My computer keeps making a ticking noise and does not boot up

I was playing a computer game, and then my game froze, and my computer started making a tick tick tick tick tick tick tick, noise. I was confrused and was forced to manually shut it down. Now whenever i try to start up that computer, it refuses to start up. It goes to the opening hp screen, which has the setup option, and then when i exit, and let it hang at the hp dscreen some more. It finally goes to a black screen, and comes up with the msg saying, please select your boot device, or restart your computer. Everything is correct in the setup menu, and the tick noise constantly going.

My theory is its the hard drive gone bad or something. But im not sure. Do you know what the problem is, and if so, how do i fix it? because i don't want to have to buy a new hard drive... or worse yet, a new computer.

This question was answered on July 27, 2004. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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As for your theory that the hard drive has gone bad sounds about right, usually those noises are hard drive related.

However, before you called it dead you should try to run check disk in cmd line or dos mode

However, since your computer is not working try downloading or try getting a boot disk from a friend Do not forget run chdsk.exe

In addition, try booting up from the floppy disk and running chdsk /f to scan the sector/tracks on your hard drive If chdsk cannot scan your drive then it is a goner You will need a new drive and new Operating system.

Also try calling HP to see if your system is still under parts warranty or support they maybe above to change the bad drive if is gone.

Here is a link were you can get a boot disk http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm

Hope this helps

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Posted by robert of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on July 27, 2004

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