Please Help! HD making squealing sounds. Won't boot!

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Oct 14, 2014
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Hey everyone, I have encountered a weird problem here and I'm kind of out of ideas, very worried!

I built this computer back in 2006/2007, have upgraded most parts since, but the Motherboard, PSU and HD are all original. Never had any problems. Well, last week my computer crashed, and when I tried to start it back up, the HD started making a weird beep/squeal sound every few seconds (like the sound of a low pitched beep and squeal combined). It wouldn't boot. Each time the computer would say that it detected a HD issue and could not communicate with the HD. In BIOS I could see the HD was still recognized just fine. I tried other SATA ports and cables... nothing. Tried removing the CMOS battery and pressing the reset buttons.... nothing!

So I assumed there was a problem with the HD heads, which I figured made sense, considering the HD is like 8 years old. So I tried putting it in the freezer for a few hours, and then popping it back into my comp. It started right back up, no sounds! I quickly got all my files off the drive. About 24 hours later it started to make the sounds again, and crashed. Back to that problem again. I tried freezing once more.. it worked again, but only lasted for 30 mins this time. So, I ordered another HD.. same brand/model, just a little larger capacity.

That new HD came in today, I hooked it up, popped my Windows 7 installation disk in there and it started right up, no problems, no sounds. I figured, "good, must have been that harddrive for sure." So I installed Windows, started instaling drivers, and maybe 2 hours later while windows updates were installing, I start to hear that same SOUND again, same as the old HD!!! Of course, it froze up, and crashed. I tried restarting again and I'm getting the SAME EXACT problem from the old HD!

Now, this makes me think it never was the HD to begin with! I mean, there is the chance that this one had problems from the factory and I could try RMAing it and trying another... but doesn't it sound it that's a slim chance?

Currently my mobo is displaying code 75 (USB?). It's worth mentioning that when I try (and fail) to boot, the numbers on there fluctuate a bunch, then once Windows is about to bring me to the login screen, a blue screen flashes for a millisecond and it restarts.. that beep/squeal sound happening with no real sound pattern the whole time. Sometimes, when I go into BIOS, theres some weird string of numbers that are written in jibberish (like symbols and stuff) strawn across a random part of the screen, and those numbers are flucutating....

Also worht mentioning, this mobo has the original CMOS battery in it (2032 coin shaped battery), do you think that might be the problem? Should I try replacing that??

Any ideas you guys might have, please let me know, thanks!

Specs:
Abit IP35P Motherboard
Intel Q6600
EVGA GTX 750ti ftw
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610w
4GB RAM
Windows 7 64bit
Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 250GB (OLD HD)
Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 500GB (NEW HD)
 
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Hmm I pulled the HD away from the inside of the tower and put my ear right on it, and it's definitely coming from the HD. Its not really a squeal, or a beep, or a chirp.. rather the 3 combined.. very hard to describe... and it happens in short tiny bursts.

As far as the old HDD, I tried it again after this one had the same problem and that one has the same effect. I even tried hooking both of them up, no help.
 
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No.
Why is the motherboard displaying "code 75 (USB?)". That has nothing to do with the internal drive.

Disconnect everything nonessential.
Boot.
See what happens.
 
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I am currently doing some research into this issue, looking around in places I know to look, but first and foremost my concern is the PSU. It is not uncommon for an older PSU to stop producing the current that it should, whether it is due to components inside the PSU itself, corrosion on connectors, degradation in the wiring, etc. The components inside of the HDD are not designed to have much variance in voltage, much less wattage and amperage. It is possible that a wider range of power is being produced by the PSU or even a lower range of power, thus causing the HDD to damage itself. It is strange that it is just happening now, and so quickly to the new drive. It could be that a recent event caused this, whether it be a power surge, a slow but continuous buildup of corrosion and degradation of the wiring resulting in a recent failure, an issue with the connector that was exacerbated by removing the old drive and installing the new drive... It could really be anything that caused the sudden occurrence of this, if it is indeed PSU related.

