clicking noise and a crash

Sparkicks

Very odd problem that i can't seem to resolve so forgive me if the symptoms are somewhat hard to decipher as i haven't found an absolute pattern.
First off the computer is more likely to work when its on its side. Sometimes when i turn it on its just a pure loud tone comes out. Others i get a clicking noise after a while and either it crashes there and then or the screens graphics get all distorted into a strip pattern of about 3/4 inch strips in each case going down the screen mostly randomly spotted grey and the mouse becomes a distinguishable square of about 1/2 x 1/2 inch.
Methods that put of... unplugging for amounts of time, opening the case and making sure connections are pushed in (although could be just from the prolonged time it takes to do that) I've found that the bios battery is close to the graphics card which might have been pushed out so i tried pushing it back in firmly which just made it last a slight bit longer after the clicking started. about 2 mins after it will crash instead of instantly. The problem happens at bios level before boot is consulted sometimes so i doubt its a hard drive issue.
options i've considered so far considering,
bios corruption
graphics card is corrupt (but i don't have a replacement to test this
bios battery seems sketchy but the most recent attempts the battery has stayed firmly in its placed locked in and full of charge

carbsy

Do yourself a favour and try a replacement motherboard before you drive yourself insane.

Obviously this is a laptop???

Some specs might help, determine if integrated graphics, etc.

How about trying a Linux Live CD like Ubuntu at boot, if this is successful you can then pin point it to the Hard Drive. As your title states, clicks and all that, as the only moving parts as such is the hard drive..

First off the computer is more likely to work when its on its side:eek:
Not a good thing to be doing, if you only knew how little space is between the platters on a Hard Drive you would certainly not be doing this.

I would try that first.

Hope you get it back going...

Sparkicks

its a spare pc and i would enjoy fixing it if only for the sake of fixing it not for using it. While yeah for the same amount of hours of researching testing etc i its a 3.2 ghz (single core/duel thread) 1 gig of ram PC (not a laptop) can't remember what type of graphics card it is but its probably around 3/4 years old but can run most of whats out there if scaled down a little.

yoyo

A dying hard drive could upset the POST alrite, if theres clicking and a crash, I'd say hard disk issiue, try the hard disk in another machine (if possible) to confirm this, faulty RAM, unseated CPU fan, or video card could cause the BIOs to stall, but I think if you hear clicking hard disk is the culprit

Nick

challengemaster

If there's clicking, I'd say its pointing to the hard drive..

Sparkicks

to the linux: i duel boot ubuntu and winxp I've been using the live cd recently but its still crashed on that but at the time i was transferring from the hard drive across the network so i won't rule it out. I've done chkdsk or fsck equiv with a boot maintenance disk which hasn't returned anything (or if it has has repaired it)... the clicking (i don't know if anyone can connect the two) but it sounds similar to the noise that you get right before you get a blue screen.(although that could just be my association of it dealing with my pcs)

Unusual..

With the Live CD... Otherwise its ok?

If it was me..

Have you got another hard drive to place in that computer?
Doesn't need an OS as such..

Then use the Live CD, and transfer files over a network as you have done previously.

Then, you know it's the MOBO, controller etc..

Bit of headache alright..

friendface

Had a similar problem with my Home PC about a week ago. The clicking noise sounds to me like a hard drive issue. However, if you say the computer continues working but the graphics become distorted then it possibly points to an issue with your graphics card.

Could the fan on your card possibly be malfunctioning/blown? Same thing happened our PC. It'd run perfectly for 4/5 mins and then the screen would freeze up and become distorted. Obviously, the overheating would take place much quicker in a laptop so this might explain why you are having problems after 2 or so minutes.

Hope this helps and you get the problem sorted out

carbsy

Ignore my earlier comment? Have you the means of trying another motherboard? Although heavy clicking does sound like a drive issue...

Sparky

Have you tried to assemble the components outside of the case?

If your HDD is faulty this will upset the boot process.

Download ultimate boot CD and use the seatools for dos utility to check your HDD. It works with all drives in my experience. Otherwise if its a samsung HDD, download estools for a full in depth diagnostics.

Do a ram test too while you can with memtest.

Pop your graphics card into another PC to test it. Also make sure that it is getting enough power also if it requires it.

Artifacts on screen at boot up generally mean a faulty graphics card, but when you mention clicking noise, this would be from the hard disk 99% of the time. The only other time is if a cable happens to touch off any fans.

Trick is to test all your components to eliminate the cause of the issues.