# pc problem :(, pc experts please help...



## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Hi everyone,

I seem to have a desktop pc problem that I caused on my own...

The pc was doing a screatching noise, imagine the start up beep noise being like a long scratch or similar (well I cannot describe it better )

I thought it might be the elevated temprature of the hdd (I was playing a game), so I turned it off and opened the cap to clean any dust and residues inside the box, after unplugging it.

After cleaning was done, I unplugged the floppy disk device, since I do not need it and started the pc.

When the pc was loading to get into windows, after searching the boot devices (which were in the following order cd/dvd driver, floppy, hard disk) it was asking for inserting a disk in the flopy device.

I closed it from the button, and did so after some trials of thinking it would not show it again. But then I remembered the DOS environment where I should deactivate the booting proceedure.

However, I plugged it in and opened the pc again. At that time I accidentally hit f10 instead of delete and it took me to the recovery where I pressed the ''Y'' as suggested (don't ask me why I did it....). The hdd started making noises (perhaps indicating the proceedure) and since I could not find any way to stop it, I pressed the close button to turn it off. 

I turned on the pc and after it being open for some seconds it turned off on its own... I unplugged the hdd (2 cable types) when turned off, plugged it again and re-turned on the device. It actually did turn off on its own 2-3 times. The third I was in the DOS environment trying to change the booting devises...

Since I have done such blind steps, could you please suggest any solution?
Buying a new hdd would be my last option...

Thank you in advance!


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## Ray (Feb 3, 2013)

A screeching noise may be from the bearings in the HDD, and if they are binding and slowing it enough that the drive cannot be read properly, that may explain why the system was asking for a floppy boot disk.


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## maitaman (Feb 3, 2013)

happened to me. I write books, so have to have the PC. It´s not easy, here in Panamá.
I tried everything. What finally worked (the HD is, as are other parts, on their connectors outside of the box.)
I picked up the HD. It was not running.
I tapped it lightly, then turned it over, on the theory the weight would be on the other side of the bearing.
It worked.
I have now bought a cheap little fan that plugs into a USB port. As soon as the PC is turned on, it´s working. The HD doesn´t get hot anymore.
I don´t have the net at home, so come to a café for this. I couldn´t afford to write the books here. Even if it´s only fifty cents per hour, it would take too much and I can´t stand the distractions with the atmosphere here of people coming and going.


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Thank you for the reply Ray, but the screetching noise was evident during the gameplay. I had similar incident when the temp was getting too high during playing games.

After the recovery begun there was a repeating beeping noise, which stopped after turning off the pc manually throught the button and did not happen again.

But after the whole incident the pc turns off on it own. I checked the power plugging and everything seems ok.


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Thank you for the suggestion maitaman

I do not know if this is the exact problem....
The pc is not booting from the hdd

In fact the exact message is:

Boot failure
Insert BOOT diskette in A:
Press any key when ready

This happened only when I disconnected the floppy disk... 

Also when I hit F8 it does not lead me anywhere. It says "A: Disk error, Press F1 to continue" 
and the pc turns off after a few seconds.

Any suggestions?


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## Clark (Feb 3, 2013)

Best Buy is open till 8 pm on Sunday.
Go see the Geek Squad.


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Clark said:


> Best Buy is open till 8 pm on Sunday.
> Go see the Geek Squad.



Em, Clark I live in Greece.....


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> Thank you for the suggestion maitaman
> 
> I do not know if this is the exact problem....
> The pc is not booting from the hdd
> ...



Your boot device sequence is set to the floppy controller so that is why you get that message. You need to get into the BIOS to change it to HDD. To get into BIOS you need to press the DEL button when you turn on the computer. 

What are you specs on your computer?

Paphman910


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Hi paphman! Thanks for the info on this.

I did this but when I get to bios, to change booting devices, it only gives me the option of the CD/DVD driver. 
The other option says BBS-0 (Network): Realtek Boot Agent
I cannot find the hdd driver, which would be Western digital (caviar), serial ata, 120gb

The pc turns off on its own almost every time I turn it on now.
Did that recovery failure I caused just crached the hdd? But why should it not let the pc turned on until I turn it off?

Specs are:
Intel Pentium 4 - 3.0Ghz
Nvidia GeoForce7800GS (265MB) (AGP)
motherboard: MSI 865PE Neo 2-V
hdd: Western digital (caviar), serial ata, 120gb
RAM 1GB (2x 500mb)
OS: Windows XP professional

This is almost a 10 year old pc that has served me very well so far... Never had any problems...  The cd/dvd driver does not work properly, but everything else was just fine, till now...


