Do I need to replace my computer hard drive?

Question

I have been having some serious crashing and start up issues with my computer lately. I first noticed it when trying to play skyrim again (It's been like 2 months). I started up a new game and it froze, tried again and same thing. After about 10-40 seconds it would freeze for a while before unfreezing. I used to play the game on Ultra settings with 30+ mods just fine. To try and fix this I ran a disk check, completely re installed skyrim, and ran a malware test. I first tried to do this in safe mode which is were I found a 2nd problem. I can't start up in safe mode because if freezes every time when loading "atipcie.sys". I also noticed that now when I start up my computer (regular mode or any mode) I no longer get the loading screen where I can press f8, change start up settings, look at BIOS. I know it is not an issue with my graphics card, I can play any game on max settings and there is 0 lag, but then it will just crash. Now this is starting to happen with other programs. The worst crash I had happened a few minutes ago while playing guild wars 2. The sound froze and started repeating really fast and the screen changed to this: http://www.mediafire.com/view/p63d80sekt0e5ns/0820130312.jpg

I am planning to wipe my computer and install windows 7 64 bit but I would like to know if this is a hardware failure (and is it my hard drive?) or a coding issue that will be fixed when I clear my OS and put on the new windows.

st500dm002-1bd142 ata device (Driver)
AMD FX(tm)-4100 Quad-Core Processor 3.60 GHz
8.00 GB (3.25 gb usable) Ram
32-bit windows 7
AMD Radeon HD 7900 Series

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Based on the symptoms you are stating, it's hardware related, but I doubt it is your hard drive, If you run chkdsk, it will scan the hard drive for errors, which you want to do anyways periodically, and before installing a new OS, (if it does find errors, replace the drive, if not, it's fine and move on). Which I would recommend for that computer anyways as it should have the 64-bit windows anyways, the 32-bit is inadequate for the system to run properly. Your most likely problem for the symptoms you are describing though is a defective video card, 1 of the components on the card is probably getting weak causing intermittent failures. Either that or the inside of your PC is really dirty and needs cleaning to restore proper system cooling. (It could be overheating causing this too.) it could be other things, but I would start with that first and see if it fixes the issue.

Answer 2

I would suggest running a hard drive testing utility like seatools. You can use seatools for windows from inside windows or seatools for dos from a bootable cd/usb. It will tell you if your hard drive is failing.

Your graphics card might be overheating. Install a temp monitor for your system.

Good luck

Answer 3

You should give her the D