HDD Thrashing in 3D Games

[TeeJayPee]

Hi
First: seems like a great site and a bunch of knowlegeable guys on here.

My Problem: I'm experiencing HDD Thrashing when i play most 3d games. It occurs even at the main interface screens, not even into any visuals yet. The drive seems to get continously accessed. I can hear it audily! It spins then stops, spins then stops...some games get past this point, and are somewhat playable, some do not & just crash. I have searched & searched and have not been able to find much info on this matter. I'm stumped. Did all the usual, reformated, reformated, reformated, latest driver downloads, updates, ram tests, bios flashes, reinstall os, virus, mallware, update dx9.0c, dissable/enable audio acceleration, disabled indexing, set virtual mem-not managed, you name it, etc... COD4 plays great, SC4 Rush Hour great, Doom3, Half Life2...all great. So I just don't know.

here's my specs:
Athlon xp 2100+
Asus A7s333
1.5 mb pc 2700 (1x1024 + 1x512)
x800xl aiw
1x120gb 7200rpm (don't remember make)
onboard ac97 audio (had sb live value, removed it)
350w solarmax

I hope i can get some help, it aint a Great rig, but it aint that bad a rig either. It's the weird thrashing. I can play any kind of video, mp3, have 10 windows open at once, but when i get into 3d gaming, it starts that thrashing!

I'm leaning toward power or audio, but i don't wan't to let you guys off the hook that easily, hehe.

Looking forward to the brainpower of this site.
Cheers All.

[CMetaphor]

It may be dying, Id suggest opening the case and checking the manufacturer of the hard drive and warranty for it. Also, you can always get diagnostic tools for any hard drive for the manufacturers website.

[DK2]

Most games I play are always buffering in music and cut scenes etc.
I'd suggest a de-frag, but you already re-formatted, so it can't be that.
Sounds like you just have a noisy drive.

[TeeJayPee]

done the hard drive diagnostic, it's ok, and defrag weekly.

what do you mean noisy drive DK2?

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by TeeJayPee

done the hard drive diagnostic, it's ok, and defrag weekly.

what do you mean noisy drive DK2?

don't defrag weekly.. defrag like every 6 months.

your putting more wear and tear on your drive then yuo need to.

[TeeJayPee]

thanks enaberif, but any ideas on my problem?

[enaberif]

I'd say create two partitions on that hdd and install games to the 2nd hard drive.

Also run Hd Tune and it'll give you an idea on the overall performance of your hdd.

[TeeJayPee]

ran western digital diagnostic & hd tune, everything says my hdd is fine, no errors or bad sectors. anyone else having this hdd thrashing in 3d games? it ONLY happens in 3d games, not video or movies...

[bushwhacker]

what are the system requirements for the 3D games you are referring to??
Sounds like HDD access due to high virtual memory demands because of too little RAM