Laptop still stuttering after formatting

[Deartist7]

Hello all.
A friend asked me for help with her laptop. It's a little low spec Benq netbook.
The problem is that it was too slow. When i checked it i realized it had Win 7 Pro, when it had Win 7 Starter while new.
It has been formatted only one time, and the guy put Win 7 Pro, according to the owner, who doesn't remember at all.
Also it had two antivirus programs (?) and TuneUp Utilities. It probably had some viruses too.
It wasn't exactly slow, but it stuttered every time i moved the mouse over an animated icon like the Windows one, when i opened a folder, selected a file, etc. Pure stuttering.
The transfering speed was slow as hell the first night of backing up archives.
Next day, it seemed normal for a netbook.

Decided that maybe Win 7 was too heavy for it, and also because of the antiviruses and heavy maintenance program (TuneUp).
So i decided to format, expecting the slow speed problems to go away.


Nope.
Its exactly the same. I have like 65 gb free of 75 separated for the C partition, and around 150 for the D one.
Haven't cleaned it yet, but it doesn't show any clear signs of overheating. Haven't restored drivers as well, gonna try that right now.
I've been trying to contact the owner, to ask him if he has dropped the netbook hard enough, so i can consider the Hardrive to be damaged. Gonna keep trying to contact him, but so far, he's apparently dead.

Any clues of what else i should try?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, Deartist7.

It sounds like there might be an issue with the hardware of the laptop. If I were you, I'd backup any important data which might be on the hard drive and download the HDD manufacturer's diagnostic tool (or a 3rd party diagnostic tool if you don't know which is the HDD manufacturer or if it doesn't offer one) and test the drive for errors and bad sectors. You could also do a diagnostic test of the netbook's RAM.

Hope that helps. Please let me know what are the results of the tests.
Boogieman_WD

 

[ffg7]

did you do a quick format or regular format? do a scandisk & check for sector errors

 

[Deartist7]

Already backed up everything important for the owner
I did a regular format. Put Win 7 Pro again because the RAM usage and the load of the CPU seems ok so there shouldn't be any performance problems with the OS.
Gonna try manufacturer drivers (not the driver genius ones it came with) and see if it does anything.
Then i'll do some tests to to the drive and RAM and see how it goes. Can you recommend me a third party program for that? BenQ doesn't seem to have anything similar.
Thanks, i will update when something happens.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

First of all - good job on backing up the data. Many people underestimate how important this is.
You can check out this link: http/pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/tophddiag.htm. It contains both - manufacturers' diagnostic tools and 3rd party ones.
I'm sorry but as an official Western Digital representative, I can't point you to any specific 3rd party program.

 

[ffg7]

Deartist7, who makes the hard drive? memory tester link http/www.memtest86.com/

 

[Deartist7]

I took off the first panel underneath of the netbook and the drive seems to be a Toshiba.
It says TOSHIBA along the sticker that warns about the warranty void if the seal is damaged. So it should be...uh..toshiba.
So i have no idea is there is a Toshiba specific tool? If not, then i'm gonna test some of the listed ones on that page. Thank you.

Update: HDDScan First try.
It shows a result where everything has a green little ball excepting 005 Reallocation Sector Count and 196 Reallocation Event Count that got a warning sign, so that definitely is something bad.
Did the same to my laptop, 3 years old, never had a problem, but i tried it just to see whats up, and it shows up the UltraDMA CRC Errors one with a warning sign as well. What the hell.
Don't worry about mine anyway, i need to finish the netbook first and mine runs just fine, i'm gonna check that later.
Really need to post up a screenshot, can i do that in here?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well there's no need for a screenshot, I get what you're talking about. It sounds like the drive has accumulated bad sectors. Most likely this is the reason for the stuttering and other HDD related performance issues. When bad sectors start to occur, this will continue until the drive eventually dies. Unfortunately it cant be predicted when this is going to happen - it could be days, weeks, months or even more. The best solution is to replace the drive. If your friend has to keep using it until he/she gets a new one, please don't trust it with any important data.
Sorry that the news is so grim.

 

[Deartist7]

It's pretty much answered, but i just want to confirm.
Tried HD Tune Pro on it, and this is what it gave me.
(05) Reallocated Sector Count -Current=100 - Worst=100 - Threshold=50 - Data=476 - Status=Warning
(C4) Realloacated Even Count - 100, 100, 0, 86, warning respectively.

Sounds bad right?
I realized it gets a lot faster once its turned on for an hour or so, the stuttering is less frequent.
Anything else i should try or that's the veredict?

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Well, I've had experience with HDDs, which have had bad sectors and ran for years, but constantly had issues - e.g. freezing/hanging of the system, not being able to load files, I/O errors, etc. Even if you decide to keep using it until you get a new one, please make a backup of everything you're not prepared to lose and don't trust it with any important data.
Unfortunately there's no way to fix bad sectors.

 

[Deartist7]

Alright, gonna discuss with the owner what to do with the backed up data to avoid risks, and also about getting a new HDD.
Thanks a lot, cheers.