My desktop - Dell Dimension 8200 went dead today. It pretty much froze. I kept hearing something make a large clicking noise (assumming hard drive) and then on reboot it beeps twice, and gives me an option to either (1) reboot, or (2) enter bios.

In BIOS it doesn't recognize anything. All the primary and secondary drives are set on AUTO but it doesn't find anything.

 

The only thing I did new is upgrade the vid card to a ATI Radeon 9800Pro. That has been working like a charm for the last 2 weeks. There was some lightning today but I have a surge and the power never went out. I have 2 hard drives, both 80G Maxtors.

 

I'd imagine that my primary one (the old one - 3 years) just crapped out. Am I sht out of luck?

 

What should I do now? I'm thinking of getting a new HD once stores open and go through the painfull process of installing Windows and reinstalling everything, and live with the fact that most of my data is lost. :confused

Couple of grand? Ouch.

Might be a wild shot in the dark but a while back, my computer was making a beeping sound every once in a while and it then got more frequent. Turns out the exhaust fan crapped out and the machine was getting too hot. I replaced it and viola! Could be worth looking at. Maybe the power supply too.

 

Good luck.

no need to do none of that. if u cant get it started from bios,my suggestion is just put ur operating system cd in your cd rom and just reformat your computer. its not worth the couple grand to save anything u had on there. just start clean and everything should be ok. ive done it many times and is always the best solution

Well Rocky, how big is your PSU? The 9800 does suck up ALOT of power and if all of your components aren't getting enough juice, then that could damage them.

Well Rocky, how big is your PSU? The 9800 does suck up ALOT of power and if all of your components aren't getting enough juice, then that could damage them.

541444[/snapback]

 

Interesting.

I can't see it, but going from google, its 250psu. Is that enought?

no need to do none of that. if u cant get it started from bios,my suggestion is just put ur operating system cd in your cd rom and just reformat your computer. its not worth the couple grand to save anything u had on there. just start clean and everything should be ok. ive done it many times and is always the best solution

541430[/snapback]

 

I already tried and it doesnt work. My primary HD seems to be fried. It won't read it at all.

Might be a wild shot in the dark but a while back, my computer was making a beeping sound every once in a while and it then got more frequent. Turns out the exhaust fan crapped out and the machine was getting too hot. I replaced it and viola! Could be worth looking at. Maybe the power supply too.

 

Good luck.

541427[/snapback]

 

Not a bad guess. The fan works, but who knows if it is getting too hot. I've heard of processors getting hot, not HDs; but maybe the problem isnt the HD.

Interesting.

I can't see it, but going from google, its 250psu. Is that enought?

 

 

OMG Rocky, No thats not enough!! :o

 

 

Trying to run two hard drives is tough enough on a PSU, but when you install a video card that requires its own power source (and btw it says that you need a minimum of a 350W power supply), then some serious damage could come to your computer.

 

 

If you want to keep the 9800, I suggest that you look into buying a new PSU while your out getting that new HD. Otherwise you may face the same problem down the line with the new one..

Damn! Thanks for the info. I'll look into it before I get a new HD.

Sorry for the bad news I hope everything turns out okay