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> Hi paphman! Thanks for the info on this.
> 
> I did this but when I get to bios, to change booting devices, it only gives me the option of the CD/DVD driver.
> The other option says BBS-0 (Network): Realtek Boot Agent
> ...




Sounds like a motherboard issue. Do you have a spare hard drive that you can test with it? A failing hard drive does not register in the BIOS and could be the problem.

Paphman910


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> Hi paphman! Thanks for the info on this.
> 
> I did this but when I get to bios, to change booting devices, it only gives me the option of the CD/DVD driver.
> The other option says BBS-0 (Network): Realtek Boot Agent
> ...



Your motherboard does not have a serial ATA connector .... maybe you are using some sort of ATA to SATA adaptor.

Paphman910


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

The motherboard is connected with the hdd through a flat orange cable with black heads. It is connected on the mb on a slot called SATA2 (it has 2 slots to be more precise..)


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> The motherboard is connected with the hdd through a flat orange cable with black heads. It is connected on the mb on a slot called SATA2 (it has 2 slots to be more precise..)



Check your BIOS .... Integrated Peripherals .... On-Chip IDE Configuration ... 

When you enter the On-Chip IDE Configuration you should change the S-ATA Keep Enabled to "YES"


Paphman910


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

thank you ! I will try it... I hope it does not turn off on its own again...


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> thank you ! I will try it... I hope it does not turn off on its own again...



How many beeps do you hear when you turn on the computer?

Paphman910


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

on On-Chip IDE Configuration menu it says that 
S-ATA keep enabled is ''Yes''
But in ATA configuration it says ''P-ATA''

here is a photo of what this menu says...


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> on On-Chip IDE Configuration menu it says that
> S-ATA keep enabled is ''Yes''
> But in ATA configuration it says ''P-ATA''
> 
> here is a photo of what this menu says...



Sounds like a motherboard issue.

Paphman910


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Really? Only one sound when it starts, but if I hit f8 it does it for as many times as I hit it...

Here is the bios menu for booting devices:


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> Really? Only one sound when it starts, but if I hit f8 it does it for as many times as I hit it...
> 
> Here is the bios menu for booting devices:



One sound during start up is fine

F8 is suppose to get you in safe mode.

If it doesn't show your hard drive in BIOS, maybe motherboard ICH5 controller have issues.

Paphman910


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Thank you for your suggestions and your time so far..!

Yes, I tried getting in safe mode that is why I mentioned it and also in case it would help.

So the chip has problems?
The sudden turning off on its own could be of that too?
Perhaps something is causing a breakdown...


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

I tried to boot from windows cd and it says that it did not find any hard disk drives... So perhaps the hdd has broken down?

After that and until writing this message (it is my laptop that I am using now) it did a faint whistling noise and it turned off on its own.

This is getting more mysterious than ever!!


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## mrhappyrotter (Feb 3, 2013)

Is the hard drive plugged back in now? Can you recheck the connectors and make sure they're firmly in place?

If it's the hard drive that was making the noises, then that's not a good sign at all and the HD may be dead.

Usually, though, a dying hard drive will make scratching & ticking type noises for awhile before they go dead -- outside of a server / production environment I've never seen one die so very suddenly.


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## eggshells (Feb 3, 2013)

Did you connect the power cable. Beeping noise is probably a code for "can't detect hdd. If so on the pata selection. Try both, pata and sata.


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

Thank you for your replies!!!

Does any of your suggestions might solve the turning off?

The power cable is always in position and the connections of other cables are ok.

I might try the pata sata solution...and see if problem is solved

Otherwise I think that I need a new pc...


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## eggshells (Feb 3, 2013)

Take note of all the configurations and restore defaults on the bios settings. If it can't still read your hdd. Time to replace it unfortunately.


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## biothanasis (Feb 3, 2013)

eggshells said:


> Did you connect the power cable. Beeping noise is probably a code for "can't detect hdd. If so on the pata selection. Try both, pata and sata.



I did it and all I get is this message after a bit of loading info:

Boot Failure
Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device
Press any key when ready

Perhaps I am doing something wrong?
Perhaps the hdd is indeed dead...


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## Paphman910 (Feb 3, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> I did it and all I get is this message after a bit of loading info:
> 
> Boot Failure
> Reboot and Select proper Boot device
> ...




Very likely dead hard drive!

Paphman910


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## abax (Feb 4, 2013)

My only suggestion for wonky pc activity is buy a Mac next time and avoid
all the problems.


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## biothanasis (Feb 4, 2013)

Thank you for your help everyone!!!!!


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## SlipperFan (Feb 4, 2013)

abax said:


> My only suggestion for wonky pc activity is buy a Mac next time and avoid
> all the problems.



