Siren noises, hard drive failures - oh my! - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

TheProf · 10-24-2005, 06:41 AM

G'day.

So I'm not quite sure what's going on here, but over the weekend my computer started to act up.

First, while I was walking by the computer room I hear a siren sound. I check it out and find that the sound is coming from the CPU. I check the computer and it is 'sorta' functional. Mouse working, keyboard responding, etc.

I normally have speedfan running in the system tray (great little free program) which monitors fans and temps, and it's reporting a temperature of 127 degrees C. Now I wasn't sure for what part of the computer, since when I tried to expand the program, the computer froze and I had to hard reset. I'd imagine that only the CPU could only really reach 127 degrees so the siren is probably the BIOS signalling an overheat.

Reboot the machine, only to have it start the siren ring again as it's counting RAM, so I kill the power and leave it for a day off.

Come in this morning to turn it on, and lo and behold, no siren! RAM checks out OK, all Hard drives found during IDE scan and SMART is enabled, but then, when it should be booting Win XP off the main drive, it gives me 'Disk error, press any key to restart' and the drive makes this weird sound - closest thing I can describe is that it makes the exact same sound a hard drive makes when you turn OFF a computer. That sort of click and spinning down sound.

So...what the heck is going on?

Voltas · 10-24-2005, 08:03 AM

Guessing from what you've posted...

Sounds like you had some kind of overheat problem...this could have done alot of things or nothing.

If you had heat problems during a hard drive write action it could have wrote some bad data that may have made the drive or OS unbootable. Thats the feeling I"m getting from what you said.

A few more tries at trying to have the computer boot the drive might be useful. The harddrive spin down sounds like the system may have actualy shut down the harddrive for its own reasons (heat?)

Try opening the case, checking all your fans at boot and also letting a little more air in there.

If you get it to boot, start troubleshooting heat and hardware failures as best you can.

flat5 · 10-24-2005, 09:57 AM

You really need to open the box and look at the fans when you start the machine. With the power off, I would turn each fan a little and see that the blades move freely and easily.

If on power up the drive shuts down, then you have a drive or controller problem, no?

Switch the drive cables and see if/who shuts down.

You have to keep a close watch on this computer until you solve the temp. issue. 127C !! wow that's got to cause trouble.

MikeSty · 10-24-2005, 11:46 AM

Hply sh!t, I get scared when i hit 127 FAHRENHEIT (ok, not scared, a wee bit apprehensive

)

127C = 260.6F !!!!

Hanabal · 10-24-2005, 02:24 PM

either thats a faulty reading or you have done some serious damage to the PC. 127 is way above spec for any CPU and the motherboard would have been straining, potentially killing everything.

The fact that it got to the point of looking for the OS tells me it was a faulty reading, its happened to me, halfway through a long game of WoW my Cpu decided to hit 85C and the sirens went blaring. A few seconds later it was back to 40C.

The fact that you can still read the errors tells me that the video card is still functional, and the bios is ok. Open up the PC and watch the fans, make sure they all spin. maybe the HDD is lost but hey, that happens to most people eventually. There are lots of HDD recovery techniques out there, google for them. maybe all you need is to pop in the windows cd and use the repair software. Good luck

Martian · 10-24-2005, 06:15 PM

127 has to be a faulty reading. I don't know of a cpu that will survive higher than the 80-85 range, same for motherboards.

In terms of the hard drive, I don't have a lot to add. Standard recovery techniques, swap the drive if you have another to verify then get a new one.

TheProf · 10-26-2005, 09:08 AM

Hello,

So here's an update. Normally I have the case open (both side panels removed). I looked in and all the fans were running normally, but there was a lot of dust.

So I took everything apart and cleaned out all the dust from all the fans, heatsinks, etc. and put it all back together. Secured all the connections to make sure nothing was loose.

