computer lock up problem-dead HD?

[SOONER]

Last night before I went to bed the computer was working fine. This morning I go to use it and its locked up. I tried to reboot and it I hear the hard drive's normal clicking then it gets to the blue loading win 98 screen and then locks. Tried several times and its always the same. Its an Andara bare bone system with a Tbird 600 processor no overclock, 15 gig 7200 rpm hard drive, 512 MB Ram. Radeon video card. Nothing too exotic. So, what is likely the problem? Do you think the HD has died on me? How should I try to troubleshoot this? Thanks.

 

[Paulson]

What brand and model hard drive is it?

I had a western digital die on me like that. It was going really slow, my dad restarted it, and then it didn't work, so he shut it off. I started it up the next day and it took forever to even boot up, so I ran the western digital drive diagnostics and sure enough it was bad...

So they can go out like that...

 

[SOONER]

Its a Maxtor HD. Would this be the way it would act if it were the HD?

 

[earthman]

Could also be a power supply problem. Mine was acting similarly a while ago and it was a bad PS.

 

[SOONER]

what would it be doing if it were the power supply? The fan is running and the lights come on.

 

[SOONER]

Just checked it again and it booted up without any problem and I am posting this on it now. What the hecks causing this?

 

[SOONER]

down again, locks ups within 10 seconds of turning it on. does this sound like a power supply problem? Anybody?

 

[SOONER]

also the reset button won't work when its locked up. Any clues?

 

[sandorski]

Go to Maxtor's website and download their Hard Drive diagnostic software. Then boot your system using a bootable floppy disk(go into BIOS to set Boot From Floppy to first) and at the DOS prompt run the diagnostic software. If your system locks during floppy boot then your hard drive is likely not the culprit.

 

[ku]

also could be the CPU overheating... although i doubt it if it freezes that quickly. Just leaving another option open.

Run some HD diagnostics on that baby.

 

[SOONER]

I physically unplugged the HD last night and it still froze up within seconds. Shouldnt this eliminate the question of if its the HD?

 

[DouglasW]

I had a similar problem recently with a Comaq (with Duron). I sent it back and they returned it with new motherboard and CPU. It ahs been fine since then.

P.S. to reset, try holding the on/off button down for several seconds

 

[Thor86]

Hold down your F8 key while booting up and select safe-mode if you can. If it boots up, then it could be a software issue, if it still locks, then definately a hardware issue. Try running a scandisk of your drive if you can boot up at all. Might be a cpu fan/heatsink that isn't working properly.