clicking noise / won't turn on

[sabr1na]

I have a 5 year old Dell pc, today when I tried to use it, it wouldn't turn on - have checked all leads plugged in. I have woken up to hear a clicking sound which stopped when I pulled it from the pc. Does anyone know what this is or how to fix - i have lots of photos of my children I don't want to lose! Tia

 

[Rowsol]

It's too broad of a description for anyone to know for sure what it is. Clicking is usually a failing hard drive. Or it could be a bad fan, maybe something else I don't know about.

If you aren't too savy with computer parts take it to be diagnosed somewhere and hope that it's just your cpu fan or something simple like that.

Worst case scenario the hard drive is failing or dead and you'll need a professional to try to extract the pictures from it. Beyond that I'm not sure how I could help.

 

[OneMoar]

won't turn on could mean a whole bunch of things
does the monitor come on with the pre windows logo
a clicking hard drive usually means your data is dead and gone

 

[McSteel]

Yes, "won't turn on" as in shows no signs of being powered on, or "simply" not loading Windows?

Fast clicking (as in at least once a second), or more spaced apart?

 

[95Viper]

I have woken up to hear a clicking sound which stopped when I pulled it from the pc.

Curious as to what you pulled from the pc to stop the clicking.

 

[micropage7]

could be from psu
but the best way is check one by one

 

[sabr1na]

I'm sorry I know nothing about computers......It won't turn on as in the power light won't turn on and gives no signal at all. The clicking was a couple of times per second until I pulled the power cable out. I don't know what psu is

 

[OneMoar]

sounds like the power supply is toast
shot in the dark but most likely repairable assuming the psu didn't take the other stuff out when it went
you need to take it some place I doubt we can talk you though fixing it
as for the data so long as the drive wasn't damaged when the power supply "blew up" the data is easily recoverable

 

[micropage7]

I'm sorry I know nothing about computers......It won't turn on as in the power light won't turn on and gives no signal at all. The clicking was a couple of times per second until I pulled the power cable out. I don't know what psu is

maybe you could put some pics here just to check
and when did the last time you use that?

if you have someone that knows about pd hardware you may ask him to check first too

 

[ThE_MaD_ShOt]

When you pulled the cord, did you pull it from the wall or back of pc? You may have simply fliped the power switch off on the psu near the socket where the cord plugs in on the back of the computer.

 

[qubit]

Agreed with Rowsol, take it to a repair shop or a knowledgeable friend to have it looked at.

You said you don't know anything about computers (fair enough, you gotta start somewhere!) but this isn't the PC to start learning on, at least until you get your data off it.

I strongly recommend that you don't power it up again and let the shop/friend take a look at it.

Finally, ALWAYS have a backup of your important data. Otherwise you will eventually lose it and find yourself in situations like this. A backup needn't be complicated and can simply be a matter of copying it to a USB stick. It's a matter of strategy rather than any one particular process.

When you have recovered your data, I recommend starting another thread on TPU about data backups and let the community advise you.

 

[TRWOV]

clicking noise could mean a stuck or broken relay. Maybe coil whine too. I'd say it's the PSU but yeah, you'd be better of taking it to a computer repair shop or your "good with computers"(tm) guy (everyone has one).

Most likely than not the data is fine, even if the computer is toast you should be able to take out the hard drive and copy the pictures to another PC.

 

[newtekie1]

My gut tells me the PSU failed. The clicking was the HDD unparking the heads over and over again as the machine tried to power on. That is just what my gut is telling me though.

If you don't know much about computer you'll probably have to take it to a PC repair shop to have them figure out the problem.

 

[sabr1na]

Thank you for you advice, have a friend looking at it over Xmas. I wasn't trying to fix it just wanted some hope that all my photos ect were not lost! Have a good Xmas everyone

 

[qubit]

Glad we could all help. Merry Christmas.

 

[Arjai]

Was the "Clicking" accompanied by the smell of burning plastic? Puffs of White smoke?

Been there, done that. Fortunately, MB and PSU were replaced by the shop that built it. It was under warranty.

What woke me up, were the capacitors popping! I turned on the light and saw a faint trail of white smoke. I pulled the power and went back to bed. Packed it up the next day and had a new one, end of that same day!!

It's too bad that shop closed down this past Summer. I loved that place! Every one of my computers, thus far, have been there or have a piece purchased there, in them. i.e. fan or memory....

/Rant, Sorry about de-Threading this post...