Is it time to admit defeat and buy a new PC

Coveredinbees!!!!

I have an Athlon XP3200+ with 2 gigs of RAM running windows XP it's mostly fine when doing non demanding things like internet and word but when I try to play games it starts making a clunking noise from inside(not worked out what yet) and some times crashes out of Windows. Other times it won't shut down (gets stuck on shutting down screen) unless I switch off the power then it won't reboot with out booting in to safemode first.

Also when I type sometimes it stops then all appears in one go like it's lagging somehow. I had to fit a new power supply last year as it kept turning off so that should still be OK. I'm wondering if the rest is just getting a bit tired.

rmg1

Have you followed the speed up sticky at the top of this board?
I'd be concerned about finding the source of the clunking noise fairly quickly.

Kew2u

This place might help out 'Bees.
http://www.computerhope.com/oh.htm

Coveredinbees!!!!

I think the clunking is oner of the disc drives doing what ever disc drive do that make a clink clunking noise, heads doing something possibly but I'm sure it shouldn't be doing it

visidigi

if its only happening under stress that sounds like its more likely to be cooling related - e.g. CPU/Graphics fans will increase in speed during gaming which won't happen in normal usage requirements.

If it is the Hard drive that's not a good sign...

nathand_2

If the noise is most noticeable playing games, check the following

Graphics Card Fan (this assumes that the GPU isn't built in and uses a fan, not a heatsink)
Processor Fan (again, the additional load will increase fan speed which could be causing the noise)
Optical Drive (if you're playing from the disc, your drive could be causing the noise)
Hard Drive (very unlikely. if the noise was caused by your hdd your problems wouldn't be at their worst playing games)
Case Fans (if your computer case fans are plugged into the motherboard rather than the power supply they will be controlled. high load, fan speed increases)

danthemoneysavingman

All that aside, if its serious gaming you're hoping to get done, a more powerful PC would indeed be necessary. In my opinion.
You can test your disk drives using software like HDDscan or the "chkdsk /r" windows process (from command line).
hth

arriva

strange... a few years ago I had a machine (built myself) with an Athlon XP3200+ (plus +... that was a 2.2ghz if I remember correctly) with 2GB RAM.
It kept crashing and freezing (mostly feezing) without warning and without being under particular stress, sometimes even when idle. No overclocking done.

I was probably a victim of a not-exactly-compatable-hardware issue, in any case I replaced the RAM and re-installed XP but it kept doing it. Sometimes it ran for days without problem then unexpectedly froze for no reason. I was so upset I binned it and I am an Intel-person since then.

sorry... a little out of topic, I wanted to share my Athlon XP3200+ (plus...) experience. Rating: disappointing.

GunJack

I'm still running a Semperon 3000+ as my main pc, it's 6-y-o now, still going strong and faster now than when I bought it new

Sounds like a REALLY good clean-out inside the case is in order, including scraping out all the accumulated carp that'll have collected within the CPU (and poss GPU) fan's cooling vanes, along with can of compressed air and hoover handy.....

Perhaps a complete wipe of your OS drive and re-install is in order, and tweak XP down so it's not running all the un-needed stuff....this one is running 23 processes at idle, so processor and RAM that you have shouldn't be an issue...hell, your CPU's faster than mine

Gratis

No, it is not time to admit defeat and buy a new PC.

It is, perhaps, time to admit defeat and buy a Mac.

(They can run Windows, too, if you really want to play games with a box.)

More generally, there isn't much inside a computer that contains moving parts and is thus capable of making a clunk. Hard drives and optical drives are. Persevering with a hard drive (in anything) that's suspect is an extremely bad idea.

GunJack's suggestion that your PC contains fish seems somewhat fanciful and the noise they make is more of a flapping sound than a clunking sound.

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