Is it the video card??

A

Alx717

New Member
My new computer is a pentium D 930, 200gig. western digital caviar se SATA 2, xfx geforce 6800xt 256bit video card, ecs pa1mvp 2.0 motherboard, 1 gig ddr2 ram, all with a 620 watt aero cool zerodba power supply.
at first, the whole computer worked and i was in the process of formatting the hard drive but then the hard drive would start making this weird noise where it would speed up make a clicking sound then turn off, then it would repeat this a few times and stop working. with this set up we had a 480 watt power supply that came with the case, we decided to upgrade to one that was 450 watt but had dual +12v. i bought this because the video card and hard drive were no longer working and it seemed like a power problem. with the new powersupply, it still didn't work so i decided to put a jumper on the hard drive for power management, this fixed the problem with the hard drive but the video card still didn't work. i then upgraded to the current power supply (the 620 watt dual +12 v. aero cool) this still didn't work so now i'm convinced that it's not a power problem. does it sound to you guys like a problem witht the video card, or maybe the hard drive too? i think it is most likely that there's a problem with the motherboard and something caused it to stop functioning properly. any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
 
Im not totally sure but I think that your hard drive is borked if it did what you said it has done, and the reason your video card doesnt work is probably because you switched power supply, try a better psu and hopefully your graphics card shoudl start working again, then I would suggest replacing the har drive:)

Hope that helps!
 
With both hard drive and video card out of commission at the same time it would more likely seem a board related problem. When the board was bypassed the hard drive started running normally. You probably have a board with a bad chipset. If it was ordered separately send it back for either a replacement or select a different model or make and model. If it was bought as a complete system return it for service.
 
Any time a hard drive starts making strange noises, the chances are high that it is dead. But for both to fail at the same time is awfully coincidental.

I would try the hdd/gfx card in another system, see if it is the motherboard, or if the individual components that are broken.
 
In some cases where a drive makes noises is usually seen with the lack of voltage control on a board. The unregulated voltage will climb above what the drive needs to run on. With the drive running normal and quiet with the bypass of the board the focus should be on the board itself. Remember a drive is a magnetic storage device. Once you overpower it it's like putting the pedal to the metal with a brick wall right there. If it persisted when tried on another board then you would know it was time for the recycle bin.
 
Western Digital HDD's do have a feature that prevents wearingm by moving the "head" if it's inactive for 15 seconds which causes a bit of sound. And Maxtor's are "supposed" to make some clicking but not grinding or really heavy "clicking", if you can all it that anymore.
 
Air conditioners on the same electrical circuit can cause surges at times as well having effects on systems. Generally the only time any sound comes from the WD 250gb drive here is when either a large file is being loaded or a search for specific type of file is performed. When processing a large file or similar you will only slightly hear any type of clicking sounds.

The only thing that is seen after a few seconds is the quick flash of the drive light on the front of the case. Other then that you wouldn't even know there's a drive in the case. Any steady noises like clicking or grinding are usually an indicator of the drive heads on the way out. But the swap of the power feed seeing a normal drive suggests something else like the board itself.
 
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