#@*&!!! CRAP!

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Well, I'm used to my puter sounding like a refridgerator......it's got so many fans...sometimes I use it to dry my hair. But yesterday morning when I fired it up, it started making an unusual noise......it was similar to the noise the fans make, but had a slight vibration to it and it would go up and down as far as how loud it was. I have a feeling it's the hardrive. I took the side off and unplugged the fans, and the noise does seem to be coming from there. Should I:
A) Take it to a shop now.
B) Wait until the PC stops working (then take it to a shop).
C) Soak it in epson salt water for a half hour. (this always makes my bum feel better) :)

[Saretta]

I would vote for No 1. If it is really the hd they can probably save all your data. If the hd will stop working your data might be lost.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Thanks Bain. I've got a tape drive, so the hard drive is backed up.......well , OK, I backed it up 3 months ago......guess I better do it again before it crashes. :bandhead:

[JIMINATOR]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS high ping camper@Apr 3 2003, 02:38 PM
Well, I'm used to my puter sounding like a refridgerator......it's got so may fans...sometimes I use it to dry my hair. But yesterday morning when I fired it up, it started making an unusual noise......it was similar to the noise the fans make, but had a slight vibration to it and it would go up and down as far as how loud it was. I have a feeling it's the hardrive. I took the side off and unplugged the fans, and the noise does seem to be coming from there. Should I:
A) Take it to a shop now.
B) Wait until the PC stops working (then take it to a shop).
C) Soak it in epson salt water for a half hour. (this always makes my bum feel better) :)
Get a can of compressed air and spray out the power supply and cpu fan
(and everything else). You will be surprised at the amount of dust buildup.
I have heard clicking sounds from drives, but a variable vibration sound like
that, I wouldn't think it was the drive. Try unplugging the power supply to
the drive and see if you still have the noise...

Good luck

ps: a new bigger better drive never hurts

[Death-Dude]

JIM has a couple of good suggestions there. But, let's say your HD is failing, if you can still get a Backup off of it, then Back that stuff up - everything you can think of, like e-mail address books, bookmarks if you like, anything you'll say "I wish I'd backed that up" later, and go get a new HD and install it! Whaddya need a shop for? If you need some step-by-step instruction on installing a HD, there are plenty of folks here happy to help you through it, and you'll have learned through the process. We got yer backside.

[OUTLAWS The Machine]

Forget the shop. Go buy a hard drive and do it yourself. Save yourself some money. Newegg is a good place to get a hard drive.

[OUTLAWS The Machine]

Highly recommend this one. :thumbs:

[V98ci]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS The Machine@Apr 3 2003, 09:41 PM
Highly recommend this one. :thumbs:
Me too. That is the exact drive I have in my new rig. It rocks :jammin: :wootrock:

[Morpheus]

:wootrock: I've two 60's and they work great.

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Do as Machine suggested.
We will take you through it step by step.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Ummm....wellllllllll, my PC has shut down twice so far.
And uhhh, I tried to do a back up of everything without compressing and even though I had (3) 20GB tapes and my drive is only 40GB, it wouldn't fit on the 3 tapes!?
So I cancelled it (the back up)....Hell it was taking forever anyway.

So what I'm reading here is:
It might be dust bunnies causing problem or it could be the hardrive.


I really don't mind getting another hardrive....they're only around $80.00.

I'll probably get a Maxtor Diamond+ 9 Series Hard Drive.
Why?.....you ask......'cause it's got " fluid dynamic bearing motor assembly for fast, quiet operation".


