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Clicking noise then PC freezes
I have a Dimension 4700 bought in 2004 (from UK website). it is no longer in warranty.
Recently, I have experienced some odd clicking noises on the PC, which is usually followed by it crashing.
I added some extra RAM a few weeks ago which reduced the frequeency of this event. Previously, the clicking is like a squeaking & sounds like a pendulum clock ticking.
It happened again tonight, but the clicking noise was different & was quieter. This time, it sounnded like the noise you get when you first switch the PC on.
a windows system error "unkonwn hard" then came up.
I then got a blue screen saying KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
win32k.sysaddress BF91ACBA base at RF800000
It basically said to restart the computer.
Any ideas what is causing this?
many thanks,
Jeremy
kendallbennett
20 Posts
0
July 30th, 2009 14:00
Clicking ticking noises are generally from the hard drive being bad.
My suggestion to you is backup what you can (pictures documents ect) and dont use it unless you have to.
Best way to find out what is ticking is by taking the case off and listening to where it comes from. If the ticking happens then you get a bluescreen everytime its most likely the hard drive but ticking can come from fans as well.
If you find it is the hard drive ticking back it up imediatly if you dont want to lose data,
You should be able to buy a new hard drive pretty sheap out there. then reinstall the OS.
If you dont have the CD's for it you can try asking DELL support to see if they will send you a copy.
Good luck!
jevans1
3 Posts
0
July 31st, 2009 02:00
Kendall,
thanks for your reply.
Does it matter what type of HD I get?
I think the current one I have is IDE (160GB), but most of ones I can see now are SATA. Can this connect to my system as it is, or would I need to get any other cables etc?
How do I transfer the contents to the new drive?
Many thanks,
Jeremy
kendallbennett
20 Posts
0
July 31st, 2009 11:00
yes it does,
If you have a ide the best thing to do is get another IDE Hard drive,
As far as data backup there is allot of liabilty in doing it. I would suggest taking it somewhere or if you dont have a whole lot to backup email it to yourself through gmail or other email sites out there, Dell also has whats called. DELL Data Safe, you can get 2GB for free for a year that will give you some space to upload some stuff or you can get more space.
Take a look.
Http://www.delldatasafe.com
jevans1
3 Posts
0
August 3rd, 2009 07:00
Kendall,
Thanks for your reply.
I have ordered a new IDE drive (WD 500GB) - should arrive in 2-3 days.
I have Acronis disk image software installed on my Pc - is it best to completely copy the existing drive over , or is is better to reinstall XP on the new PC then the application etc.?
I have seen conflicting adivce on this (& other ) forums as to which is best to do.
Jeremy
kendallbennett
20 Posts
0
August 3rd, 2009 11:00
Jeremy,
the best thing to do is a freesh installation, There are many reasons for this.
1. fresh installations have less bugs and you can get all your updates before installing new software like applications you use. thet will elimanate issue tha could come up.
2. When you copy a image over depending on the software like acronis or norton ghost it will bring over the issues that you had before with the software portion.
Image software is generally used if there is a dire need to copy it specifically, most cases are servers or images setup for large scale bussiness or even in some cases software for doctors offices and dental that cost a fourtune to set back up, Dell Uses Norton for the System restore on older Windows XP machines. Along with PC restore for VIsta machines, This makes it so they can put a image on a seperate partition on the same hard drive so that if there is a issue with the OS the end user can bring it back to the way it was when it left the dell factory floor.
there are the up sides to it as well.
Everyday users usually have all the software so they can reinstall it and can get the data off the other hard drive if its not to damaged.
personally i would do a fresh install and install everything fresh, computer will run better as well.
If you have any other questions feel free to ask and ill answer them for ya.
:emotion-5: