Clicking noise

[zak_swan]

My PC makes a kind of click when i boot it up. (always has)
Now that noise happens sometimes when PC is up and running.
It has happened a few times and the last time PC crashed.
What is it?
Is it a disaster waiting to happen?

[thecoalman]

Can you open the case try and see where it's coming from. Could possibly be your drive is dieing, could just be a fan but I don't think that would cause it crash unless it overheated. Could be something else as well.

At any rate I'd back-up anything important immediately.

[zak_swan]

what's best way to backup drive?
i rather foolishly have never bothered doing it.

[thecoalman]

I never back up the drive as whole I would prefer doing a fresh install if need be, I keep anything of importance in My Documents. Larger folders such as Image folders I back up once to two DVD-R's as I accumulate them, one of the DVD's is stored in another location. The rest such as financial docs etc. that change frequently go to DVD-RW's occasionally one of which is stored elsewhere as well. I also have the entire current folder backed up on my second drive. Pain in the ass but I'm not going to lose any data or very little. Since some of it is business data it's very important that I don't.

There are apps availble, I've heard norton ghost mentioed before.

[zak_swan]

got to stage windows wasn't starting.
but was able to start in safe mode.
scheduled disk check.
windows replaced bad clusters.
seems ok now.
still not sure how to back up.
will google it.

[thecoalman]

If by any chance it's your drive I'd wouldn't be posting on the net but backing up material. You may even want to consider turning the machine off and consulting someone. If your still reading this...... Even if it dies you can still recover it most likely but that requires a professional and costs quite a bit.

[zak_swan]

windows started booting up ok there but..... would'nt shut down.
but now it starts and shuts down fine.
the gremlins are at work.
i will start to back up soon but my kids want on World of Warcraft.
(i should'nt let them play it cause it's MINE, MINE, MINE! but anything for peace)
this old heap of junk is like that milleneum falcon thing falling to pieces but can err.. kick ass.
thanks for help thecoalman.

[thevoelk]

I would find some sort of imaging software and make an image of your disk, then restore it to the new one you're hopefully buying soon.

[jollyjohn]

G'day
Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost

[zak_swan]

G'day
drive hasn't packed in yet.
i don't want to back up the whole drive.
would rather do clean install.
will look into backing up favourites and my documents.

[thecoalman]

G'day
drive hasn't packed in yet.
i don't want to back up the whole drive.

Have you confirmed it's the drive? Could be afan as well, maybe something else. BTW if it does get to the point it won't boot, put it in a ziplock and put it in the freezer. Give it a hour or two, you can usually get it to bbot after that.

[zak_swan]

dunno if it's drive.
read most crashes are RAM or driver related.
oh btw crashed again today.
i ran a ram test couple of months ago was ok.
i dunno if i have put drivers in correctly.
the disc i got for 6600gt didnt work.
so i downloaded the one from nvidia.
but when i uninstall old ones and reboot it asks for disc, i click cancel.
it says component may not work correctly then i install the nvidia one.
but i done this months ago and has just started crashing recently.
(well it did crash a bit months ago then stopped crashing)
OH I DUNNO!

[zak_swan]

will try to simplify where i'm at.
sometimes when pc is running i hear a click from inside case,
sometimes widows slows down for a few secs and sometimes it crashes.
how do i find out where this click is coming from?
i can't stick my head in and listen cause it's completely random, maybe twice a day.
is it the drive? or graphics card? PSU?
arrrrrrgggggggghhhhh

[thecoalman]

is it the drive? or graphics card? PSU?
arrrrrrgggggggghhhhh

Have you checked your fans? You can look at them to see that they are moving. You can also check fan speed from the bios, usually have to hit delete repeatedly to get in bios on boot.

[zak_swan]

it's the drive
noise started repeatedly i looked inside and drive light was flashing and clicking.
now franticaly trying to back up (which i should of done in first place)

[zak_swan]

for anyone still interested.....
i ran the Maxtor diagnostic floppy.
it said hard disk was ok.
shortcuts were getting moved about on my desktop for no reason.
a file called cpu.log appeared for no reason on desktop.
crashed when i ran anti virus, so done it in safe mode and it found 8.
they were irc.worm.gen
pc seems ok...... for now
could it of been the bloody worms?

[CobraPilot]

It sounds like your clicking problem may have been due to the worms, but if your HD is, indeed, becoming unreliable and heading for a crash . . . .

I've been reading about computers since 1988 . . . EVERYTHING I have EVER read about hearing odd sounds coming from a HD emphasizes that you should NOT TURN IT OFF, and begin your backup process of any/everything you hold dear on that computer IMMEDIATELY!

Reason? If it's going bad, there is NO assurance it will work after another off/on cycle. If it's running, keep it running and grab your files while you can!

I've lost a couple of HD's over the years: In BOTH cases it was WITHOUT warning (no clicks or odd computer activity) and happened when I turned the computer on. You can imagine what the odds might be if you DO have indications somethings amiss and the drive really IS about to fail!

This incident's "silver lining" is that you have had a glimpse of how you might feel if you lost everything on your computer because of no backups. I've had that "honor," and trust me, you do NOT want to have it too!

[zak_swan]

thanks for answers
now some of u may laugh but i just noticed today (err forgot to mention earlier) that after taking off and cleaning heatsink fan at weekend i put it back on the wrong way so it was sucking air from CPU.
i reckon that is why PC was slowing down when it was on but can't see reason for it stopping booting. (it went for hours even with fan wrong way)
and does'nt really explain click from HD.
anyway fingers crossed for now.

[zak_swan]

<takes a deap breathe>
had World of Warcaft running today for 12 hours (kids on it 10, me 2)
worked fine. didnt slow down.

came off it tried to play AVI and PC slowed right down, AVI wouldnt play had to end media player in task manager.
thought it might be media player so tried opening a dvd folder with intervideo, it wouldn't play and i had to shut it down in task manager.
tied mp3 with media player it worked fine.

started lots of other programs, they all worked.
WTF is going on?

too many problems think i will bin susspect HD then format my second one and stick windows on that.