Question Hard Disk problem beyond any of my understanding...

Roice32

Prominent
Aug 8, 2019
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510
Hey guys! First of all, my specs:
Lenovo Ideapad 520
i7-7500U
4GB DDR4 RAM
940MX 2GB (GDDR5 version)
1TB HDD.
After 2-3 months of usage, I realised The Witcher 3 was unplayable. Before, everything was fine, a solid 30 FPS (playable for me) almost everywhere. Now, even in the middle of nowhere (no npcs, not much stuff), whenever I would press a button to move, my FPS would drop to 2-3.
Same thing happens in Apex Legends. Completely unplayable. You might say: Man, those are extensive games, it is normal... Well, my dears, same thing happens in Fortnite! Yes, Fortnite!
So, after I tried to find the problem I think it is a Hard Disk Problem. I know the RAM isn't enough but... Why did TW3 once work and now is a slide show?
Is there anything I can do? Anything I am doing wrong? I just don't understand... Here are some benchmarks with HD Tune (Kaspersky AV on in first, off in second, still off in third but switched to accurate benchmark). Those spikes are not ok...
View: https://imgur.com/a/j4zfzkv
 
Last edited:

Math Geek

Titan
Ambassador
why do you think it is a hdd problem? what proof do you have to go on? it's common for folks to guess and then spend a long time chasing down a "problem" that does not even exist.

you need to check out something like hardware monitor to see how the system is doing while you play. then after you have some data, you can start making guesses as to what is happening to cause the slide show.
 

Roice32

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Aug 8, 2019
9
0
510
why do you think it is a hdd problem? what proof do you have to go on? it's common for folks to guess and then spend a long time chasing down a "problem" that does not even exist.

you need to check out something like hardware monitor to see how the system is doing while you play. then after you have some data, you can start making guesses as to what is happening to cause the slide show.
To be honest, it is just an asumption, maybe it is the CPU or lack of ram... but given that some sort of stuttering occurs Everywhere (while browsing the internet, opening files) and mostly because the CPU, GPU and RAM look good in Task Manager, it is only the Hard Disk that sometimes goes 0-100 again and again or stays max all the time.
 

Roice32

Prominent
Aug 8, 2019
9
0
510

Roice32

Prominent
Aug 8, 2019
9
0
510
SMART is reporting 1 seek error and 6 command timeouts. The latter usually start to appear when the drive is having difficulty reading, so I would perform a full surface scan with HDDScan (Windows) or MHDD (DOS, better).
Ok so MHDD overwhelms me, cannot even get a bootable cd for it... so I go with HDDScan. Which test should I do? Verify/Read/Butterfly?