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Not sure if this is the right place for this type of hardware question, but here goes.

I have a small basement office that has an AIO pc (a Dell something; don't remember the exact model), and a Dell Inspiron tower, both running Windows 10. They're both plugged into a surge protector that is plugged into a standard wall outlet. The modem/router, a switch, and a VoIP phone are also plugged into the surge protector.

About a year or two ago, the AIO started acting very sluggish. The memory and CPU were fine, but the disk usage was at 100% even though no processes were using the disk (some were sporadically using sub MB percentages, but no big hogs).

We replaced the HDD, which didn't help, so Dell sent us a new hdd controller (I don't remember exactly which part though) for the mobo which fixed the issue.

A few months later, the same thing happened to the Inspiron tower. Instead of dealing with replacing the controller, we bought a new machine. It's been working fine, but last night I checked and the disk usage is at 100% with no processes using the disk.

This system used to be really performant, but that is no longer the case.

I don't know how to go about debugging this to find the root issue. Any ideas?

Eliezer
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    My first thought is to do AV/malware scans. You can also check if your Write Caching is disabled, as suggested here: https://superuser.com/questions/827881/windows-8-1-hdd-spinning-at-100-even-though-no-read-write?rq=1 Aside from that, I'd suggest going away from Dells. They are well known for having mobo hardware issues, including bad capacitors. AFAIC, Dell's are junk and should be avoided for anything other than grandma getting her email, and maybe even then. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/29/dell-problems-capacitors – computercarguy Jan 08 '18 at 16:53
  • No virus or malware etc... Write caching is enabled so maybe it's just Dell junk. I don't know why I thought Dell was good quality. – Eliezer Jan 08 '18 at 17:09
  • The swollen capacitors problem was industry wide, including Apple. Pretty much the same as the Takata airbags, a fitting analogy for the @computercarguy ;). Dells are no better or worse than any other major brand. Re: the issue in question, it can be all the things commented above but my money is on the common "component", the one between the chair and the keyboard. –  Jan 08 '18 at 17:09
  • @MichaelBay I've considered that with the AIO because it's a family computer, but the Inspiron is just used to run some low traffic server software. I don't keep a monitor connected to it so that no one could mess with it, and I access it maybe once every couple of months. – Eliezer Jan 08 '18 at 17:12
  • @MichaelBay, the difference with Dell using the bad capacitors is that they actively hid the problem, including the judgement against them. AFAIK, everyone else stopped using them, while Dell blamed the users for the problems. – computercarguy Jan 08 '18 at 18:08
  • When I was a computer tech +5 years ago, I had better luck with HP and Lenovo. Sure, they still had problems, but not nearly as bad a Dell. Since you seem to have some hardware skills, I'd suggest you build you next machine(s). pcpartpicker.com is a good starting place for those who haven't been doing this sort of thing for years. As far as your issue goes, I'm out of ideas, without running diagnostics with CDs I don't have anymore. Hiren's Boot CD and Ultimate Boot CD are two I used to use a lot. – computercarguy Jan 08 '18 at 18:12
  • Dell, in Europe, offered a free warranty extension up to 5 years, i.e., additional 3 years on top of the usual warranty specifically for that problem and I should know because **I was there**, I know exactly the orders I received - pro-actively seek the problem and replace the motherboard ASAP -, the same orders I gave downstream so please stop spreading FUD. –  Jan 08 '18 at 18:18

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