Patient: David’s Dell Studio 1535.

Symptoms: Computer crashed, unable to load Windows. Reinstall doesn’t help.

Possible Problems: Overheat, Hard Disk Failure.

Solution: Replace Hard Disk.

Cost: $75 for 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black

The heat sink was completely clogged with dust. Cleaned the heat sink with compressed air, here is one big chuck of dust.

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After cleaning the heat sink, reinstalling windows did not work. Windows installation crashed. Now that is not a good news. Took out the hard disk to determine the manufacturer and model. In this case, it is a 250GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue 5400rpm (WD2500BEVS).

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Since it is a WD hard disk, I downloaded the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool and ran the basic & extended test. The hard disk failed both test.

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I ordered a 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black 7200rpm to replace this hard disk.

 

10/05/09: David’s new 320GB Western Digital Scorpio Black! One of the fastest hard disk available for laptop. 5 years warranty!

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Windows installation went smoothly. No more problems now!

 

Conclusion: Hard disk failure can happen, and sometimes you can tell if the hard disk is going to fail. Possible symptoms of a failing hard disk includes: Corrupted files & operating system, sluggish performance, noisy hard disk.

Conclusion: Computers will collect dust in the heat sink. If you notice slow performance or overheating, it is possible that the heat sink is clogged. When a computer overheats, it will try to cool down by slowing down (throttling), hence the slow performance. I would recommend cleaning the heat sink every 6 months depending on the usage and surrounding.