I booted it up and went into the bios to check temps. After running it for a while I found the CPU was not going above 45 Degrees C. so I restarted the machine and it booted into Win XP normally. I started the windows temp montior and it read 61 degrees, so I am starting to agree with those who posted that it may be faulty.

I am also starting to think that it is a power problem, not a heat problem. Reasoning: I have 1x60 gig drive, 1x13 gig drive, 1x6 gig drive, 1 dvdrw, 2 case fans, and 1 dedicated HD fan (the kind that bolts onto the bottom of the drive). I noticed when I activate the volt sensors in the bios, that's when the alarm would occur upon reboot. As well, the power supply is rated for 240 watts. And finally, sometimes when the computer shuts down, all the hard drives stop spinning, but all the fans and the power supply are still spinning.

Thoughts?

flat5 · 10-27-2005, 05:29 AM

Get a good 350+ watt power supply.

portwineboy · 10-27-2005, 05:34 AM

Oh yea, you need a better power supply. Do yourself a favor and go for a 400-450.

SiNai · 10-27-2005, 08:09 AM

My MSI mobo's temp readings were off for a good 3-6 months until they finally, finally updated the bios to fix this. Probably just faulty temp readings. I wouldn't give the temps too much thought, at least. Besides the obvious "get a new power supply" and "hard drive is probably going to crap" arguments, you've still got enough weird shit going on there to keep you busy

TheProf · 11-02-2005, 10:46 AM

Hello,

Soo...things are getting weirder and weirder.

After dusting and reassembling, the machine booted up fine and was working no problem. Left it for a couple of days, and then came in to find the screen blanked, but all the drives and fans spinning.

I reboot it, it POSTs ok, but as it detects drives, it cannot find one of the drives (this drive has the main boot partition) and thus it stops booting with a disk error. This is NOT a good thing since this is the 60 gig main drive!

I shut down, restart a couple of times but the same thing happens. Tried booting off the WinXP installation CD but same effect. It can't see the drive.

So I left it alone being busy with work for a few days. Come back, turn it on, and now it won't even POST. Nothing. Blank screen. Drives spin up, fans are on, but nothing on the screen. The monitor is even reporting 'check connection' as if it is not plugged in.

So I think it may be the power supply. I'm not able to go purchase another one, but I do have an extra one lying around from an older computer. Its plugs won't fit the motherboard, so what I do is divide the load between the two power supplies.

I turn on both PSU at the same time, and I can hear everything spinning up, but nothing. No beeps, the monitor is still displaying a connection problem, nothing. All the fans are on, the drives are spinning, and the CD drive opens & closes.

SO what the heck is going on? Please don't say I've got a fried motherboard

Nimetic · 11-02-2005, 10:51 PM

You could simply have a dead disk. They do that from time to time. And dead disks can sound odd.

Have you tried booting off a CD? Maybe try booting from a CD or floppy. Then see if you can read key, do a checkdisk or something.

If the hard disk is gone - not much you can do. If that was the case... I'd tend to install on a new disk then mount the old disk as a secondary. Finally I'll attempt to copy all files that are still accessible.

Obviously - if it is a disk failure and you have a backup, that is ideal.

TheProf · 11-03-2005, 11:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nimetic

Have you tried booting off a CD? Maybe try booting from a CD or floppy. Then see if you can read key, do a checkdisk or something.

It won't get to that stage. It is not counting even counting the RAM.

Nimetic · 11-05-2005, 04:45 PM

Oh man. Sorry. I just looked at the update.

I'm out of ideas. If it's not getting to POST... well...

Um.. One thing. Occasionally while working with PCs, I've dislodged things. Like the video card. Try pushing it all to ensure that it's properly in it's slot (it might look ok but not be).

Other than that... sorry. Out of ideas.

