Wierd clicking noise....

[mrwxyz]

My friend has a dell that wont post. when you turn the computer on, the fans spin and there is a clicking noise, but nothing else happens. I first figured it was the hard drive, so we disconected that to make sure it was the source of the noise, but the clicking was still there. We unplugged the dvd and floppy as well, still clicking. When we tried this again, it did post and then said there were no drives installed. Then we put only the hdd back in and it worked! It loaded windows, then completly froze (no bsd). Back to same problem, only clicking and no post.

So, since it did make it into windows, im guessing its not the hard drive. the dvd or floppy wouldnt cause the computer to not post. Although it did post without the hdd, it didnt do it consistantly, so could it be the mobo? If that is the case, where is the clicking noise comming from? The fans aren't clicking, checked that. Maybe the psu is dying? The clicking could have come from there....not exactly sure.

I am pretty lost on this one, but im thinking its the psu. I'm going to try the hdd on my computer when i go visit next time, but any thoughts?

edit: its a dell, no clue which one....but if it matters i can ask

 

[ivwshane]

Did you check the fans? I've had really cheap fans that made that clicking noise. If the fan is on a critical piece of hardware and is not spinning normally it could be cause the device to overheat.

Don't forget to check the videocard fan if you have one as well as the power supply fan.


Also when you said you unplugged the hard drive did you remove the power connector from it?

 

[mrwxyz]

The dell only has one fan thats a rear exhaust, so it couldnt cause any over heating (not immeditaly atleast). The video card doesnt have a fan. The power supply fun was running (could feel the air), but im not sure if it was doing the clicking. Thats why im thinking it could be the power supply. The power supply fan and the rear fan are so close that I cant tell if one of them are clicking. Any taking out the rear fan connected wouldnt allow the computer to boot...is there anyway to verify a dying psu thats messing around with the rest of the computer?

When i say i unpluged, i removed the power connecter.

 

[ivwshane]

Doesn't the cpu have a fan?

Last time I checked dell uses proprietary power supply connectors so there is no way to get another power supply to test with the system (unless yo have a spare dell system laying around that uses the same connector).

 

[mrwxyz]

the cpu only has a huge heatsink, no fan. there is a duct unit that covers the heatsink and goes to the rear exhaust.

The power supply has a 20 pin connector to the motherboard, seems standard....unless the pinout is different. I dont think i'd try unless i knew for sure it would work though.

so does it look like a bad psu?

 

[ivwshane]

Stick a pencil or pen in the power supply fans fins, to keep the fan from spinning, before you turn on the system and see if it still makes noise.

 

[mrwxyz]

The computer starts now, but it freezes randomly....sometimes while loading windows and sometimes after windows is loaded. Its running very slow. That seems like a software problem...would a psu not supplying enough voltage slow down a computer? I could see it happening if the multiplyer or something was automatically lowered in such situations...

I'll try sticking a pencil in the psu fan tonight, he wont try it unless i'm there...as if i could stop it from exploding or something