What I would do is boot from a USB into a linux build that is GUI friendly, such as ubuntu. If you don't mind doing some coding, I'd go with Crunchbang. The purpose is to get a monitor of sorts going to watch the voltages the PSU is putting out. Crunchbang comes stock with a program called Conky. This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most customizable and thorough system monitoring program I have ever encountered. It can monitor anything, if your hardware has a way to be monitored. Otherwise you could look into other programs for linux, or even a WinPE that will allow you to use SpeedFan or a similar program. It would take a full day of coding and installing different monitoring drivers to get Conky to do exactly what you want it to do. It may not be worth the time for you. And while you could sit there with a voltmeter and measure each individual cable while the computer is running, I don't believe that is the most efficient way to go about it. Alternatively you could look into a digital display that is designed to be mounted on the case that plugs into the MoBo itself to monitor voltages. Or maybe even take the PSU to a professional to have them diagnose any and all issues with it.

Regardless of the method that you choose, I believe that the PSU is the most likely culprit here, and therefore should be the first thing to be either identified or ruled out.

Other then that, it could potentially be MoBo/BIOS related, as those regulate power levels and have direct access to the drive itself. It could be a fault in the MoBo or a broken bit of coding in the BIOS that is causing a bad level of power or an insane demand on the HDD.

One really clear solution that I can see that wouldn't be too difficult to do is take the HDD out before any more damage is done to it, assuming it's your rig doing it, and place it inside another PC, preferably a newer one. Monitor it. Run a S.M.A.R.T test on it if possible. See if it will perform not only on a basic level, but on an optimal level in another rig.

Now, just some random information for the future. The blue screen that you saw while booting is, I am 99% sure, a BSOD, or Blue Screen Of Death. From the knowledge that you displayed in your post I would assume you probably know some if not all of this, but for the sake of simplicity I'll just outline what it is and how to identify it. A Blue Screen Of Death is caused when there is a fatal error in the I/O of a drive. It is almost always related to a driver failure of some sort. For it to happen while Windows is loading tells me that it is one of the core drivers that Windows itself needs to operate. A Fatal error is not something that Windows can recover from. It must shut down and go through the boot sequence again to try to successfully load the drivers it requires, in the sequence it needs to load them in. Fortunately, there is a way to stop it from simply flashing on the screen then forcing the PC to reboot. When you are first going through the boot sequence into windows, before you reach the boot screen where it displays the Windows animation, you have the option to press F8 to peruse advanced startup options. Sometimes this is displayed, sometimes it is not. This setting is determined inside MSConfig, as well as how long it allows you to choose. If you select F8, one of the options that is available is disabling reboot on driver failure. This will allow you to not only see the BSOD before it disappears, but it allows you all the time you desire to record the error codes on it and read the text that is displayed. If in the future you decide to try to boot into windows again before the issue is identified and resolved, it would be wise to select this option so as to gain more information. This BSOD may or may not shed light on the cause of the issue, but gaining more information never hurts.
 
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Ok, I tried that. Only the monitor and keyboard hooked up. Same problem.

Tried it without the keyboard too, it auto-loaded windows system troubleshoot, which tried to repair and said "can not repair. Contact system administrator."

So I monitored the numbers on the mobo cafefully, and when it starts up, a bunch of number/letters show up; C1, C2, C3, 34, 35, 36, 75, etc. etc. It just seemed to stay on 75 for the longest before getting past the initial "press DEL to enter setup screen" and after that it stays on FF the whole time (which it always used to). It will stay on 75 only if I stay in the BIOS screen.
 
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Stinger, thanks for the response.

I just tried pressing F8 and disabling the restart upon system failure. So, after doing that, it doesn't even get to the blue screen. Instead, it freezes up right when "Starting Windows" appear... even before those 4 little colorful dots show up to form the Windows logo. Tried this a few times, same problem.

I would try hooking up these harddrives to another comp, but I don't have any other desktop computer to try this on. The only othr comp in the house is my G/F's laptop which I don't believe I can hook this drive up to.. unless im mistaken? Also, I don't have a spare drive or know anything about Linux or coding (sorry 🙁 ) so that method is a little beyond me.

I do, however, have a voltage monitoring ability in my BIOS via Abit Monitoring. Voltages are displayed, I dont know what is considered good or not, maybe if I post them on here you might be able to tell?
 
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USAF: No I still had those connected. I can try disconnecting the RAM, GPU, but if I remove the PSU will anything start at all??

Also I can 100% confirm the sound is coming from the HD. Just checked again, no question.

Also, I should mention, that sound doesn't happen when the computer is doing nothing, like when its sitting in BIOS. It ONLY happens when Windows is trying to start up, or when the comp is doing something that requires accessing the HD's storage.
 