10-24-2005, 06:41 AM	#1 (permalink)
TheProf Crazy	Siren noises, hard drive failures - oh my! G'day. So I'm not quite sure what's going on here, but over the weekend my computer started to act up. First, while I was walking by the computer room I hear a siren sound. I check it out and find that the sound is coming from the CPU. I check the computer and it is 'sorta' functional. Mouse working, keyboard responding, etc. I normally have speedfan running in the system tray (great little free program) which monitors fans and temps, and it's reporting a temperature of 127 degrees C. Now I wasn't sure for what part of the computer, since when I tried to expand the program, the computer froze and I had to hard reset. I'd imagine that only the CPU could only really reach 127 degrees so the siren is probably the BIOS signalling an overheat. Reboot the machine, only to have it start the siren ring again as it's counting RAM, so I kill the power and leave it for a day off. Come in this morning to turn it on, and lo and behold, no siren! RAM checks out OK, all Hard drives found during IDE scan and SMART is enabled, but then, when it should be booting Win XP off the main drive, it gives me 'Disk error, press any key to restart' and the drive makes this weird sound - closest thing I can describe is that it makes the exact same sound a hard drive makes when you turn OFF a computer. That sort of click and spinning down sound. So...what the heck is going on?

10-24-2005, 08:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
Voltas Upright	Guessing from what you've posted... Sounds like you had some kind of overheat problem...this could have done alot of things or nothing. If you had heat problems during a hard drive write action it could have wrote some bad data that may have made the drive or OS unbootable. Thats the feeling I"m getting from what you said. A few more tries at trying to have the computer boot the drive might be useful. The harddrive spin down sounds like the system may have actualy shut down the harddrive for its own reasons (heat?) Try opening the case, checking all your fans at boot and also letting a little more air in there. If you get it to boot, start troubleshooting heat and hardware failures as best you can. __________________ I can't really back up anything I say....

10-24-2005, 02:24 PM	#5 (permalink)
Hanabal Insane Location: Auckland	either thats a faulty reading or you have done some serious damage to the PC. 127 is way above spec for any CPU and the motherboard would have been straining, potentially killing everything. The fact that it got to the point of looking for the OS tells me it was a faulty reading, its happened to me, halfway through a long game of WoW my Cpu decided to hit 85C and the sirens went blaring. A few seconds later it was back to 40C. The fact that you can still read the errors tells me that the video card is still functional, and the bios is ok. Open up the PC and watch the fans, make sure they all spin. maybe the HDD is lost but hey, that happens to most people eventually. There are lots of HDD recovery techniques out there, google for them. maybe all you need is to pop in the windows cd and use the repair software. Good luck __________________ I am Hanabal, Phear my elephants

10-24-2005, 06:15 PM	#6 (permalink)
Martian Young Crumudgeon Location: Canada	127 has to be a faulty reading. I don't know of a cpu that will survive higher than the 80-85 range, same for motherboards. In terms of the hard drive, I don't have a lot to add. Standard recovery techniques, swap the drive if you have another to verify then get a new one. __________________ I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said - Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame

10-27-2005, 05:34 AM	#9 (permalink)
portwineboy Master of No Domains Location: WEEhawken, New Joisey	Oh yea, you need a better power supply. Do yourself a favor and go for a 400-450. __________________ If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.

10-24-2005, 09:57 AM	#3 (permalink)
flat5 Very Insignificant Pawn Location: Amsterdam, NL	You really need to open the box and look at the fans when you start the machine. With the power off, I would turn each fan a little and see that the blades move freely and easily. If on power up the drive shuts down, then you have a drive or controller problem, no? Switch the drive cables and see if/who shuts down. You have to keep a close watch on this computer until you solve the temp. issue. 127C !! wow that's got to cause trouble.

10-24-2005, 11:46 AM	#4 (permalink)
MikeSty The Computer Kid :D Location: 127.0.0.1	Hply sh!t, I get scared when i hit 127 FAHRENHEIT (ok, not scared, a wee bit apprehensive ) 127C = 260.6F !!!!

