I think my hard drive is dead...

daithi1970

Hi folks I have a Dell 5100 desktop which has recently stopped working-when I switch it on the fan comes on and i.m getting a high metallic whine from the hdd. Numbers 3 and 4 and the drive icon light up on the console at the front of the desktop also. There is no response from the cpu other than the fan, and nothing appears on the monitor. Any tips on how to revive my pc?

cheers,

daithi.

CreepingDeath

If your hard drive was dead, the BIOS chip would still work and show some output on the monitor. Maybe even produce some bios "beep" codes.

So it sounds like something else...
Have you opened up your PC in a while, or dislodged a cable or two in it?

Have you made any changes to it recently?
Added new graphics cards, hard disk etc ?

Might be the power supply...

Even with a dead HDD you will usually see something on your screen.

Open the desktop and unplug your HDD (just disconnect the cables connecting to it) and then turn your system on.

You should see the normal pre-boot messages on the screen and you should be able to get into the BIOS screen (it will usually tell you what key to press).

If you're seeing nothing at all then the problem is something other than the HDD.

daithi1970

Hi I'm seeing nothing at all on the monitor-the fact that the hard drive icon is lit when the metallic whine is heard leads me to think ths
at the hdd is not "catching" or booting (sorry i'm a technophobe) the whine seems to be comng from the main circuit board in the pc when I open it up..all the connections are secure within the tower, so its not a loose connection-I have made no alterations to the pc since I got it hardware wise, and no major installations software wise.
thanks,
daithi

CreepingDeath

Might be the CPU fan is gone, and that's the noise you're hearing from it.

200motels

daithi1970 wrote: »

Hi I'm seeing nothing at all on the monitor-the fact that the hard drive icon is lit when the metallic whine is heard leads me to think ths
at the hdd is not "catching" or booting (sorry i'm a technophobe) the whine seems to be comng from the main circuit board in the pc when I open it up..all the connections are secure within the tower, so its not a loose connection-I have made no alterations to the pc since I got it hardware wise, and no major installations software wise.
thanks,
daithi

If you can't see the BIOS it sounds like the motherboard is gone, but I wouldn't be a 100 percent sure until I heard that sound it's making.

riclad

Open the case ,make sure theres no cable,s falling across the cpu fans, or the graphics card fan,
this can cause grinding, whining noise.IF fan is blocked, some cpu,s won,t come on, eg pc will not boot up.
You just open 4 screws to open the case.Maybe power cable from fan or cpu,is disconnected from the motherboard socket, or from the psu power supply.

Lights 3 and 4 on a Dell 5100 indicate a RAM issue. Removing and reseating the RAM modules usually corrects it.