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Actually, the important values are right in BIOS itself. You can usually set, and if not set then usually see what the BIOS is setting the individual components to run at in terms of voltage. If it is displaying in real time what the voltages are, what I would do is just grab a piece of paper and a pencil and write down the main components on the top, I.E. HDD, CPU, RAM, GPU. Make a sort of a grid, and right below each name write down what BIOS is set to deliver. Then every minute or so write down what it is actually giving. This might not be a truly accurate representation of what the PSU is doing, for there is no load on any components, it is simply idling. It might show abnormal variance however, which would be indicative of an issue with the PSU.

Another simple way of determining issues is just take a close look at all the connectors coming from the PSU. Pull every plug and look at the connectors. Note especially any coloration you see. Brand new, the connectors come as a shiny brass color, or a flat silver color, depending on the connector. If you see any browning, blackening or even whitening, this might be a sign that the plug with the abnormal coloring has been performing other then expected. It is to be expected with its' age that the connectors will not be shiny any longer, but they should still all be around the same base color as they were new.

Also, do you think the sound that you're hearing might be more of a clicking sound? I'm referring to the aptly named "click of death", which is caused by the head arm rapidly going from the edge of the disk back to its' resting place.

On the question of disconnecting GPU, RAM and PSU, removing the first two would cause POST errors that would not allow you to proceed from the POST screen, possibly not even into BIOS. And removing the power will, naturally, not allow it to power on.
 
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Well, the next thing I would try is creating a Linux bootCD.
Boot from that, completely bypassing the HDD.

I know you said you don't speak Linux, but its pretty easy.
Download an ISO, and burn it to DVD.
One of the links here: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Disconnect all hard drives and boot from that. You don't have to actually use the system...just see if it boots and is stable.
This will check the rest of the system.
See if it still does it.
 
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Well then...the problem is not the hard drive.
 
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Yea... that's true lol. I guess the weird sounds coming from the HD are just secondary and being caused by whatever this problem actually is. I would really hate for it to be the PSU, I mean everything else seems to be OK on power. I'll check the connectors for corrosion now.

Have you guys ever seen anything like that before (the photo)? I feel like it's a BIOS issue or something, but removing the battery did nothing.

Should I try booting windows from Disk and reinstalling on the HD? The last thing I did before this started happening again was install all the crap off my original Abit driver disk.. maybe that's the problem?

Maybe a CMOS "flash"? I've never done that before, don't even know if it's possible with an old Abit mobo and no support.
 
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That picture reminds me of a BIOS dump file. It's basically just a raw version of the BIOS, broken down into ASCII code for viewing, editing and troubleshooting. This is a presumption, but that leads me to believe that your BIOS is corrupted. To what degree, I cannot say. And as I said, that is a presumption. It could also be related to the CMOS battery, as it relies on that battery instead of the PSU for its' primary source of power. However, when the system is powered on it draws from the PSU and not CMOS. So it could just as well be a signal that your PSU is going out.

I don't want to say it, but it might be best that you not use your computer until you have the ability to replace both the CMOS battery and the PSU. I'm not certain either of those are the issue. For all I know it's something I haven't thought of, something incredibly simple. However, if I am correct in regard to the PSU, you could damage not only the HDD, but your 750ti and the CPU, not to mention the motherboard itself.

I want to say get the Linux CD and find some way of monitoring voltage so that you can rule the PSU out. But I don't want to advise you to do that, have it end up that the PSU is bad, and as a result of trying to troubleshoot you irrevocably damage your computer.

Ultimately it is your call.
 
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Yea, I know what you mean. I guess the cheapest easiest thing to do would be to get the new battery in there, since it's like $8 and mine is 8+ years old now and probably needed to be replaced anyways.

One thing that perplexes me is why the hell freezing the harddrive works so well! What would that have to do with the PSU?
 
