Posted: 3/15/2003 8:14:21 PM EDT
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I have a 633 celeron e machine computer. recently it has been acting up. 8 out of 10 times I use it it make a sound like "ZZZZ" and continues till i am forced to shut it off.Occasionaly a screen will come up reading "unable to write to disk". I have scandisked the hell out of it no help.I think its the hard drive but before I replace it I wish to consult the computer guru's of ar15.com. Any suggestion of what it could be besides the hard drive. as I write this its working fine. |
| It sounds like two problems to me. The buzzing sounds like a fan and the write error sounds like a corrupt portion of hard drive. When the computer starts buzzing get around to the back of the box and check the power supply fan. You can stick a pen into the fan to stop it and see if the noise stops. I dont believe the e machines had any other case fans. It could be the CPU fan too. |
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Quoted: If it's the only fan and it stops, it will cause the HDD to act very strange. That CPU puts out a lot of heat. You may want to invest in a fan card. Yes and as above qouted start backing up everything,as scandisk will start getting more and more unstable as you reach the last of your disk potential. Scandisk can cause more problems than it fixes, So be very ready to save! Bob [:D] |
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If what you describe as a 'ZZZZ' is a loud metallic high-pitched whine the hard drive is about to let go. If the fan on the CPU had failed you most likely would have system hangs or system crashes, not reported disk errors. Take the cover off the PC and boot it up so you can really isolate where the noise is coming from. If its the hard drive, check the ads in the Sunday paper for CompUSA/BestBuy/OfficeMax/CircuitCity/Staples to see who is having the nice price on 40GB hard drives this week. |
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Quoted: I have a 633 celeron [red]e machine computer[/red]. recently it has been acting up. [RED]WARNING: PACKARD BELL ALERT!!![/RED] This is your problem. Your computer was made by a company known in another life as 'NEC/Packard Bell' (Aka 'Packard Hell', 'Hackard Smell', etc...). They are basically the Hesse/Vulcan Arms of the computer business... Their PCs are (and will allways be) crap. They break regularly, and the only solution is to upgrade the motherboard to a reputable brand name (such as ABit, GigaByte, or Asus), or buy a new PC... This comes from personal/professional experience (I was a computer consultant before school turned me into a RadioShack sales employee, and the current state of the economy has kept me at RS post graduation)... For further evidence, look up Emachines on E-bay. You will find many gutted cases, after the internals failed and the case was the only thing left worth selling... |
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They don't make IDE drives for desktop computers that small any more. About the smallest drive you'd readily find nowadays would be 30 or 40 GB and even that is a dying breed. It's just as cheap for the manufacturer to crank out 120GB drives, which of course sell for more money. CompUSA has a special this week for a 40GB Western Digital drive for $99.99 less $10 instant rebate less $30 MIR for a net of $59.99. You'd be hard pressed to find a better deal than that. [edited: if you don't have a CompUSA nearby you might be able to do a price-match with another chain like Staples, BestBuy, or OfficeMax that IS close to you.] Depending on how old your computer is, the BIOS might only be able to natively use 32GB of that capacity. |
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Is the floppy drive light on while this ZZZZing is taking place? I had a similar problem a while back and thats what it was. I had a virus or a registry foul up and it was looking for something on the A drive. It wanted it BAD too! It sat there and buzzed just like you describe. |