Oh, and about that advice of unplugging the power supply to the hard drive , do I just reach in there and pull the wires out of the back of it? :WTF:

[Grimmy]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS high ping camper@Apr 3 2003, 09:37 PM
Oh, and about that advice of unplugging the power supply to the hard drive , do I just reach in there and pull the wires out of the back of it? :WTF:
Yes, just grab it between your index finger and thumb and you will have to wiggle the plug a little and the connector should pull right out. When in doubt, gave and yank :devil:

[OUTLAWS The Machine]

I would open up the side of the case and while it is running stop each fan for just a second to make sure that it is not a bad fan. MAke sure you check your video card fan. They go bad quite often and make a horrible racket.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS The Machine@Apr 3 2003, 07:02 PM
I would open up the side of the case and while it is running stop each fan for just a second to make sure that it is not a bad fan. MAke sure you check your video card fan. They go bad quite often and make a horrible racket.
Thanks Machine, I unplugged all of the fans this morning, and it still made the sound. I stuck my head in as far as I could (Gee, that sounds dirty) and as far as I could tell, jthe noise was coming from the front of the PC.
Oh and BTW when I plugged the fans back in, the PC shut off. Is that normal?

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Your HD IMO is on the way out.
I just went through something similiar.
Get a new hd

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to put in a night of SSSE, and get a hard driver put in tomorrow.

Hopefully the data from the old one can be transfered before it take a crap.

[OUTLAWS WHOCARES]

Don't bring it to the shop.
Just buy the hd and we will walk you through it.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

yeh, you guys just want a good laugh!

I'd rather take it to a shop 'cause if something goes wrong, I can get mad at them.

I don't want to get mad at you guys.

Besides, the most I've ever spent at this shop is $20.00. Most of the time they did the work for a trade of parts.

They're only a 1/2 mile away from my house, so it's real convenient.

[JIMINATOR]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS high ping camper@Apr 4 2003, 04:01 AM
yeh, you guys just want a good laugh!

I'd rather take it to a shop 'cause if something goes wrong, I can get mad at them.

I don't want to get mad at you guys.

Besides, the most I've ever spent at this shop is $20.00. Most of the time they did the work for a trade of parts.

They're only a 1/2 mile away from my house, so it's real convenient.
Well, $20 isn't too bad. I have seen places that
charge $40 for a drive install, another $40 for data transfer,
and another $40 for a windows install. I feel
for the people that go that route, but they gotta do what
they gotta do. As for the power cutting off, you don't want to
be connecting/disconnecting things with the power turned on,
that is a good way to fry yourself not to mention your
system. I would unhook the drive though to
ensure that the noise goes away (and that is the cause).
Anyway, I recently bought a maxtor 120 gig drive for
$160 + 40/rebate, and that was a pretty good deal.
You no longer get the 3 year warrenty though, except
with premium drives like was in the ad (which also has a
8MB cache, unlike the Maxtor which has 2MB)...

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Thanks Jim, and GG in the hole tonight. :thumbs:

[JIMINATOR]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS high ping camper@Apr 4 2003, 06:24 AM
Thanks Jim, and GG in the hole tonight. :thumbs:
Yeah, that was fun. I think the normal damage really threw my game off.
It became painful there at the end :-)
GG slay.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

I'm trying to rationalize which hard drive I should buy.

It looks like Maxtor's DiamondMax Plus is the winner, however I would appreciate your advice. Here's the specs for it:


80GB Capacity
Ideal for high-end gaming and digital video
7200 RPM ATA/IDE hard drive
Ultra fast 8MB cache buffer - up to 20% faster performance
Ultra ATA/133 interface - up to 33% faster data transfer rates
Ultra quiet operation with fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motor
Easy installation
Includes intelligent formatting and partitioning software
Complete upgrade kit


Now, the only downside to this purchase is, my mobo only has an ATA rating of 100.

So am I wasting my $?

BTW, I called the shop, installation is free if you buy the hard drive from them.......but they don't have the one I want. $25 for the install if I buy the hard drive elsewhere.
I didn't ask about data transfer or windows install prices, I'm thinking I could do that myself. ?

[FUS1ON]

There's nothing wrong with WD's drives, But I personally prefer Maxtor and that's the same drive I just ordered for $pike. :thumbs:

HPC there is a utiltity that comes with the drive to adjust it to ATA100, I don't think you would be wasting your money with that drive.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Did you type that with your toes!!!!!!!!!! :rofl:

I saw your name and waited for your reply.........................and then I waited some more.................and some more.....................and.....read War and Peace.......................................twice.

