Wow. What a difference a weekend makes.
Friday, I was using my computer as usual. Absolutely nothing wrong. I went to class and then dinner and then came back to find my internet to no longer be working. Since I had it turned off earlier this year for downloading too much I figured that was the case again and submitted a work ticket to figure out what was up and what I could do to resolve the situation.
Today, I received a call from the resnet people and they told me that my port was not turned off intentionally. So, I tested one of my roommate's comps on my internet port, and his comp worked fine. Then I tested mine on his internet port which had been working fine. Mine did not work. So, to figure out if it was a software or hardware problem, I rebooted and loaded Knoppix. Knoppix did not detect the network, so that told me that it wasn't some Windows thing but, instead, a hardware issue. Being a hardware issue, I deduced that it was either my network card or my ethernet cable.
When my Software Engineering major roommate returned for the evening, I borrowed one of his extra network cards to do some testing. I figured, if my internet works with his working network card, then it's my card. Otherwise, it's my cable. So, I shut down my then-working-perfectly-except-internet computer, unplugged everything, and opened it up. I grounded myself and carefully removed my network card and inserted his. I touched nothing but the 2 network cards.
I put my computer back upright, plugged everything back in, and turned the power back on. I was greeted with a sound much like one would expect in some sci-fi movie of a laser powering up. I put my ear to the computer to locate the sound and found that it was coming from one of my two hard drives. I immediately cut off power and listened to the "laser" sound slowly power down.
I cut off power from one hard drive and powered up again. Sound was still there. Power down. Switch which drive has power. Power up. Sound gone. I honestly don't remember which hard drive - the top or bottom - is the one I bought this summer in August, but I'm pretty sure the one making the sound is my older drive from when I first built the comp in August of 2001. I have never heard any clicking sounds or experienced any erradic behavior to suggest to me that it might be failing. And I've never heard of this "laser" sound being described as a symptom of a failing drive. Not to mention I have NO idea why it would suddenly do this, coincidentally after I swapped network cards, when only 15 minutes earlier my computer was working perfectly, with the exception of no internet access.
I powered up my computer again, with both hard drives powered since the "laser" one is the one with the OS, to continue to let it boot and, basically, with the intentions of quickly moving what little data I have on my older drive onto my larger, newer drive. It did not boot. In fact, it didn't even get all the way to the part where it checks for an OS. It never even checked the floppy or CD-ROM drives. In other words, as it seems, now the motherboard isn't booting properly. It gets about halfway through the boot process and presents me with a blank screen and a blinking line prompt.
Power down. I removed power from my "laser" drive and powered up again. This time, it gets to the part to check the CD-ROM drives. Still ends up giving me a blank screen and prompt in the end though.
Now that it's checking my CD-ROMs, I put Knoppix 3.3 in the drive and reboot. It makes it to the Knoppix boot options screen (if you're familiar with Knoppix you know what I'm talking about) and freezes there. I cannot input anything. I try again with DemoLinux 3.0. Same. I try again with the SuSE 8.2 LiveCD. Same.
Now, I'm at a loss. I've gone from no internet to, seemingly, a bad motherboard and a bad hard drive for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Please. Any ideas?
