bingo_mcdingo: Good People Of The Internet, Advise Me....

Bingo McDingo (

bingo_mcdingo) wrote,
@ 2008-02-17 18:30:00

Good People Of The Internet, Advise Me....
So...

My computer has in the last couple of days started making 'thunk' noises, very mechanical sounding. It's also been BSODing, and the occasional self restart.

Please tell me it's just the hard drive, and that I don't have to spend £s on a whole new machine.

Please...

(Post a new comment)

	new_brunette 2008-02-17 06:41 pm UTC (link)
	Difficult to be sure without seeing it in the flesh but as a first estimate: yep, hdd (or could be hdd controller, in which case you're a bit more fcked). Make backups. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	bingo_mcdingo 2008-02-20 09:44 pm UTC (link)
	Backups made. Multiple ones in fact. I'm paranoid enough to make backups of my backups. Thing is, it's now behaving itself beautifully. But I shan't be fooled. I'm prepared now. (Reply to this)(Parent)

jerusalem66
2008-02-17 07:40 pm UTC (link)

And I thought it was just me who was regularly betrayed by silicone-based life...

Does sound like the death-rattle of a HD from your description... I had an IBM drive that did a good impression of a traction engine when it was on its last legs - scarily noisy, to the point where I expected springs to fly out of the case. I ended up dousing it with lighter fluid and smashing it with a shovel to get my own back on it. IBM drives have a well-earned rep for being faulty and crap, so if it's an IBM drive I'd start looking for a replacement.

I'd backup everything that you want to keep to an external HD (cheap these days and handy to use) or a few DVDRs or CDRs, and I'd back it up sooner rather than later... you can never tell when it'll finally go belly-up.

Good luck, matey :)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	bingo_mcdingo 2008-02-20 09:45 pm UTC (link)
	Cheers - I've been backing up like mad between bouts of decorating - I bought a 500 Gb External drive at the tail end of last year, which I proving itself very useful. I've never lost a hard-drive before now, so I'm not too keen on losing one now! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jerusalem66 2008-02-21 12:08 am UTC (link)
	It must be contagious - it's either my HD or my Mobo that's buggered in my machine... time to get RMA numbers and get these sods in the post... Did I mention I hate computers? (Reply to this)(Parent)

'thunk'

eppylover
2008-02-17 09:01 pm UTC (link)

Oh my, dear Mr McDingo. We both seem to be having mechanical problems.

Upon my departure from the party last night, and upon turning the key in the ignition, my 1994 Saturn made complainy noises ~ like it was trying its best, mama, but just couldn't get it up ~ (why does this dilemma sound so familiar...?) ~ so I went wailing back into the house. The young, bright upstart in the family came out, and deduced from the sound that it was not a failing battery, but a fuel injector problem.

When the Og comes back from his infamous hunting trip tomorrow night (and he WILL return, since Dick Cheney was not his companion), my problem will become HIS problem. I don't do vehicles.

So...I am housebound and not really complaining, except that I had planned on purchasing a few additional necessary groceries today or tomorrow. Ah well. I have my online life, which is much more satisfactory than the brick&mortar hell out there, thank you.

Which begs a ponder: If you had your choice of which machine to go belly-up, would you choose your car or your computer?

Good luck.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

Re: 'thunk'

bingo_mcdingo
2008-02-20 09:50 pm UTC (link)

The mechanical problems continue - just after reading this, I spent a useful morning trying to work out what the error code on my washing machine meant, and why the damned thing wouldn't work.

It took me slightly under two hours to figure out that the waste water pipe had frozen, so the machine couldn't empty itself. One kettle of boiling water later, and the world seemed a much shinier place!

Hmmmm... which would I prefer to go belly up? Difficult one - cars seem to cost more to repair - with computers I pretty much know how to put them together, change the round, get them going. With cars I can do moderate maintenance, but I don't have the skills or facilities to do much more.

The battery went on our main car a couple of weeks back, and my attempts to change it over for a new one verged on the ridiculous, but I did it, and all is now well.

But to answer your question - in my guts I feel worse if there's a problem with the computer. I don't like it at all when the computer is ill, and that takes priority. I'm less fussed about the car going wrong. If I had to choose, it would be 'let the car have the grief'.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: 'thunk' eppylover 2008-02-22 08:26 pm UTC (link)
	Exactly. :) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	talonfire 2008-02-18 09:17 am UTC (link)
	a "thunk" noise definently sounds like a hard drive to me. Fans don't usually go "thunk" and thats the only other candidate for a noise generally. So yeah, it's most likely the HDD :) You don't need a new computer. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	bingo_mcdingo 2008-02-20 09:50 pm UTC (link)
	Hurrah! And thanks. Nice to have those kind of suspicions confirmed. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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