New Computer Problem :(

[asmithz]

Just bought a new computer cause i had to, built it all myself for the first time. Had a hell of a time getting it to work.

Hook it all up and got the blue screen
Figured we had to reinstall windows, and that worked, and it had a hard time installing. It said during the format that the hard drive is damaged and can't continue. Tried that a couple times and then it worked. Then tried to install my video card from Ati.com drivers and when it restarted the mouse would movie up or down, and then shortly after it would go black and thats it. I uninstalled it and restarted and XP detected it and installing my video card. That worked just right. Finaly i think everything is fine. Then i goto play GTA:SA and shortly after it turns off the whole computer. The blue light in the front stays on showing that it is still on, and when i go to shut it off from the back (casue the front wont make it shut off or restart) it takes like 5 secs to complety turn off. Turned it on again, and tried again and it still did it. This time i notice it made a weird kinda clicking noise before it shut off. so i opened the case to hear where it is making the noise. I can't pin point it, but it kinda sounds like it is coming from the CPU. If it were the CPU why wouldnt it shut off while its on and not playign a game? I am thinking that it may be the hard drive.

Umm.... Your thoghts??????

Heres my specs

512MB GigaRam
ECS Mini ATX 661FX-M7Intel 2.66GHz Pentium 4
450watt PSU

[zapjb]

My thoughts are always upon hearing the words "clicking noise". I think it's "The click of death". Meaning imminent HDD failure. Is the HDD new? My guess not. Or it's been mishandled.

[asmithz]

well my hard drive is new, my friends isnt and has windows and GTA:SA on it. Right now i am resizing my hard drive to put windows on it and get rid of he's. We'll see if that works.

[zapjb]

Why pull the shell game on me? I'm trying to help. This is the 1st I heard you were talking about TWO different HDD's. Which is which in your original scenario?

[asmithz]

Sorry yea there's two hard drives. Mine witch is 300gigs and my friends witch is 20gig. I put windows on he's, and GTA:SA. He's is the one that is old, and is having the problem.

[zapjb]

Putting the OS on the 330GB HDD should work. Tell your friend if they want any files from their 20GB HDD. Get them immediately before it dies. GL.

[asmithz]

Ok i transfered he's files. Then installed windows on my hard drive. Got rid of he's hard drive. Tried GTA:SA again. It didn't turn off this time. But it is making that noise. It's not a clicking sound. more like a crackling noise. COuld i have put the cpu on wrong? but if i did wouldnt i knoticed it other then playing the game. I ran those cpu stababilty test programs and it dosen't make the sound durning them.

[zapjb]

Bad fan? Loose wire hitting fan blade or hot part?

[fkdup74]

crackling noise? not very informative
is it while the HDD is reading/writing do you mean maybe?
look at the disk activity light on the case
(you should have 2, one that stays lit, that's for power indication)
the other one is the disk activity light, that's the one you need to look at
if said noise is while the disk is reading/writing, then I'd say it's the HDD,
and depending on how loud it is, it may not be a big deal
(not all drives are whisper quiet)

or do you mean an electrical kind of crackling noise?
more like a sizzle? that would be baaaad.....

do you have a mic to record this sound?

what brand of PSU do you have?
not all PSUs are created equally....

[tesco]

Tried GTA:SA again. It didn't turn off this time. But it is making that noise.

So does the game play then?
What's the temp?

The clicking noise is proabbly the hard drive shutting off, for whatever reason.

Try looking in event logs.

Unhook the friend's drive, see if it still does it, if it does then pinpoint where the noise is coming from.


And stop saying he's, it's 'his'.