PC crash, need help trying to diagnose problem

[Dantzeil]

Hello, my pc recently started to have several problems. Applications would keep "not responding", everything is becoming very sluggish and sometimes the whole system crashes. This is what the screen looks like, no bsod.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8icpwOzBxEEUlRWUUVVNy0taDQ/view?usp=sharing

The system is slightly over a year old, built in end 2014. I am suspecting its the GPU from the lines on the screen and also since its about 2.5 years old now, bought in july 2013. But I am also suspecting its the HDD since recently it has been making weird grinding noises pretty loudly. It is still under warranty till november this year.

Can anyone share their opinions? Thanks! Was thinking of doing a clean reinstall of the OS.

 

[mitchell65]

If you have data that you wish to save on the HD then I would suggest that you download Linus Ubuntu or similar and run that from a CD when you should be able to get access to your hard drive to save your data files to an external hard drive or memory stick.

 

[Dantzeil]

Actually I was planning to replace the hdd with an ssd. Im hoping that the hdd is the problem which I think is likely due to the weird noises it makes sometimes. From the pic, do you think that a bad gpu could be the issue?

 

[mitchell65]

Not sure what the problem is but I think your first move would be to attempt to save any important data then when that's done look for a solution!

 

[Dantzeil]

Ah so sorry I forgot to mention I have already backed up all my data into my WD My Book 4 TB

 

[mitchell65]

Have you tried a different monitor?

 

[Dantzeil]

I have only one monitor it seems to be fine though!

 

[mitchell65]

Sorry for the delay in responding but I have been away on other matters.
I would try your RAM first. Do a full test with this:
MemTest: RAM reliability tester for Windows
Read the manual especially the part about letting Memtest run for several hours, most of us let it run overnight. See what that comes up with. I can only guess what the underlining problem is so the best we can do is to use a process of elimination. I would still like you to try to perhaps borrow a monitor to try a digfferent one. Testing on your setup does not show whether we can eliminate the monitor. My money is still on that at the moment!

 

[Dantzeil]

Thanks for your reply. I ran 4 instances of memtest overnight for over 10 hours and no errors were found. I guess that means ram is alright? My new ssd came in today, will find time to install it into the system. I still believe its the hdd though because of the weird metal scratching sound it makes from time to time