Hi all, new here as well very new to 'learning how to be a pc do it yourselfer' although library books are being helpful, in particular ''Buiding a PC for Dummies" hah. Anyhow My question/problem is upon start up I hear a slow clicking sound, much like taking a toothpick slowly across the teeth of a comb that lasts for about 2-4 seconds, this has been going on for about two weeks. It hasnt affected the performance of My pc that Ive noticed, but it is annoying. Ive yet to take the cover off and see if I can listen/look to see where the sound is coming from. Has anyone ever experienced this. Thanks

Hi and welcome to Geeks to Go. Sounds like you need to examine any device that is spinning up during boot up. This would be the fans and the hard drive. You can open the cover and examine the fans. You can run the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostics program on the hard drive. You can find links to most hard drive manufacturer's diagnostics at http://forums.pcper.com/forumdisplay.php?f=40
See the sitcky post at the top.

Thank you I will try that and post what I find out.

Hi Austin, a lil update here. I opened the cover and restarted, listened and the 'clicking' sound isnt coming from a fan or more importantly the harddrive. Its coming from the DVD/CD player, and I know that the Tech who I had build this system has the primary boot set at DVD player, from what I saw in BIOS. So if My DVD is going bad will it prevent it from booting up or will it go to a secondary boot. Thanks in advance

metallic,

I had almost the same problem with one of my DVD drives except mine would only make that sound when I first put a CD or DVD in the drive. About a week later, the drive just stopped working completely. Clicking noises are never a good thing.

Good Luck!

This post has been edited by crouchij: Apr 22 2006, 09:30 PM

Thanks crouchij , I suppose if I have to replace the DVD/CD I will. It will be a first as all Ive done so far is basic maintenence, keeping files cleaned out, msconfig, defragging and such. But last few months Ive had My head in numerous PC Repair/Build books so while Im a bit reluctant Im also looking forward to doing it Myself. I just hope that if the DVD/CD does go out it will still boot up.

This post has been edited by metallic: Apr 23 2006, 08:56 AM

I'm assuming that your puter is a desktop and not a laptop. Prices for optical drives have come down so much in the last year that its frightening ! Replacing an optical drive is pretty easy and would make a great first project.

Black

Beige

Can't beat the price and it's delivered to your door.

I agree, and thanks!

I just had a similar problem. It started last night while the pc was running then this morning I couldn't boot the pc. It wouldn't detect my SATA Hard drives.

Turned out to be the slave hard drive. as soon as i disconnected it it was fine.

I thought SATA drives don't use master/slave configurations.

That is odd, in fact it was the hard drive I suspected first prior to actually taking the cover off and listening to where the clicking sound was coming from. But My problem is definetly coming from the optical drive upon startup, Im just curious as to will it switch over to a secondary boot if/when it goes out or will it simply not boot up at all.

Mine was configured only to Master from what Im seeing in BIOS (and on boot up) and slave is disabled.