PC wont boot, makes clicking noise.

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
I bet the harddrive is the problem but it could also be the power supply. From the sounds of it, some of the other people on this forum know quite a bit more about this than me, but if I were you I'd unplug all the hard drives and see if it even gets to the set up screen. If it can't then you know your hard drives are probably not the problem. If you have an extra powersupply or can get your hands on someone elses I would swap it into your machine and see if that helps. I had a power supply go out on me and it made my computer act crazy for a while while it slowly died more and more. I also once had a hard drive die on me. It made a clicking noise that quickly became a grinding sound. I hadn't backed up my thesis in a few week and I nearly shat myself. Lucky for me I was quick on the draw with my USB drive and everything turned out OK. Good Luck dude.
 


K, Ill try this, thanks.



Power supply may be difficult, but i know i can at least try to boot without the hard drives.
 
i've seen the same problem on my friends computer before...the probelm was caused because he had 2 ram sticks and they have to be put in the same color slots. On most boards it slot 1 goes with slot 3 and slot 2 goes with slot 4. So if u just put ur ram on slot 1 and 2, ur comp will crash for no reason. I hope this helps.
 
Was going to post this as a new topic, but the cases are the same.

I built a computer for my brother, been working fine for 2-3 months. It failed to start up this morning, when he initially pressed the start button. The only thing that came on was the hard drive light. He did a reset and the same thing happened. Then is his words he had a "brain fart" and pulled the power plug for thirty seconds and now everything it working fine.

I built the thing and I'm ticked, don't like to build crap. So, if any one has any ideas on what to look for, if it happens again, be MOST appreciated. Could it be the power supply? I had some initial quirkiness with the supply, which I thought I fixed by reseating the 24 pin connector on the MB.

Thanks

The computer

Windows XP Pro
McAfee Anti-Virus and Firewall
Spy Sweeper anti Anti-Spyware program
Intel E4300, Not Overclocked
Gigabyte 965P-DS3
2 GB Corsair Memory DDR2 800
2 SATA 250 GB Hard Drives
2 Samsung DVD Burners
Sony Floppy Drive
EVGA 7600GT Video Card
Corsair HX 520 Power Supply
Antec Solo Case
Samsung 22" LCD Monitor
Logitech Keyboard and Mouse
Docking Station for a Dell PDA attached via USB Port
Sony Card Reader attached via USB Port
 
Well I can now say with confidence that this issue is NOT being caused by the hard drives. I just recreated the problem, then pulled out the power and connectors to both hard drives. Not only did the machine not boot, it still clicked.

I tried to locate the clicking noise, and it seemed to be right in the middle of the lower half of my motherboard, possibly on or under my graphics card.
 


Fan was running, I looked.

Im thinking it could come from a capacitor somewhere in either the motherboard or video card. If its a capacitor that might be why it starts after I unplug the power.

I just need to find a PCIe card to test with =/
 


This looks like it might be the case. Im trying to narrow down everything else before I RMA though =/
 
I had an identical issue to the original poster just today. My computer wouldn't go into POST and there was a clicking noise when the PSU started up. It would click probably 10-12 times at uneven intervals and then the HD would start to whir like it was being accessed, but nothing would happen on the monitor. My first thought, like most people on here was that my HD was toast and that I would just need to swap it out.

The lack of a POST really made me wonder though, so I decided to use my laptop to Google similar problems. I'm glad I did, because just like the other poster, I tried completely removing my HD and booting up. Still no POST and the same clicking noise. Thinking along the lines of a possible power issue, I started unplugging other devices. The first thing I unhooked was my cd burner. I powered up, and voila, the system booted up without issue. I have no idea what actually occurred, or if the problem will recur, but for now, it appears to be working.

I know the original post was several years ago, but I hope that anyone with the same issue who comes across this thread might find this helpful. It saved me the price of a new HD. Thanks guys.
 
