PC won't boot, making a clicking noise

[missionman]

Hey guys,

Recently came home from work and found my computer turned off (it was on when I left) I figured a simple Windows update...but to my dismay when I came to turn on my computer I heard this weird clicking noise (see video) I need to specify that the sound IS NOT emanating from the hard drives. In the video I disconnected the power source to all peripheral devices (Bluray drive, graphics card, hard drives) and the sound remains. The computer will not boot. I've also read in some other forums that this type of clicking noise (with about a 3 second gap) would indicate a RAM issue. I've removed all my RAM sticks but one, and then tried again...the sound remains (I tried this using another stick to avoid the chance that the stick I left in there was the defective one). I should also note that in this video I have not pressed the power button located at the front of the computer, I have tried this, and nothing happens (clicking sound ensues) the blue light for power goes on and off at the same frequency as the power on the motherboard.

I'm a little dumbfounded at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas?

Here's the youtube link, it may offer more information
YouTube - Computer won't boot, making a clicking sound.AVI

Here are my computer's specs (copy pasted from this site)
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
CPU: i7 960
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD7 LGA 1366
Memory: 12GB DDR3 Crucial
Graphics Card(s): XFX Radeon HD 5850 Black Edition 765 MHz 1GB DDR5

Hard Drives
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB
Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1TB
Western Digital My Book 1TB

Case: Antec p193
Cooling: Nexus FLC-3000 92MM CPU Heatsink
Power Supply: Antec CP-850

 

[severedsolo]

You have what is known as the click of death.

Basically, your hard drive is dying.... If there is anything on there you want, get it into another computer QUICKLY and make backups. and then replace it.... obviously

Click of death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[missionman]

You have what is known as the click of death.

Basically, your hard drive is dying.... If there is anything on there you want, get it into another computer QUICKLY and make backups. and then replace it.... obviously

Click of death - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But wouldn't it stop clicking once the hard drives were disconnected?

 

[kodi]

Could be Power supply tripping on and off

 

[Phone Man]

My first guess would be Power Supply. Here is a link for a testing method. The trick is to short pin 15 (Black - Ground) & 16 (Green - Power On) on the 24pin power connector and this should allow the power supply to come on. You can check the voltages with a meter or a quick test would be to plug in a fan to the power supply. Read the instruction and if you have any questions, please post back before testing.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/power-supply-test-multimeter.htm

Here is a quick Tutorial on this site. Check it out first.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/86648-psu-jump-start.html?ltr=P

Jim

 

[missionman]

My first guess would be Power Supply. Here is a link for a testing method. The trick is to short pin 15 (Black - Ground) & 16 (Green - Power On) on the 24pin power connector and this should allow the power supply to come on. You can check the voltages with a meter or a quick test would be to plug in a fan to the power supply. Read the instruction and if you have any questions, please post back before testing.

PSU Test - How to Manually Test a Power Supply With a Multimeter - Test PSU

Here is a quick Tutorial on this site. Check it out first.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/86648-psu-jump-start.html?ltr=P

Jim

Thanks alot for the response Jim,

I will be doing the test later on it the day. But just to clarify, would the "Click Of Death" still occur even if power as been cut-off from the drives? It seems logical that it wouldn't but I've been surprised by weirder things when it comes to the internal workings of this fascinating machine we call our computer.

 

[severedsolo]

No it wouldn't sorry missionman... that was me not reading the thread properly. I saw "the computers clicking" and assumed "Click of Death"

 

[fishnbanjo]

It could be the power supply fan if it has ball bearing or a component is failing in the PSU. Did you find out why it was off, i.e. family member, power failure, lightning storm etc?

 

[chev65]

Does it sound anything like this one?
YouTube - Computer won't boot, making a clicking sound.AVI

 

[missionman]

Does it sound anything like this one?
YouTube - Computer won't boot, making a clicking sound.AVI

thats the video I posted....

After doing the testing as Jim so elegantly explained the problem seems to be surprisingly, and sadly isolated to my motherboard.

I first used the multimeter to get power read-outs for the power supply and everythying checked out fine.

1. I took my cp-850 and put it in another computer and it booted up fine.

2. Took another power supply and put it in my desktop that is the source of the problem and the same "click on/off" problem continued to occur.

At this point since nothing else was connected to my computer other than the PSU and the motherboard. I find it hard not to say that the motherboard is not the source of the problem. I'll be contacting Gigabyte shortly to get a replacement.

OHH FUN!

THanks to everyone for their help

 

[Naples Video]

clicking optical drive at start up no monitor activity

Clicking optical drive along with flashing orange processor light blinking simultaneously with blue light on Blu-ray drive. About 2 clicks a second. No monitor activity just clicking and blinking.

