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@matty wrote:
yeah, all is correct, I currently have a spare slot in my motherboard for another sata, I just need a cable, which I went to the local pc shop to buy, they did’nt have any, they said they can order one in, told them its ok, i’ll order them in myself, so I have.. only 99p plus £1 postage
Well you got a better deal than I did (‘cos i’m too lazy to internet search for one). I just added a SATA cable to my shopping bag in PC World and paid £4.99 for a 45cm one. Mind you it was a good job I checked as the power connector plug coming from the PSU also needed an adaptor to fit the SATA power socket on the new hard drive (yes – another £4.99)
@reason wrote:
Anyone any idea why the hard drive on a lappy seems to be active all the time for no apparent reason,hard drive light is flashin like a foooka and seems to make it run slow at times. :evil:
On re-reading his issue, he was asking for an explanation as to the possible cause ….. not a fix. He got both eh?
I thank you. Applause (again please Pete)
OK today is “Patch Tuesday” – being the second Tuesday of the month, when Microsoft sends out its regular monthly update notifications.
The above referred to e-mail is an attempt to cash in on this cycle and trap unwary MS Windows users into downloading and installing a Trojan that will ”take over” their computers.
Remember the ONLY safe way (in fact the ONLY way) to get Microsoft updates is from the Microsoft Windows Update site. Link here in case you don’t already know it >>>>
Is this the “sports” thread??? Maybe I clicked the wrong linky.
@dead_on_arrvial wrote:
@forumhostpb wrote:
“Use the CPU by giving the computer something to do. This will stop the System Idle Process from running. Alternatively, re-boot it and start over.”
So what you’re saying is……….
TURN IT OFF AND THEN BACK ON AGAIN ?????????
Er….. I think that’s what “re-boot” means – isn’t it? You know, you click that little pop up button thingy that says re-start and somehow it manages to do it all by itself.
Whilst I like Pete’s response for its practical and down to earth approach…..
The non-techy solution (in less than 50 words – as requested) is:
“Use the CPU by giving the computer something to do. This will stop the System Idle Process from running. Alternatively, re-boot it and start over.”
I thank you. (Applause).
Sorry DOA but I really disagree with you on this one. Fast indexing isn’t the root cause of Reason’s issue – it is the SIP.
The ‘System Idle Process’ runs in the background and (as its name suggests) runs when the system is apparently idle – i.e. doing nothing else. It is supposed to keep the processor running at a steady rate (close to 100% capacity) and is used by Windows NT to implement CPU power saving.
Problem is that it doesn’t always kick out straight away when you make other demands on the CPU. It produces exactly the symptoms that ‘Reason’ has described (i.e. the hard disk activity light is constantly flashing rapidly, even when the computer is doing nothing at the time and it appears to slow the operation of the computer down a lot).
I’ll bet he has two more symptoms that he hasn’t (yet) described. 1) when he opens up a blank Word document or Excel spreadsheet and starts to type or enter data, the screen ”hangs” for a few seconds, the cursor stops flashing, and then the letters that he typed suddenly all appear at once. 2) after a short time running slowly and ”hanging” etc, the system suddenly appears to free itself and goes at its normal speed as if nothing at all had previously happened.
This is because the System Idle Process finally recognises that the CPU now has a full activity load and releases the system resource that it had previously been hogging.
@reason wrote:
Anyone any idea why the hard drive on a lappy seems to be active all the time for no apparent reason,hard drive light is flashin like a foooka and seems to make it run slow at times. :evil:
I’m not convinced that it’s a defragmentation issue (although you might want to re-configure the Master File Table (MFT) to a higher value).
Generally hard disk ”churn” is caused by the ‘system idle process’ which sometimes appears to get itself locked into a loop. If you take a look at Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del) and click on the ‘Processes’ tab you can see how much system resource is being used by all the various processes running at the time – particularly those that run in the background like the system idle process.
I don’t know of a sure fire way to fix this other than to re-boot and see if it settles down after a short while.
Generally speaking, all new Hard Drives (whether SATA or IDE/ribbon) come without cables – unless you find a ‘package deal’ somewhere. Data cables are always sold as accessories – as are power adaptors, where needed.
You should ensure that your motherboard supports SATA and that the power supply leads have the appropriate terminations to fit into the back of your new HDD.
I’m not terribly good at cloning but I think that PowerQuest comes reccomended so you might care to try that. Best thing is to backup all your data etc and go for a clean re-install of Windows onto your new HDD then restore your data to the new drive.
The intensely irritating habit of pretentious businessmen to add the phrase “Going forward” onto the end of a sentence, so as to make it sound really important and cutting edge…… as in:
“We now have a fully integrated marketing strategy, going forward” – well which other direction would you go in ffs – BLOODY SIDEWAYS ????? Morons !!!!
And YES I do have a streaming cold and YES I AM doing an excellent Victor Meldrew impression !!!
