Bad hard drive?

[xtort81]

So I've been having some issues with my PC. Initially my PC was shutting down and not rebooting. What I think fixed it was my video card not being fully plugged in to the MB. I broke a latch that keeps it in place when I first built the PC. I've since put a new latch on...and screwed the video card to the back of the case (there were holes for that...i didn't make my own), which secured it. However, it seems that whenever i turn my PC on it's side to and open it up (I turn the PC off first), when I flip it back up the PC will start up, I'll enter my windows password and it shuts down right when it's about to get to the desktop. The PC runs fine when it's on it's side. So the most recent time I turned it on it's side and opened it (to install an SSD), I was about to get to the desktop and it shut down. So I unplugged the vid card, plugged it in and this time when it rebooted it went thru chkdsk. The hard drive is kinda old (5 yrs or so), but I'm not hearing any signs of a failing hard drive. The PC is running fine on it's side right now, but obviously I'd like to put it right side up. Not sure if maybe the video card is still coming loose and maybe I need a new case or MB. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Doctor John]

I would suggest checking the hard drive form a boot disk (UBCD, Hiren's, any Linux live disk would work), so you can check it without the system running on it, to see how fit it really is (they sometimes die quietly!) Also (obviously) if the video card is loose that's bad and needs sorting out, probably why the PC only works on it's side.

 

[Marnomancer]

Running a tower case in anything but its intended orientation is inadvisable. Could even be faulty connecters. Your said the HDD is old, but does it feature S.M.A.R.T. capability by any chance?
There is not much info available from this. Could be anything from overheating to configuration conflicts.

 

[xtort81]

Thanks for the responses. I didn't realize having the PC on it's side would be bad for it. I've since unplugged everything (power and SATA cables) from everything and plugged it back in. Re-secured the vid card and for now it's working. Who knows what the heck is wrong with it. It's probably my awful luck with electronics. Doctor John, I'm pretty noobish when it comes to computers, I know how to put it together and that's about it, but I'm not sure how to check the HDD from a boot disk. I'm running Windows 7 and you were mentioning Linux, so am I still able to do that? I googled S.M.A.R.T. and most of the results are about viruses. Either way, I don't believe I have this on my HDD.

 

[SNGX1275]

In the absence of a thing like UBCD, you can get a pretty trustworty test from Seagate's SeaTools to determine if your HD is ok or not.

My guess is that you just had a bad connection somewhere. Alternatively you could have a hairline crack in your motherboard, or you could be shorting your board out on something, but these are far less likely than just a bad connection.