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It could be merely a symptom. This is all conjecture and theory, but it could be that the PSU is giving irregular voltages. As such, when the hard drive is in the middle of an I/O process, it receives a jolt of power. This jolt of power causes the HDD to incorrectly complete said I/O sequence, causing either a fragmented file, a corrupt index, an entirely corrupt block of data, a bunch of zeroes... Anything really. When you introduce an unknown variable into the equation of a very precise and rigid instrument, nothing good can happen. Hard drives are perhaps just as intricate as the CPU, and more delicate. The smallest power fluctuation would cause the head that is writing the data to do something abnormal. I can see this easily unseating the head arm as it constantly goes over the corrupt data that it keeps writing. At a certain point it would move into the sound you're hearing, whether it be the click of death or something else. Due to a possible PSU issue, the environment inside the HDD itself is not that which it would operate under. I don't remember the details, but freezing the HDD does something inside of it that is similar to banging it against something lightly, albeit less risk is involved with the freezing process. The head arm, possibly the entire assembly, is set back into a state where it can operate again.

Once again, all theory. I don't have sufficient knowledge in that area to provide an educated answer, all I know is that there is precedence that freezing does in fact work, and there's some science behind it that I was never too incredibly interested to learn lol
 
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Ok so the voltage of the ATX +12 24 pin and the ATX +12 8 pin are fluctuating between 11.95 - 12.01, it changes every half second....bad sign? Everything else seems ok...
 
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Those fluctuations are in normal ranges. We would be looking for something more in the ranges of 11.5-12.5 as a serious sign.

Have a look at this thread, it's an excellent source of accurate information. It is from 2011, but that's one thing about electricity. It's never changed ^.^

The thread is about a video card and how the PSU can cause issues with that, not a hard drive, but the answers there are applicable.

I also dug up another thread that you may find interesting to read. This one is directly about hard drive issues and, in part, how voltage fluctuations can lead to issues.
 
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Update: I think I might have figured it out. It seems to be the RAM, which I didn't see coming.

I took one of the RAM sticks out of the mobo (had 2x 2GB) and the PC starts up perfectly and runs 100% fine, no HD sounds either. I only decided to try this becaus that weird string of jibberish symbols in BIOS was displayed right over where the RAM clocking is usually displayed. I figured possibly faulty RAM. I suppose that would explain the crashes. Freezing the hard drive and getting temporary results was probably just a case of the computer (specifically the RAM) not running for a while and cooling off, itself, as USAF suggested. I still have no clue why that would affect the HD, because the sounds were DEFINITELY coming out of that HD... strange.

I want to try swapping the stick and testing out other slots in the mobo too, to confirm it. Could it still be a PSU issue concerning power needed for two sticks of RAM, could be? I really dont know. I wish I had another good stick around to test it out, but I do not. I guess swapping this one I have out right now with the one that's in there would give me more of an answer.
 
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Update 2:

Ok so I tried each stick, and each stick in each slot on the mobo, and it's all fine. Both memory sticks are good, all the slots are good. However, each time I put both sticks in there and try to start it up, I get that same problem and HD sound again! As soon as I remove one and leave only one in there, the problem goes away.

Any ideas? I'm also going to post this in the motherboard section.
 
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Hm. Goes to show how all that theorizing didn't do any good... lol.

Could be somewhat bios related, if both sticks and both slots are good. When two sticks are in the mobo and right next to each other, they work together. The bios handles the details. If you had 4 slots and put them in 1 and 3 it would do the same thing. (If I remember correctly, might be 1&2 work together and 3&4 work together, but my memory is telling me otherwise). If there's any minor issue with the bios, which the strange symbols appearing supports, it could be that the ram issue is causing the other issues, solely do to the bios not managing two sticks together correctly.

Simple solution: Obtain the latest bios file. You might find this thread useful. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/308041-30-bios-update-abit-ip35p

Flash said bios file. Try two sticks again. If it works, we're golden. If it doesn't work, no harm done as that bios file is intended for your mobo. Make sure to identify whether your mobo is a pro, a proxe, or just a regular ip35. If you go to the link from the last post of the thread I linked, there is an FTP that has all of the bios's there. The directory linked is ftp://91.121.194.115/pub/download/bios/ (I hit parent directory to give a full list). If you browse to I, you'll find ip35, ip35p, ip35pro, ip35proxe and ip35/ip35 - e. Just identify which one you have, get the bios file, and flash it using the method on Abit's website. [strike]http://abit.ws/page/en/download/download_utility.php@pFUN_KEY=10000&pTITLE_IMG=_2Fdownload_2Fimages_2Fdownload.html Here is a link to the utility, directly on Abit's website. There's a utility for each type of mobo, so select the correct one here too. [/strike] (That information was incorrect, my apologies. I did more research and provided details in a later post, down a little further.)
 
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