How broken is my PC?

[Ryoki]

Hello friendly T&T people,

Yesterday in a fit of clumsiness i managed to topple my box, after which it smacked on the floor with much noise. A crash occured. When i rebooted, i heard ominous clicking sounds coming from within... and it now hangs at startup. Clicking noises have vanished after that first reboot, but it still hangs.

Being a complete noob with PC's i now wonder what the damage is and what i can do about it. Did i fuxor my harddrive? Would it be a matter of replacing that..?

[+JuggerNaut+]

hello ryoki. check the link for programs that may help you assess your HDD's situation.

http://www.quake3world.com/forum/viewto ... 13&t=37602

[Ryoki]

Thanks for the tip Juggy, i'm sure anyone half versed in these arcane computer things could make that work but i'm just way too much of a noob to stand a chance of fixing this myself. I don't understand half the comments in that thread

But you think the clicking sounds are a sign of HDD failure..?

Shit, i'm tempted to just buy a new HDD or a whole new PC (my old one was a dirtcheap workstation thingie that struggled with 2 year old games).

*sigh* these fucking computers...

[MKJ]

if youre going to get a new hdd, you might as well go for a new pc in this case.

anyways. open it up, see what clicks or doesnt spin. maybe its the processor's fan? seeing how its an older computer, its cooling might suck and its overheating instantly.

maybe one (or your only) ramstick got knocked loose.
what does the screen show on startup. nothing at all, or do you see the usual memory & list of installed drives?
how far before it hangs? etc.

[+JuggerNaut+]

Thanks for the tip Juggy, i'm sure anyone half versed in these arcane computer things could make that work but i'm just way too much of a noob to stand a chance of fixing this myself. I don't understand half the comments in that thread

But you think the clicking sounds are a sign of HDD failure..?

Shit, i'm tempted to just buy a new HDD or a whole new PC (my old one was a dirtcheap workstation thingie that struggled with 2 year old games).

*sigh* these fucking computers...

sounds like a HDD to me, ryoki. i would download Knoppix, burn the iso to CD and boot with that and see if you can even access that HDD. it'll show an icon on the desktop for your drive.

[Ryoki]

if youre going to get a new hdd, you might as well go for a new pc in this case.

anyways. open it up, see what clicks or doesnt spin. maybe its the processor's fan? seeing how its an older computer, its cooling might suck and its overheating instantly.

maybe one (or your only) ramstick got knocked loose.
what does the screen show on startup. nothing at all, or do you see the usual memory & list of installed drives?
how far before it hangs? etc.

Yeah, that's what i figured too. I'll open that bitch up when i get home, hope you're right about the RAM. Even i could fix that!

Oh, i'll be a little more specific:

The clicking was a one time occurance, on the fist reboot after the crash. It clicked repeatedly, then hanged at the windows loading bar screen, so i gave it a little time and rebooted again when noting appeared to happen. After that i got the same result, but no clicks. So i don't even get to the login screen...

I'm running Vista on that thing btw... so no list of memory and installed drivers.

[Ryoki]

sounds like a HDD to me, ryoki. i would download Knoppix, burn the iso to CD and boot with that and see if you can even access that HDD. it'll show an icon on the desktop for your drive.

*woosh*

But.. how can i see an icon on my desktop when i can't even get to desktop..?

I'm afraid you're underestimating my lack of competence with these computer things, sir!

[MKJ]

well in that case it does sound like the HDD, similar to what I encountered a bit ago.

what Jugg is referring to is an OS on a CD. that way the computer will boot without touching your HDD. you might be able to see the HDD through that OS, and perhaps even fix it.

speaking of which, have you tried booting with your Windows CD (or dvd, whatever vista comes on). hopefully that way you can see if your computer recognizes the existence of your HDD. might help you get a better grip on the severity of the situation.

[Ryoki]

Aha... ok. I'll give that a shot first, before i go out and buy things.

Thanks guys

[+JuggerNaut+]

sounds like a HDD to me, ryoki. i would download Knoppix, burn the iso to CD and boot with that and see if you can even access that HDD. it'll show an icon on the desktop for your drive.

*woosh*

But.. how can i see an icon on my desktop when i can't even get to desktop..?

I'm afraid you're underestimating my lack of competence with these computer things, sir!

sorry man, wasn't sure. go here and pick the location nearest you: http://knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

download the .iso and burn that image to cd. make sure you don't choose "burn bootable cd", just a straight image to cd is what you want.

slap that badboy in your cd/dvd rom drive, reboot. you may need to go into your bios and set the boot order to boot from that drive first OR depending on your bios manufacturer it may show during boot which F key to press for boot options. once it starts booting off of cd, it'll load up with some verbose ramblings and you'll be sitting at probably your first linux desktop. look for one of the icons to show your hdd (typically hd0 or hd1 if memory serves). click on that and if you can get in and read some files, that's a good start because then you can back up your stuff by plugging a usb drive while running Knoppix.

have fun!

[Ryoki]

Cool, i'll give that a shot today, as a last resort

Attempted a repair with the vista dvd yesterday but that didn't work. What worries me is the fact that i dont see the 'hi i'm thinking' light of my hdd light up, at all. I'm suspecting i broke it's delicate innards

If that's the case i've decided to get a new hdd, turn my old PC into a mediacenter unit type thingie and purchase a new PC for gaming. It was about time i upgraded anyway.

[AmIdYfReAk]

and maby spend a little of that money on Some Anger control meetings, so you wont kick the new puter over

[MKJ]

lol oh shi