I wanted so badly to say that! :evil:


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## Paphman910 (Feb 4, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> Thank you for your help everyone!!!!!



Did you find out the problem?

Paphman910


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## abax (Feb 5, 2013)

Dot, usually you say stuff I want to say, but you say it first. This time I
got it out first. We're definitely on the same wave length, dear Mac lady!


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## biothanasis (Feb 5, 2013)

abax said:


> Dot, usually you say stuff I want to say, but you say it first. This time I
> got it out first. We're definitely on the same wave length, dear Mac lady!



hehehehe!




Paphman910 said:


> Did you find out the problem?
> 
> Paphman910



Nope!!! I think it is time for a new one.
(And since the pc will be for gaming too, I do not think a Mac would be suitable)


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## eggshells (Feb 5, 2013)

I was going to say that hardware problems could plagued the macs too. They use the same hardware manufacturers that makes the hardware for the PC. 
It all comes down to OS preference really. 

Anyways, goodluck with your new PC biothanasis. What games do you play right now?


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## Clark (Feb 5, 2013)

I think 10 years is a good lifespan for a pc.


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## SlipperFan (Feb 5, 2013)

abax said:


> Dot, usually you say stuff I want to say, but you say it first. This time I
> got it out first. We're definitely on the same wave length, dear Mac lady!


As I said -- I think we are twins. We really should meet someday...


biothanasis said:


> ...Nope!!! I think it is time for a new one.
> (And since the pc will be for gaming too, I do not think a Mac would be suitable)


You'd have to talk to all the Mac gamers about that!

That reminds me of yesteryear, when PC people said if you needed a serious computer, you had to buy a PC -- Macs were only toys. Have we come full circle?



Clark said:


> I think 10 years is a good lifespan for a pc.


Excellent, actually.

Though I still have my first computer, a 1992 Mac Quadra 700. Of couse, it doesn't run anything anymore. I keep it in case I have to access floppy disks (either Mac or PC) and to play a couple old games...


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## abax (Feb 6, 2013)

Indeed we should Dot. We have a very nice barndominium for guests and
offer greenhouse snooping and free food and lots of very friendly dogs to
play with. Come as you are rules.

The pendulum has swung........again.


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## biothanasis (Feb 6, 2013)

I do not disrespect Mac users or davices (although they are kind of different to use, which is a matter of practice) but I know/heard that many game titles are not compatible with Mac os. (maybe I am wrong?)

Eggshells I am playing mainly Skyrim now, but I like several others like Prince of Persia (the newest ones from Warrior within and on, Tomb raider, LOTR both strategy & action...) I would like to play newer ones too, but the hardware did not agree with me... hehehehe! So I kind of recycle the ones I have...


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## eggshells (Feb 6, 2013)

biothanasis said:


> Eggshells I am playing mainly Skyrim now, but I like several others like Prince of Persia (the newest ones from Warrior within and on, Tomb raider, LOTR both strategy & action...) I would like to play newer ones too, but the hardware did not agree with me... hehehehe! So I kind of recycle the ones I have...



I am in the same boat. I can't seem to replace my 5770 because I am sinking so much money for plants. Anyways, one of these days I am going to stop buying (Yes, I said that quite a few times last year).

I haven't played Skyrim because I don't want to purchase Bethesda products right away (bug ridden issues) and then I forgotten about it. I was playing Diablo III for a while but progression is slow. I am playing on my ps3 console lately. If you like JRPG, try Ni No Kuni. Highly recommended.


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## cnycharles (Feb 6, 2013)

if you have windows emulator you can play intel games on the mac

though to be fair, if the game needs all the requirements of the computer, part of the processing is used by the mac to emulate the windows os

in general, mac parts may be built by some of the same manufacturers that build pc parts, but generally what goes into the macs is the higher end components, and the mac os gets built and tweaked for it's components; windows has to go on a variety of systems and components, not always very well-built or configured. I believe that this is the or one of the major reasons why apple doesn't want knockoff systems that use the apple os (compatibility). 

traditionally mac systems last longer than the average pc ones, and the cheaper pc units definitely don't have as much upgradeability or higher end components in them, that's why they're cheap. I read in a pc magazine many of these points, where they were conceding that when you paid more for a mac system than a pc one, it was because of the quantity or quality of the components in the mac systems; the adage that you get what you pay for was correct (though I was reading recently where apple uses various price watching schemes to make sure vendors don't lower the price too much for any of their apple products  )


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## Heather (Feb 6, 2013)

Well, we own both. However, my husband, who works for Apple, does most of his gaming on the PC. Despite the fact that one can just run windows off a partition on the Mac, he still seems to prefer the PC for that. Everything else we do on the Mac though.


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