Vista - Hardware failing-one or more devices???

My rig has become very unstable over the past few weeks and I'm starting to wonder if it's not just one thing but several.

Problem 1) one of my HDD's are failing. The noise it's been making ie clicking, whirring has been steadily getting worse. The problem here is that I can't tell which one of my three drives is the culprit.

Problem 2) Blank monitor. I first noticed this little doozy a couple of weeks ago when I removed a second monitor. Upon restart, the original monitor stayed in power save mode while the PC kept booting up as normal. That too has slowly become worse. It now requires me to kill the power and keep restarting until it turns on. It's not the monitor, because it works fine with other devices.

Problem 3) Freezing. This is where I'm a little stumped as to who the culprit is. Ocassionaly the PC just freezes, requiring a hard reset. Sometimes after a hard reset, that's when the monitor issue happens.

However, when the PC is running smooth, it stays running smooth...

I've narrowed it down to that:

a) My video card is failing
b) My motherboard is failing
c) The failing HDD is causing the errors
d) faulty PSU? (unlikely)
e) a combination of the above

As much as I'd love to build a new a PC (I'm itching to build one) Current monetary constraints have unfortunately made a new rig low on the priority list. (My cars Foobar atm) So I really need to keep this PC going for a bit longer WITHOUT spending any money (It's upgrade path is limited anyway)

Any ideas, thoughts on how to troubleshoot are welcome (as long as you don't suggest upgrading

Hi Smarteyeball,

I'm sorry to hear about your problem with this.

Since it is pretty clear that one of the hard drives is failing, I would recommend that you back up that drive fast before you lose anything. I'm not sure how you have the drives configured (RAID or not), but you could shutdown the computer and unplug one drive at a time and restart to see if the noise stops to locate the bad drive. Afterwards, see how the computer runs with the failed hard drive unplugged.

If you still have the other problems, then easiest way to troubleshoot these devices is to test them one by one on a friends computer that you know has a good system. Eventually, any bad device will rear it's ugly head up while using it on your friends system instead of his device.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hi Shawn, I've already backed up my important stuff. Anything else I lose will just be a nuisance

Unfortunately I can't test my equipment in friends PC's because they are all technophobes

I admit I've been lazy with unplugging the drives (to busy playing with the beta) so I haven't yet done the obvious so I'll pull my finger out and disconnect them tmw. Drives aren't in a RAID array BTW.

TBH, I got sick of re-seating the video card to bring the monitor back to life. It turns out that it makes no difference I just have to keep switching on and off and hope for the best. By the time it finally fires up, I just want to use it and not push my luck (sheer frustration has also been clouding my judgment and logical thought processes )

I'm also reconsidering my non-upgrading priority. I've already started on a 'cheap performance upgrade' short list that is already running about $1500 AUS That's not even taking the new i7's into account.....

Hi smartyball, are your drives s.m.a.r.t. enabled? If so there are free programs to test them.
You may be lucky in the fact that the HD that is failing may not be your system drive.
Try using your rig with just the system drive connected and see if that fixes your problems.
How old is your rig?

Hi roy, I've got s.m.a.r.t disabled. Not very smart ey?

Instead of going to bed (it's 3:40am ) I pulled my finger out and I disconnected 2 out of the three drives (2x 320gb Maxtors). No problems with start up and my original system drive 'sounds' fine. I've just re-connected another Maxtor drive that has the 7 beta / Storage files on it and it 'sounds' fine too.

So by the process of elimination my last disconnected Maxtor is most likely the faulty one. Which coincidentally is the drive I least suspected of being faulty It's a nuisance too, as that's where the majority of my programs are installed I foresee a lot of re-installations ahead

I was actually hoping it was my system drive since it's only a 80gb 5400rpm IDE. By losing the maxtor, it looks like I'm down 300gb instead of just 80gb.

I've had this rig since march 2007 and the two Maxtors since September (?) 2007.

Since it's so late, it's only a cursory auditory test. (It's been about half an hour or so with the disconnected drive and no odd noises like it has been. I'll get a bit more in depth with it tmw.

Could a faulty drive cause the monitor failing to start???

I was warming up to the idea of a complete upgrade...

If the failing drive is the OS system drive, then it could.

No, the failing drive was just a Program Files / Video storage drive. It's been over an hour now and I haven't heard any of the nasty noises. I think I've found a winner

Faulty drive = power spikes = blank screen?

I've also had issues with by Bluetooth KB and Mouse behaving very erratically too. Earlier today I removed the dongle, re-inserted it and the PC froze. That's why I was thinking the MB might be dying too.

Have you been overclocking your computer?

Also, you should reconsider checking that your PSU is working properly.

Have you tried the same drive with a different cable?
I know it is something simple, these are often the overlooked things.
A failing cable, or even a cable near a power source can cause problems in the right situation.

No mate. This PC is very overclocking unfriendly. It's running @ stock speeds. I'm showing my ignorance here, but how would I test a PSU without a multimeter? (don't have one)

No I haven't yet. (didn't even think of it I'll give that a go shortly.