark. Explorer constantly crashes.

Should I just do hard drive and memory test then?

I've already backed up all the data.

thanks.

 

[b1gapl]

Do both test. It could be either or. Although it does sound more like the hard drive. Usually the RAM is the first component in a computer to go bad.

 

[-RockMan-]

Hello, I'm nearly 100% sure this is a hardware related problem, i'm just not sure if its the ram or the hard drive.

Symptoms:

The laptop (toshiba satellite l655) takes a long time at the loading screen. When I get to the desktop everything runs at a crawl. I tried opening only the task manager and it took over 2 minutes before it appeared. Chrome failed to open with a "Referenced Memory and I/O error status" error. Also, when I try chkdsk /r it always freezes at the same point which is phase 4/5 at the 10% mark. Explorer constantly crashes.

Should I just do hard drive and memory test then?

I've already backed up all the data.

thanks.

Can you get a read out from your hdd, tell us what the tempature is, also check with manufacturer hdd diagnostics tool.
If it says your hdd is in yellow or red, it should alert you to back up everything and get it replaced.
I'm surprised windows did not find out first, and give you a warning to move out if its your hdd.

If it is your memory, bios will have a hard time booting your up to your os at each start up. Thats the first sign telling you its time for new memory.

 

[blue4paper]

I'm also ruling out memory. However, I ran a chkdsk and it said there were no bad sectors... I'm trying to "wipe" the hard drive and do a clean windows install, but every time I try a wipe program : killdisk, dban, the ubuntu live cd wipe program, they all either fail or freeze.

Ubuntu live cd wipe failed saying " write error : input/output error"

This all leads me to think its a bad hard drive.

I'm just hesitant on getting a new one because hard drives are just so expensive right now.

edit: i tried the hitachi diagnostic tool, but I can't load windows at this point and I can't make head or tails of the bootable disklette options.

thanks

 

[-RockMan-]

I'm also ruling out memory. However, I ran a chkdsk and it said there were no bad sectors... I'm trying to "wipe" the hard drive and do a clean windows install, but every time I try a wipe program : killdisk, dban, the ubuntu live cd wipe program, they all either fail or freeze.

Ubuntu live cd wipe failed saying " write error : input/output error"

This all leads me to think its a bad hard drive.

I'm just hesitant on getting a new one because hard drives are just so expensive right now.

edit: i tried the hitachi diagnostic tool, but I can't load windows at this point and I can't make head or tails of the bootable disklette options.

thanks

Sorry made a little error on my part use the dos based version if you can stick it on a bootable usb flash drive or the normal CD-R.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/downloads/dft32_v416_b00_install.IMG
Downloads
To run the DFT, you must download the appropriate creator or image and create a self-booting media.
You may create the media under Windows (using the Windows OS version) or Linux (using the binary image), for instructions on how to run the Drive Fitness Test utility download the User's Guide below.
DRIVE FITNESS TEST USER'S GUIDE (426 K)
Guide to using DFT DISKETTE CREATOR FOR WINDOWS OS (2,130 K)
Creates self-booting media to run DFT | READ ME | HAVING TROUBLE CREATING THE BOOTABLE DISKETTE?
BINARY DISKETTE IMAGE FOR NON-WINDOWS OS (1,440 K)
Creates self-booting media to run DFT | READ ME
CD IMAGE (2,720 K)
Creates bootable CD for Linux, Windows and other operating systems ( requires CD-RW drive and software).
Notes
Does not support Microdrive Digital Media products.
Supports all Travelstar HDDs, except 8E, 10E and C4K series.
Does not support Endurastar products.
Does not support external USB or Firewire attached drives.
Compatible only with x86-based processors.
Does not support the PC which loads Intel ICH9M chipset. HitachiGST are working to fix this situation.


https://www.google.com/search?sourc....,cf.osb&fp=76147c48b2eb760f&biw=1280&bih=855

Give this search a good look through, it maybe the hdd for sure....