*Please help, computer not booting correctly.*

[Silversierra]

Today I turned on my computer and everthing seemed normal. It boots, windows starts loading and just as it's going to the user selection screen(xp), it makes a loud clicking noise, and loses power(turns off). I heard the hard drive whine(free spinning I guess) when it turned off, both my optical drives lights lit up when the computer turned off. The ac power to my house did not turn off.

Next, I figure, ok, I'll restart it. So I press the power button, it boots, but displays a message. "We apologize for the inconvenience. Windows did not load successfully. This could be caused by a recent hardware or software change, or a power failure. Please choose from the following options, safe mode, safe mode with networking, Last known good configuration, start windows normally." I chose start windows normally. It loads windows, but turns off right when the user selection screen shows up and then shuts off(and reboots) as before. So it reboots automatically after it powers down and displays the message again. I choose safe mode. Some kind of message shows up but then it turns off again and reboots. I then chose last known good config. and reboot, still turns off and reboots. It is a continuous cycle of start, reboot, start, reboot. You have to hold the power button to get it to shut off.

I had recently had a problem with windows not recognizing my cd burner(which was working properly), so I took both opticals out switched their position(top to bottom, bottom to top) and their jumpers, reattached the cables. After this, windows recognized both drives and worked normally for a day or two. I doubt this is related to my problem, but it could be.

One other detail that I think is related. It has been doing the clicking sound that I hear when it reboots for about 2-3 months, but since the click didn't cause any problems, I ignored it. Now when it clicks it turns off. It sounds like a switch, like "tick, tuck" and is fairly loud. It almost sounds like when you hold the power button in to turn it off if it locks up or something.

I also have replaced the psu with and antec psu(a few weeks ago) and it's been doing fine. The clicking noise existed before the psu change(it's one reason I changed the psu, I though the old one was dying, but apparantly the psu wasn't the problem.)

So what could be the problem? Could my mobo be fried? Could some power switch wire be shorting? So please, any ideas are appreciated.

I can get to the bios and let it sit there and it won't reboot, does that mean my hd died? But if so, why does it reboot, it wouldn't reboot if the hd died would it? It should just have some kind of error. Maybe it's a windows problem.

 

[Chosonman]

Whenever you hear noises comming from the case that's not a good sign. In a case like this something may be FUBAR. Noises typically don't come from the MOBO they come from moving parts like your HD. So it may be something wrong with you HD or DVD Drive.

 

[Silversierra]

Do you think I should take out my hd and put it in my other computer to see if it works? The computer with the problem isn't the one in my sig, it's a dell.

 

[Silversierra]

Update: I put the hd in my new computer and it worked fine. So maybe my problem is a windows problem? Any help?

 

[ghidu]

Run chkdsk on your HD. I'm guessing that some windows file/s are corrupted or you have an error on the HD, possibly a bad sector.

 

[Silversierra]

I just reformatted. I did a full reformat so it should have found any bad sectors on the drive when formatting. I guess this shouldn't be in general hardware, but I thought my problem was hardware when I posted. I thought my hd was fried.

Edit: reinstall complete, now the problem is gone, must have been a windows problem.