PC will freeze with buzzing sound after HDD LED stops blinking

[psynah]

My 9 years old pc freezes with annoying buzzing sound after booting (from speakers), no matter what. If I try to hit or shake the hard drive, HDD LED starts blinking for a second or two, and I can move mouse, but not more than that.

If I try to restart my PC, it will just work for about 5 seconds and restart itself again until it finally starts booting.

Also, although it has been pretty hot outside, the PC started doing this about 3 days ago, and temperatures outside were the same before that moment. The temperature of gpu and cpu are normal. It just started to lag this way for no obvious reason.

 

[jay32267]

The HDD LED should not blink when you hit or shake the HD...at least if you're not being abusive.
I would be looking at a new HD.

 

[psynah]

Jay, thanks for reply, I have checked the HD with HDDcheck, but it seems to be okay.

 

[electro_neanderthal]

First thing I would try: Replace the power and SATA cables going to the HDD, it could be a bad connector or worn wire; which may be why jostling it does things. Actually, jostling the wires should be able to tell you if it's the wires before you replace them.

Next (and something you should keep in mind):
What is the PSU in your PC? 9 years is a long time for most power supply units, and while top of the line PSUs come with 10 year warranties, most quality units lose their warranty after 5 years.

If you're not careful, when it does go, if it dies in the worst way, it could fry the system; in that case you could end up replacing any or all of the components.

If you can, borrow a working PSU of adequate power rating and see if that fixes things for you. Or, alternatively, use a physical PSU tester - they're fairly inexpensive on newegg and other online retailers.

 

[psynah]

Ok, gonna check my PSU, thanks for the help.

 

[seagate_surfer]

psynah, use Seatools to test the HDD. That will let you know what state the drive is in. This will also be a good time to make sure your information is backed up. Waht backup plan do you use?

The conventional wisdom by tech experts on backups is known as the 3-2-1 method. Basically you want:

3 copies of any data you don't want to lose
2 different mediums it's stored on (so 2 different drives in your computer, for example)
1 copy kept offsite, to prevent against disaster.

Best of luck.