Clicking noise on boot

[Dilated]

I started my computer today and heard a strange clicking noise on boot, it was a few clicks, it stopped and everything booted up seemingly normally. Windows loaded, but as soon as I got to the windows login screen, windows started going haywire with a constant arbitrary series of beeps. It looked like windows was trying to display an error message but it couldn't. The username and password text boxes became disabled when this started happening. I wish I had managed to catch a glimpse of the error message, but it is only displayed for a split second.

After doing some research, I read that a "clicking" sound isn't likely to be produced by the motherboard or RAM, but it's most likely the hd instead. I unplugged the power and IDE cables from the hd and turned my computer on again, I still heard the clicking sound on boot, which leads me to believe there is an issue with the video card.

The strange thing is, when my computer is booting, if a press a key when the clicking noses start, the clicking noises stop.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are my specs:
Windows XP Pro SP2
DFI Infinity 975X/775 motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
2 gigs DDR2 800 PC2 6200 Patriot ram
nvidia geforce 8600 gts
antec 500watt power supply
200gig maxtor hd

 

[Route44]

Those arbitrary sets of beeps are most likely your BIOS beep codes which point to the hardware issue. Find your BIOS version, i.e. AMI, Phoenix Award, etc. (your motherboard manual will have this) and then look up the BIOS beep codes.

 

[Dilated]

Ah, nevermind. It turns out the numpad "enter" key was stuck down. That's what was causing my problem.

But anyway, thanks for taking the time to reply, Route44.