Hard Drive Noise / Booting problems

[KCargill]

This past Sunday I tried turning on my computer, only to hear a loud buzzing sound. When computer reached the point where it would usually boot into Windows, the screen just filled with 1's and 0's. I thought the harddrive had crashed, and thus went out and bought a new Western Digital drive. Alas, after this new drive was installed, I got the same buzzing noise when I turned on the computer, again eminating from the front section of the computer. I now get the Boot Disk failure error.

What could be causing this noise?

 

[Rick]

How about a fan and a coincidental system problem?

It may also be your system speaker (usually makes beeping sounds), but I'm sure there are a variety of electronical problems which can cause it to make some pretty funny sounds. I've heard some myself.

The 1s and 0s might inadvertantly indicate some sort of hardware failure.

 

[Goalie]

What happens if you boot the system with NO harddrive attached?

Try this.. turn the computer on with no drives attached, and no case. Listen for the buzz, see if you can see where the noise comes from.

Then, also listen for a POST code beep. Almost every computer makes it when turned on, but most people tune it out now.

If you get something other than a single beep (or a really long beep) let us know what you hear.