format C:, then fresh install, HD STILL grinds and grinds and grinds a

simpk5 said:

I didnt see your post to/from Sumuria before. Can you stop edge in task manager by right click 'end task' while its highlighted?

no, this is another funky thing...it simply doesn't stop it...I have to manually click the red X in the top right corner...then wait about 7 seconds before it actually closes...more strangeness...after several power down reboots, then waiting 10 minutes for things to settle down (no disk activity) clicking to various websites and then various links in those websites are still very slow 10 to 20 seconds before they execute , or just flat out don't work...this is in Edge...same slowness/lack of response from IE too and this is with the disk drive LED not lit and no grinding heard...

Plankton said:

This is just a guess; buy my gut is telling me that your attached USB drive might be what's generating the LED HDD light activity. Have you unplugged the USB drive and checked the HDD activity light?

Note: A USB device by design is temporary....meaning it's not supposed to be connected 24/7 - 365.

actually USB devices can be plugged in 24/7....my audio interface is an external USB device, printer as well....as far as the external USB drive, it has it's own activity LED on the front, the pc's LED is definitely not responding to it, no question about that.