10-26-2005, 09:08 AM	#7 (permalink)
TheProf Crazy	Hello, So here's an update. Normally I have the case open (both side panels removed). I looked in and all the fans were running normally, but there was a lot of dust. So I took everything apart and cleaned out all the dust from all the fans, heatsinks, etc. and put it all back together. Secured all the connections to make sure nothing was loose. I booted it up and went into the bios to check temps. After running it for a while I found the CPU was not going above 45 Degrees C. so I restarted the machine and it booted into Win XP normally. I started the windows temp montior and it read 61 degrees, so I am starting to agree with those who posted that it may be faulty. I am also starting to think that it is a power problem, not a heat problem. Reasoning: I have 1x60 gig drive, 1x13 gig drive, 1x6 gig drive, 1 dvdrw, 2 case fans, and 1 dedicated HD fan (the kind that bolts onto the bottom of the drive). I noticed when I activate the volt sensors in the bios, that's when the alarm would occur upon reboot. As well, the power supply is rated for 240 watts. And finally, sometimes when the computer shuts down, all the hard drives stop spinning, but all the fans and the power supply are still spinning. Thoughts?

10-27-2005, 05:29 AM	#8 (permalink)
flat5 Very Insignificant Pawn Location: Amsterdam, NL	Get a good 350+ watt power supply.

10-27-2005, 08:09 AM	#10 (permalink)
SiNai Dreams In Digital Location: Iowa	My MSI mobo's temp readings were off for a good 3-6 months until they finally, finally updated the bios to fix this. Probably just faulty temp readings. I wouldn't give the temps too much thought, at least. Besides the obvious "get a new power supply" and "hard drive is probably going to crap" arguments, you've still got enough weird shit going on there to keep you busy __________________ I can't seem to remember now What it was like- to live life, before you.. symbiont

11-02-2005, 10:46 AM	#11 (permalink)
TheProf Crazy	Update Hello, Soo...things are getting weirder and weirder. After dusting and reassembling, the machine booted up fine and was working no problem. Left it for a couple of days, and then came in to find the screen blanked, but all the drives and fans spinning. I reboot it, it POSTs ok, but as it detects drives, it cannot find one of the drives (this drive has the main boot partition) and thus it stops booting with a disk error. This is NOT a good thing since this is the 60 gig main drive! I shut down, restart a couple of times but the same thing happens. Tried booting off the WinXP installation CD but same effect. It can't see the drive. So I left it alone being busy with work for a few days. Come back, turn it on, and now it won't even POST. Nothing. Blank screen. Drives spin up, fans are on, but nothing on the screen. The monitor is even reporting 'check connection' as if it is not plugged in. So I think it may be the power supply. I'm not able to go purchase another one, but I do have an extra one lying around from an older computer. Its plugs won't fit the motherboard, so what I do is divide the load between the two power supplies. I turn on both PSU at the same time, and I can hear everything spinning up, but nothing. No beeps, the monitor is still displaying a connection problem, nothing. All the fans are on, the drives are spinning, and the CD drive opens & closes. SO what the heck is going on? Please don't say I've got a fried motherboard

11-02-2005, 10:51 PM	#12 (permalink)
Nimetic Junkie Location: Melbourne, Australia	You could simply have a dead disk. They do that from time to time. And dead disks can sound odd. Have you tried booting off a CD? Maybe try booting from a CD or floppy. Then see if you can read key, do a checkdisk or something. If the hard disk is gone - not much you can do. If that was the case... I'd tend to install on a new disk then mount the old disk as a secondary. Finally I'll attempt to copy all files that are still accessible. Obviously - if it is a disk failure and you have a backup, that is ideal.

11-05-2005, 04:45 PM	#14 (permalink)
Nimetic Junkie Location: Melbourne, Australia	Oh man. Sorry. I just looked at the update. I'm out of ideas. If it's not getting to POST... well... Um.. One thing. Occasionally while working with PCs, I've dislodged things. Like the video card. Try pushing it all to ensure that it's properly in it's slot (it might look ok but not be). Other than that... sorry. Out of ideas.