This is an 8-9 year old ADK (love their products btw) video editing bay with Windows 7 / dual processor 24gb ram. All original components except for video card and optical drive.

Turned on one day and heard clicking sound (2 clicks a second) from Blu-ray drive. Positively the optical drive clicking and not the OS drive. The orange processor light on case and blue light on Blu-ray burner would flash simultaneously with click. No monitor activity.

What I did:

After Googling issue I proceeded to:
Removed all ram and compressed air canned all slots
Compressed air canned entire case
Replaced motherboard battery
Disconnected optical drive before a test start up
Tried 2 different keyboards in case of a stuck key

No luck...

What I contemplated next was resetting BIOS by removing motherboard battery for 5 minutes.

But, before I did I:

turned off PC by pressing start button for 5 seconds
pulled a/c plug from wall and had the PC sit an hour
Pressed start button while unplugged for 5 seconds.
Plugged in and pressed start button. It click click clicked for 3 seconds then started up. Couldn't get F1 or F2 to access BIOS unless I wasn't fast enough with the key tapping. After booting the PC works normal.

Unplugging for an hour then it miraculously starting prompted me to narrow it down to a power supply problem. I've read they can weaken as they age. I had nothing to lose so replaced with an EVGA Supernova 1000 G2 80plus gold and like butter it started with no clicks or blinks.

A few months Before the clicking and flashing started I had an incident while in Premiere editing HD 60p. The NVIDIA prompt window popped up and told me the card stopped working.... Really dont remember exactly what it said but after that incident I could not edit 60p without the timeline stuttering forward and backward. That was when the power supply lost a rail or something sinister. I hope this helps out anyone experiencing the same problem I was having. Good luck and stay calm when troubleshooting. There's always a solution out there.

 

[Megahertz07]

This is what I would do: (I'm considering that you have a small beep speaker on the MB)
- Remove the power cord from the PS and wait 1 min to capacitors discharge
- Disconnect from the MB: Drives (HDD and ODD), all memory, Graphics card, keyboard and mouse.
- Connect the power cord to the PS and press start.
- You should hear 3 beeps (no memory). If you don't, you probably have a problem on the PS, MB or CPU's. Measure the PS voltages. Replace the PS if you don't have a voltmeter.
- If you hear the 3 beeps (no memory), Remove the power cord from the PS and wait 1 min to capacitors discharge, and insert one memory stick. Try to boot.
Report

Computer POST and beep codes

 

[Naples Video]

If you closely read my entire post you'll see that my problem was resolved by replacing the PSU. It was a shot in the dark. This post was drafted for future PC users (especially 60P 1080 + 4K editors using CC Adobe Premiere) having issues similar to mine. Thank you for your time in advance.

 

[Megahertz07]

YES, I did a closely read on your post.
You took a whole page to describe a problem, that for me wasn't solved. It isn't clear.

As you post it to help other people, can you please explain how a PSU failure is specifically connected to software (especially 60P 1080 + 4K editors using CC Adobe Premiere) ?

 

[Naples Video]

Sorry for taking up a whole webpage Megahertz. It's not like I'm using up any ink. This was an ongoing 4 month troubleshoot. I Googled and thoroughly read all posts having the issues I was having but no one really had the answer or solved the problem. In this case it could have been any of the usual suspects. I replaced PSU as a last resort hoping and praying it wasnt the motherboard. My prayers were answered. Come to find out a weak power supply will cause 4K and 1080 60P 4:2:2 10bit at 100mbps video to lag or stutter on your timeline or source window. The higher end video cards need that extra power to handle this task. A weak PSU cannot deliver the juice so my intention as a digital video editor was to hip others to look for these signs. True professional Editing bays are really expensive and we don't like to replace them or have them disabled when deadlines are looming. This post was to help an editor like me to quickly troubleshoot and resolve. Your original reply post to my first post will help other editors as well. We thank you for taking the time to reply.

 

[Megahertz07]

Despite of your best intentions, your text wasn't clear.
The issue with the weak power source isn't related to the software but to the graphics card.
All powerful Graphics card has a minimum PS requirement.
What I'm saying is that the problem you faced would have happen with any demanding software like games, Photoshop, Autocad rendering etc on a computer with powerful Graphics card with a weak PS.

 

[Naples Video]

Are you happy you got the last word in hertz? Editors rely on their editing bays working at 100%. Most of us aren't gamers and our editing bays are our main tool. If I can help one fellow editor out there which was my intention and not to irritate you then this was worth my time posting. When your editing bay is down panic sets in. Hoping this will help another editor cut through the weeds and get back up and running again. Gimme a break bro.