OK iv just had the same problem with my pc, and i opened up the case and booted it with the case open. I found my wireless card had a light flashing in time with the clicks so i took that out and it seems to be working fine now. I think it wasnt getting enough power or something and was stalling the bootup.

My guess is it could be anything connected to the motherboard thats causing it.

Just for the record, im not a computer wizz or anything, so if any of this is wrong or doesnt make sense thats why.

Hope that helps!
 
I am having the same issues on my pc at the moment. Everything was running fine last night. I woke up and tried to run a few programs and it was clicking, so I restarted. Keep getting error's telling me to restart pc, that there is a hard disc error. I ran a diagnostic check from the startup, says the HDD is fine. It isn't though. The HDD keeps clicking. I have never had an issue like this ever occur with this PC in two years.

Right now I have it system restoring, just in case it's a hard disc issue from a recent update. Nothing has been installed lately, minus notepad++. That has been the only manual installation other then updates from windows in days, possibly weeks.

I still have to test powersupply, but right now.. I am just trying to get it to boot up at least once to get my external attached and remove all my programing code for my video game server and other important applications I have.

I keep reading it could be floppy, etc, etc. I don't have a floppy drive. Just one DVD RW+/-. Other misc port connectors for differant flash and memory cards and a media drive bay. Which btw minus usb ports, none of those get much use. Most don't get used at all.

So any advice on the matter would help a lot.

Another note: This is not a home built pc, but doing a google search this was the best topic that got brought up for the issue. This is a prefab though and as I said, I have never had an issue with it.
 
It's def the hard drive. The clicking is coming DIRECTLY from it. Not anywhere else as I keep reading. Recovery has been running for an hour, which has never taken longer then 15 minutes...

Any advice on how to get this hard drive information transferred to my external at the moment? Should I just hook it to this pc and try to transfer. Another issue lies in my OS is partitioned into the HD as well.. Yay for HP... ugh.

I was thinking about using boot discs to just wipe and test, but I still need this info taken off here.
 
Without reading all this did you get your answer? Because it's late for me and I'm tired :).


Anyway answer is your hard drive is failing on you, that's what's making the clicking noise. Yes that'll prevent your comp from posting. Unplug drive and see what happens.

Fireball you're not too far off. Certainly it can be anything and I don't doubt a wireless card as well.
 
Actually, I am in school for IWD, DG, Networking (Cisco, office, and engineering).. and I figured it was that. I wanted to be sure. I had to call my uncle and tell him what I thought and he agreed with me (He is cisco certified and engineering certified, which comes with A+.. meh we all know this). He is dropping me off spin rite tomorrow so I can attempt to recover all my home work, programs, and my UO server and scripts.

Thanks for the help anyhow guys.

So for those who don't understand the reason on fail:
Your head crashed in your HDD. Which was what I assumed, and my uncle confirmed. Once your head crashes pull it out, get a new one (HDD I am referring to). Get a program to pull your info off, if even possible. Another tip to add, my uncle said freeze your busted HDD for about 6 hours before you try to retrieve info, this allows it to remain "Cool" For hopefully enough time to get your information before it heats back up and crashes.
 
I am having the same problem with my computer. It started up perfectly for 3yrs, then al of a sudden boom. Mine was working fine then it crashed, when it restarted it was clicking. It sound as if it's coming from the hard drive so I replaced it with 2 cloned drives a 3 clicked.

It is not the hard drive.

Get this if I leave the hard drive unplugged the computer boots to c> No clicking. I unplugged other components it always clicked. Also, if I pushed the on/off button it did not turn off you had to hold the botton for 2-3 sec before the computer would turn off. After a while I discovered a way to get to come on. Here the process:

1. Turn on - clicking
2. Push and hold reset button
3. open cd drive tray and release reset button just before it fully extends
This works sometimes - if it doesn't turn off try again. Usually boots after
turn off.

I also have a Gigabyte board. I read some other post this seems to be a constant. I'm going to plug in another PSU.

For people with this problem plug in another hard drive if it clicks also it is not the drive it is either motherboard of PSU.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom