Computer making revving noise, will not start up

[Apollo922]

I have a Gateway with Windows Vista. I bought it roughly 2 years ago. It had been running normally as far as I know. Last weekend, it started to make a revving up (vroom) noise whenever I turned it on. The blue light around the power button would flash as well when it made this noise, and sometimes the light would just go off all together.

 

Once it was up and running, any slight movement I made with the mouse would cause it to make that same revving sound again. I was still able to operate everything pretty normally, it was just that this sound was starting to get somewhat irritating.

 

A few days after this, the computer wouldn't start at all. I would turn it on, hear the same sound as I did before. The monitor would show the Gateway logo for a second, leading me to believe the computer was starting, but a second later, I got the "No Signal" message with the red, blue and green bars.

 

So that is where I stand as of now. I cannot even start it up at this point, and being a photographer, I upload all of my pictures onto that computer. I'm really upset at the fact that I might lose years worth of photos. I'm not sure what is causing this, which is why I'm here. My main concern is saving my pictures. I have since bought a new PC, an HP Pavilion Slimline, suggested by a friend who is more knowledgeable than myself. But if there is any way possible, I need to get a number of files from the Gateway and somehow get them on the new HP.

 

Any ideas on what could be wrong? Thank you in advance.

[PseFrank]

Hi Apollo, and welcome to Extreme Tech Support - Free PC Help

 

I'm not sure what your problem is, but the first thing I would advise you to do is to try and retrieve your images from the HDD.

 

Being a photographer, I upload all of my pictures onto that computer. I'm really upset at the fact that I might lose years worth of photos.

 

Remove the HDD from your computer. this is not too difficult to do. If you're not sure how to do this then maybe your knowledgeable friend can help you.

Take your hard drive to your local PC store and explain to them that you want an External Closure (Sometimes called a caddy) that suits the HDD. It will probably be a sata drive.

 

Your HDD is plugged into the caddy. Then the caddy can be plugged into your new computer via USB. Your new computer should be able to see the old HDD in the same way as it would a flash drive or other portable media.

 

Of course it that is unless the problem with your old machine was HDD failure.

 

In the Uk a desktop HDD caddy can be brought for about £25. With a laptop HDD caddy costing £15 to £20. The fact you are a photographer makes the cost here worth it in my opinion.

 

After you have transfered your images from the old HDD. That drive or a new one can be used for backing up your images in the future..........

 

Someone else here may have other ideas for you...

[KenB]

Hi,

 

The "revving" noise can only come from a fan; the hard drive or the DVD Drive.

When I first started reading your post I wondered if you had left a disk in the DVD Drive ?

 

I agree with Frank - access to your data is your prime concern.

Some enclosures here to give you some ideas:

External Hard Drive Enclosures products at great prices - dabs.com

 

You need to be aware that there are 2 basic sizes available.

2.5 inch and 3.5 inch.

If yours is a desktop it will be a 3.5inch hard drive.

 

Also:

Hard drives come in 2 types - IDE ( older type with broad grey data cable ) and SATA ( small, narrow data cable)

Yours is probably SATA - but you need to check.

[Apollo922]

Thank you for the replies. Also, I'm pretty sure there is a virus on my old computer. I don't know if that's what caused this to happen, but if I did follow through with what you're telling me to do, would the virus carry over to the new PC?

[KenB]

would the virus carry over to the new PC?

Yes this is possible.

 

When you connect up the caddy - before you open anything scan the drive in the caddy with an A-Virus.

It will be allocated a drive letter ( something like E:\ ) you will be able to instruct the A-V software to scan that specific drive.

 

Starbuck ( member with far greater experience than me ) may advise you further on this one.

[BeeCeeBee]

If it give you any comfort it is unlikely that any of your photos are carrying a virus but I would be very careful to do new installations of all programs and not try to carry over any .exe files that you may have downloaded. This is true even if the scans (that you must do as Ken stated) show up nothing.

[Apollo922]

I had Norton Anti-Virus on the Gateway, and I would run scans regularly. I can't remember exactly what the name of the virus was, but it was something like tracking cookie backdoor something or other. Then I did a free scan with the AVG anti-virus program, and it came up with a trojan horse virus.

 

I don't know where this would come from. I would also get constant notifications from Norton in the bottom right hand corner of my screen saying "a recent attempt to attack your computer was blocked."

 

I will have to try the ideas you all suggested, or maybe even bring the computer somewhere and have a professional try those ideas for me, since I'm not sure if I'm capable of it myself, since I'm not very experienced with computers.

[BeeCeeBee]

maybe even bring the computer somewhere and have a professional try those ideas for me, since I'm not sure if I'm capable of it myself, since I'm not very experienced with computers.

 

If you follow the directions given above by PseFrank and KenB you will find that accessing the old drive is no more difficult than using a flash drive. It is simple enough that even I can tell you how to do it step by step if need be. A professional is probably not necessary at this point and the caddy will certainly cost you a lot less.

 

That being said, you will also have to reinstall windows on the new drive. How you do that will depend on what discs you have or if the system is on the hard drive. If the noise is coming from the drive itself it may be a sign of a failing hard drive.

 

No matter what, your first step has got to be getting that data copied.

[monkeyboy]

Could this not be an overheating issue? The symtoms sound familiar to a desktop I once looked at. On that occasion, the thermal paste on the CPU was non-existent.