This machine is apparently stock with the inclision of additional
memory sticks.

It was after this that the system started to run really slowly.

I inherited the system after my manager got into a team discussion of
slow boxes and mentioned the problems with this machine and said that
he'd let it go for the right price. Silly me, I asked the obvious
question.

$20 later, I'm trying to get the system to run.

So far, we've removed one of the memory sticks, then replaced it with
the second (using only the "upper" slot, WRT the SIMM pins are
"down"). I've also reloaded the OS twice from the recovery disks.

However, I haven't done a deep format of the drives (just read that
some Trojan Horses exist in the hard drive's base information blocks
and only a FDISK-style format will work).

One of my co-workers has said that this has all the signs of a memory
conflict (eg speed, type, etc.) but that doesn't seem to be in
agreement with swapping out the memory sticks.

Any ideas on what can be done?

byrocat wrote:
> 
> However, I haven't done a deep format of the drives (just read that
> some Trojan Horses exist in the hard drive's base information blocks
> and only a FDISK-style format will work).

Sounds like a faulty hard disk.

Try running http://www.hdtune.com/ on it to check its SMART status.

-- 
Adrian C

On Jan 7, 2:47 pm, Adrian C <em...@here.invalid> wrote:
> byrocat wrote:
>
> > However, I haven't done a deep format of the drives (just read that
> > some Trojan Horses exist in the hard drive's base information blocks
> > and only a FDISK-style format will work).
>
> Sounds like a faulty hard disk.
>
> Try runninghttp://www.hdtune.com/on it to check its SMART status.
>
> --
> Adrian C

Thanks Adrian!

I've run hdtune and found some interesting items.  Most of the time,
the throughput would be about 2-5MB/SEC, then I'd get a spike up to
24MB/sec. In addition, the drive temperature would climb up to the
55-58 degree Celcius range and I'd get a "critical warning on drive
temprature" pop-up being presented.

I've also partially disassembled the notebook (removed the keyboard so
I could see the drive in its cage -- dead center in the notebook
chassis.

One odd thing that I noticed and this may be part of te problem or
simply something else -- the fan would spin at the initial step in
power-up but would shut down about 2-3 seconds later.  When I was
running the computer, I did noticed that there was no airflow coming
out of the vent holes, so I suspect that the fan enabling is not
turned on.

I'm wondering if the speed spikes is a definite indicator that the
drive is running slow and then every once in a while, it "clears its
throat" and really pushes the data through.

Also, where do you find the fan settings in the BIOS -- I didn't see
anything that looked like that in the Sony's BIOS presentation. Any
ideas for a too that adjusts the fan settings?

Thanks again for the input,

Bruce