HALP. Bad HDD, bad PSU, or both?

[ShiroiHikari]

My husband has a Gateway DX4300-15e, less than a year old, and it's having serious issues. Specs are:

Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X4 Quad-Core Processor 810 (2.6GHz, 6MB L2 Cache)
Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Memory: 8GB DDR2 Dual Channel Memory (4 x 2048MB Modules)
Memory Capacity Maximum 8GB
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA hard drive (Green Product - variable RPM)
Video: Integrated ATI® Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics3
Optical Drive: 16X DVD+/-R/RW Super Multi Drive
Power Supply: 300W Power Supply
Audio: High Definition Audio with 7.1-channel Surround Support
Motherboard: Systemboard with AMD® 780G Chipset
Network: 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
TV Tuner: Hybrid TV Tuner (COAX, S-Video, Stereo Mini-Jack Audio, Audio-L and Audio-R)
Warranty: 1 Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty

Last night, his system was running slow, Firefox locked up, and the system hung on shutdown, so we forced shutdown and tried rebooting. After that, it would not boot to Windows and Advanced Boot Options wouldn't load either. Tried several times to get it booted to Windows with no luck.

I left it all night long and it did finally boot to Windows, but everything was sllloooooowww. The HDD light is on almost constantly, yet the HDD doesn't make very much noise. Things in Windows would eventually load if I left it sitting for like ten minutes at a time, but it's far too slow to copy any amount of data off the HDD.

After Googling around, I found that these Gateway DX4300 series have piddly 300-watt power supplies, which apparently isn't enough to run the hardware properly. Many of them said that replacing the factory PSU with a more powerful one solved their problems.

Okay, sure, that's all well and good. Just replace the crappy PSU. Easy, right?

Wrong! Things got even more complicated when I ran chkdsk and it found that multiple sections were unreadable! Currently it's doing its thing, so we'll see what happens. But in the meantime, here's what I want to know:

- Can underpowered PSUs ruin HDDs?
- If the HDD is ruined and the PSU is underpowered, what should I do with this machine? I think it's still under warranty, so would it be worth it to just send it back to Gateway? Or should we repair it ourselves?

I just don't know what to do with this thing. It cost like $600 and we simply can't afford to just buy a whole new computer. Any help would be appreciated.

[R86]

Probably this doesn't help you much, but ironically, I had a Gateway die on me several years ago. I lost everything as there was not a single component that didn't die. I'm talking the PSU, the HDD, the motherboard, the fatherboard, all the sibling- and cousinboards, etc. It too was under warranty, and they determined that it was an actual catastrophic failure as opposed to an electrical storm or something. They then replaced everything, after which there were no more problems -- apart from my data loss (which back then, I used floppy discs to make backups!).

So I'd say to get everything off your HDD while you can if it's booted up, and then see if you can get it all replaced under warranty. Granted, I'm skeptical that the fact that both my computer and yours shared the Gateway brand name has anything to do with it. But just in case it is a particular component that is known to be bad, I will defer to the computer experts here. Though I will be surprised if the fatherboard is the problem.

[Hiryu]

This sounds like a HDD about to die. Get backups made.

With 8GB and a quad-core processor, it doesn't seem possible that the computer could slow down to such a painful crawl.

It is plausible that a bad PSU could damage the components by not supplying them with enough power. I'm going to research this. Too much voltage will damage components and too little voltage will damage components.

Edit: Yes, a bad PSU will damage the components. Check it's warranty. If it's still under warranty, I would consider sending it back.

[ShiroiHikari]

Well, I started chkdsk almost 24 hours ago and it's still going, and at the rate it's going, it'll probably be another day before it finishes. >_< I doubt it's going to be able to actually save the drive, so...eh. I don't know. I'd just replace it myself but we don't have any copies of Windows. So I guess we could try to get Gateway to replace it, but if the PSU is underpowered, won't it need to be replaced with something stronger to prevent this from happening again?

[Wallachia]

If you send it back under warranty, can you complain to Gateway that you believe the PSU is what caused the problem?

If they don't fix it for you and you think it's worth it, then you could always upgrade whatever they send back with a new PSU or take it into a local computer shop and get it checked out.

[Hiryu]

I agree with Wallachia. The warranty would save you money. You would probably get another hard drive,PSU, and hopefully they'll check out other components to make sure they aren't damaged.

Of course after that, if they replace the PSU with the same inefficient one, you could have someone look at it and determine how much watts is needed to properly run the system.

[TheMewster]

I'm not a computer whiz at all, but I feel sympathy for you. I prayed the issue would be resolved and if you need a new computer, that God provides you with the best one out there, if that helps! God bless you!

[klomp123]

1) The PSU probably didn't cause this problem. If the voltage were to high, then yes, it might be the culprit, but too low? I don't think so. Still, it can't hurt to replace the unit if it's rather pathetic.
2) If it doesn't have a waranty, it would be cheaper to replace the drive, rather than send it in and have them replace the drive for you. It sounds like that's all the problem is.

Do make a backup before you send it in for repairs. Sometimes those people are dumb and they just reinstall Windows without saving the data, "Derp your compter is working der." I suggest getting a healty drive and copying your friend's pictures, documents, and music over using a Ubuntu live cd (press try Ubuntu, not install). That way you don't have to boot into Windows and risk furthering the damage.

If you decide to recover the drive yourselves, be sure to clone the disk to a healthy, working drive. That way you'll have a perfect copy of the drive and you can begin any necessary repairs and backups from the healthy disk without your friend's data becoming more corrupted. You also wont need to boot into windows to do this, so it will be a much more efficient way to save the data.

Just wondering now, but is the drive making any weird noises. Like a clicking noise maybe?
Another question, does your friend still have his Windows disk? If the drive has unreadable sectors, his installation may be damaged. A repair installation could be in order.

Data recovery is my speciality. T.T

[Mithrandir]

That doesn't feel like a power supply problem to me. I'm not sure I can be more specific on that point. I *do* know that HDDs greater than 750 GB have had a higher failure rate than others, and heat can sometimes complicate the matter further. I've had way more luck with SpinRite than I have with chkdisk, but unfortunately it's not free. If you mailed me the drive, I *might* be able to get some of your data back, but depending on how far it's gone, it can sometimes take weeks to run full recovery scans.

Wish I had better ideas.

[ShiroiHikari]

Yeah, it took like a week to finish chkdsk, and it didn't help one bit.

We can still copy data from it, it just takes a REALLY LONG TIME. I've been telling my husband that he needs to back up his irreplaceable documents before it stops working entirely, but he still hasn't done it.

I'm ready to tell him to deal with his own stupid computer. I've been playing computer technician enough lately and I don't really know what I'm doing. >_<