Just kidding....thanks Shogun. :thumbs:

I'm going to call the store to confirm they have the hard drive, and go pick it up.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

I called CompUSA, they don't have it in stock.
I looked around some more, I can pick it up at STAPLES for $79.94 (after rebates). It goes on sale this Sunday.

[FUS1ON]

I rode the short bus to school :P

[JIMINATOR]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS high ping camper@Apr 4 2003, 06:58 PM
I'm trying to rationalize which hard drive I should buy.

It looks like Maxtor's DiamondMax Plus is the winner, however I would appreciate your advice. Here's the specs for it:


80GB Capacity
Ideal for high-end gaming and digital video
7200 RPM ATA/IDE hard drive
Ultra fast 8MB cache buffer - up to 20% faster performance
Ultra ATA/133 interface - up to 33% faster data transfer rates
Ultra quiet operation with fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motor
Easy installation
Includes intelligent formatting and partitioning software
Complete upgrade kit


Now, the only downside to this purchase is, my mobo only has an ATA rating of 100.

So am I wasting my $?

BTW, I called the shop, installation is free if you buy the hard drive from them.......but they don't have the one I want. $25 for the install if I buy the hard drive elsewhere.
I didn't ask about data transfer or windows install prices, I'm thinking I could do that myself. ?
Hi:
The drive is good. The ATA/133 thing doesn't matter, it will work on any system
at the highest speed the system supports, and secondly, benchmarks
don't really show much of an improvement over the 100s, so you are fine
there. If you don't have a NTFS partition (w windows XP) then you
can use the included software to copy everything over from the second
drive. It is really easy. In fact, if I was you, I would probably get the drive
and look at the instructions before going to a shop. If you feel comfortable
with it, you can try to install it yourself. They have made the install process
very easy. A new winstall is always nice. I do that every so often myself
when windows becomes flaky and I have too much crud loaded up.
Microsoft has made that process fairly easy with their latest versions.
anyway, good luck.

Jim

[Death-Dude]

Both the Maxtor and WD drives suggested here are fine drives. I. too, am a bit in the Maxtor camp, but I consider that mostly a bias. Here is something I like the Maxtor for:

Ultra quiet operation with fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) motor


Very quiet stuff. But, seriously, it isn't that hard to put one in, and it's high time you learned it. I'll try to put you in touch with the resources you will need. Gimme a day or so.

[OUTLAWS The Machine]

Did you unplug the power cable to the hard drive while it was running to confirm that it is the hard drive? I've also had floppy drives crap out and sit there and make a grinding sound even when not in use.

[OUTLAWS Behind You?]

Here's a thought. Go to your suspected failing HD web site and see if they have a diagnostic program you can download. I know for sure that WD and Maxtor do. Download it and follow the included instructions to run it. This usually includes making a bootable diskette and booting from it.

If it fails, then check the warrenty. They will exchange it for a current drive of similar size for the cost of shipping. Check with the manufacturer.

If it doesn't fail, try looking else where for the noise. Power off, disconnect everything and then power up. If no noise, then power down, add one device and power up again. Repeat until you find the noise maker.

Oh, and adding a second drive is even easier than replacing one. Just in case you really want the new drive. :oooo:

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS The Machine@Apr 4 2003, 02:56 PM
Did you unplug the power cable to the hard drive while it was running to confirm that it is the hard drive? I've also had floppy drives crap out and sit there and make a grinding sound even when not in use.
No I didn't unplug it, but I did get to listen to it a little better. It was making a chugging sound, I put my hand on it to confirm that it was the drive making the noise............and it was.

So far the PC has been working ok, no shut downs............so far today. I will cross my fingers until I find the time to pick up the hard drive and drop off the PC.

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

Oh yeah, I thought I should mention something my PC has done recently. When I chose the shutdown mode, the monitor would turn off, but the PC kept running. This has happened around 3 times in the last two weeks.

