My computer suddenly freezes, and I hear clicking noises...

[PetunZ]

Here's the scenario:

I recently bought a used 6800GT (agp) off a user here, and it worked fine for a week at overclocked speeds (he advertised 400/1100, and so I set it there, and it worked fine for this past week).

Yesterday and today, I've been downloading a torrent so my comp has been on for about 14 hours straight. Something started clicking, and I hear some clicking noises coming from a fan inside the computer. I'm 90% sure it's the fan on the video card. While this was happening (the first time), I checked the temperature of the GPU by going into the properties/advanced/nvidia 6800gt tab, etc -- and it stated a temperature of 53 degrees. I'm assuming that the temp is well below the max temp. There were also errors that popped up... some sort of "run#####.dll" where ##### is the part that I forgot.

oh shoot, as i'm typign this, it happened again (I changed out the 6800gt and put in a 6600gt)....

AGHHHH!!! HELP PLEASE!

edit -- I also just bought a new motherboard and cpu on this forum, and I installed it the day before yesterday... could it be something with that? I put on a new CPU heatsink with thermal paste... how do i check the cpu temp?

ahhh click click click click click

 

[PetunZ]

ok, I'm on my laptop typing this, so I'll be able to view replies if anyone has any suggestions.

I guess it's not my video card since it just happened with a brand new one... argh

Edit -- Ok, here are my computer hardware parts if it helps:

Antec 430W PSU (TruePower or whatever the specific name is)
P4 3.0GHz s478 (just received on Thurs)
Intel D865PERL mobo (just received on Thurs)
eVGA 6800GT agp video card (swapped with 6600gt after a few reboots from the clicks)
1GB (2x512 sticks of generic PC2100 Ram)
Winfast PVR TV Tuner (deluxe)
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card
52x CD-RW drive
DVD Drive
160GB Harddrive (master)
60 GB Harddrive (slave)

When I received the mobo/cpu, there was no padding whatsoever over the mobo. It was simply wrapped in an anti-static bag and shipped with the cables in the box. I assumed everything was still okay since I was able to fully install a new winXP after a format of my HD. Could it be the mobo/cpu?

 

[Fardringle]

Clicking when the system freezes is a very strong sign of a failing hard drive. Usually the hard drive that Windows is installed on. I would highly recommend backing up everything you need as soon as possible since it is likely to fail completely (completely unrecoverable) pretty quickly after that starts happening.


If you want to confirm whether or not a fan is causing the problem, you'll need to check each individual fan in the system to make sure it is still spinning normally when the clicking happens. If your GPU temperature is only 53 degrees, I really doubt that the fan on the video card is the failure point. You would be getting much higher temperature readings if that was the case.

 

[PetunZ]

Hard drive issue? Dang, I juuuust reformatted and reinstalled windows. Should I start with a clean install using the other hard drive?

 

[Powermoloch]

Sounds like the hard drive is poopin' out, time for back up man :/

 

[Aarondeep]

Yeah the infamous click click is usually the HD

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: Fardringle
Clicking when the system freezes is a very strong sign of a failing hard drive. Usually the hard drive that Windows is installed on. I would highly recommend backing up everything you need as soon as possible since it is likely to fail completely (completely unrecoverable) pretty quickly after that starts happening.


If you want to confirm whether or not a fan is causing the problem, you'll need to check each individual fan in the system to make sure it is still spinning normally when the clicking happens. If your GPU temperature is only 53 degrees, I really doubt that the fan on the video card is the failure point. You would be getting much higher temperature readings if that was the case.

Yes, it's a hard drive. Download and run the manfacturer diagnostic programs on the drives and backup your data ASAP!

 

[PetunZ]

Apparently, it only happens when I'm downloading using bit torrent. I guess I'll stop doing that now...

 

[Fardringle]

That may be a temporary fix that will give you time to back up your data, but once a drive starts clicking like that, it WILL fail eventually so make sure you get your important files saved as soon as possible. If the drive is still in warranty, you will also want to get it replaced before the warranty expires.