Tonight I decided to run 3DMark 2000 for the heck of it. Well it took forever for it to run.........I found that rather unusual.....then I decided to run the demo.....and it just kind of locked up on me. :blink:

Well I'm done testing the waters..........gonna shut down for the night and see what surprises await me in the morning.

Never a dull moment. :)

[OUTLAWS The Machine]

Time for an upgrade. ;)

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

I picked up the Maxtor DiamondPlus 9 (80gb) hard drive today. Got it for $79.94 (after rebate). Bought it at Staples.
I'll be playing a small part in it's installation, I'm going over to a co-workers house to observe, and try to learn something during the install.
Hopefully I'll be back on line tonight. :)

[OUTLAWS Behind You?]

See ya tonight..... :thumbs:

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

:blink: I'm back.................a little shell shocked...........but back. :blink:

[Mr Clean]

Originally posted by OUTLAWS high ping camper@Apr 9 2003, 11:30 PM
:blink: I'm back.................a little shell shocked...........but back. :blink:
That post was 8 hours after the last one....it didn't take that long, did it? :blink:

[OUTLAWS high ping camper]

OK, .............you asked. It took 4 hours. Here's a run down of what happened (from what I can remember).
There was no cable connecting my A drive to the mobo (part of an unfinished install by the tech who put in the tape drive).
We couldn't leave the old hard drive in because of the tape drive. Well actually because of the mobo. I'm not a techie, so bare with me.
The ribbon had 2 connectors, which could be used to connect to 2 hard drives, or in my case (not PC case) a tape drive and a hard drive.
So we (not really we, I just watched) unplugged the tape drive, put in the new drive, making it the master, and the other the slave.
Installed Windows 2000 (an upgrade for me) along with Adobe Photo shop (another upgrade) and some "office" programs.
Then we went through the old drive and transfered (cut and pasted) files that I wanted to keep. Basically cleaning house. It was nice getting rid of allot of junk.
Rather than leave the old hard drive in, and an inoperable tape drive, we took out the old hard drive, and hooked up the tape drive.
Here comes the fun part. Everytime we would "restart", the mobo would try to boot off of the tape drive.
We (I like saying "we", it makes it sound like I actually did something) then went into the Bios to determine why/how the system was booting up.
We made some changes, but "no go", we kept getting the disk failure message.
So we by-passed the tape drive, and it boots up just fine.
It wasn't until then that I started thinking about my E mail addresses and Internet urls that we (having second thoughts on that "we" word) wiped out.
Luckily I had scribbled down my tech support number for getting my IDSL up and running again...........Oh, it was running just fine, it's just that Windows 2000 didn't know it was there!! Man, I had that techie scratching his head.....try this.....hmmmm followed by a long pause...then yelling in the background from another techie.....OK, try this.....hmmm......well I'm sorry ....the connection is working fine, this is a software issue.....I then read him something about a dsnerror message, and the light came on(in his head).
Now, as for my E mail account..............I couldn't remember my password, so I had to create a new account....so I could ask them for the password of my old account!!! Yep, that's right, I had to be "logged in" with a password in order to ask for my password........go figure.
I haven't decided if I want to go back to my original address or not, I probably will.

Well.....now you know why I woke up with a headache this morning.
I have the deepest respect for anyone who makes a living working on PC's. :thumbs:

[Death Engineer]

When in doubt, gave and yank

I got stuck on this line and couldn't read any further. I think Dark Lev told me something like this in my first week as a Merc....

DE

[JIMINATOR]

glad to see that you got things fixed.
now you have room for more porn!
win2k should also be more stable than what you came from
enjoy

[Mr Clean]

Originally posted by Death Engineer@Apr 10 2003, 12:27 PM

When in doubt, gave and yank

I got stuck on this line and couldn't read any further. I think Dark Lev told me something like this in my first week as a Merc....

DE
:lol:

That's OK, I stopped reading and instead counted the number of times he inserted extra comments with ()....10 times.....

Damn HPC....I'm sorry I asked... :P