Hard Drive Trouble

[Kwonnie]

I moved to California earlier this year and shipped my PC (of my own build) via UPS. Needless to say, the computer wasn't working when it arrived. Until I moved back home last month, I didn't have time to diagnose it. However, I removed my processor and bent the pins into place and it started up. However, the hard drive is now giving me the click of death and keeps reloading (whirs up, starts to spin, then clicks and restarts the process; sometimes not even going that far and just clicks continuously from the time I power it on). The strange thing about this is... I have an external adapter for SATA to USB. When I use this, the hard drive works perfectly. No clicks. No reloading. Just the way it always has. I tried running another SATA hard drive in my computer and the same problem persists. Also, it's worth noting that the computer worked the first time I tried it (with a seperate processor for diagnosis purposes) but the hard drive started gradually failing as I began using it.

Anybody able to pinpoint my problem / help me diagnose/fix?

 

[Indigo]

The move bumped something in the power supply or torqued the motherboard. Replace the power supply. If the issue persists, it's possible that something on the board got hosed too.

You should never ship a PC as a whole when doing it yourself. It's much safer to take it apart and ship the components if you need to move the system, at least then you can wrap them tightly and securely then ship it all in the same box if you have to.

 

[Kwonnie]

I didn't ship the whole thing on its own. Just the motherboard and processor with it. Though of course that still probably wasn't enough. The PSU is practically impossible to get to (bought it in a chassis/power supply package) but I'll try to replace the unit to the best of my abilities and see what comes of it. I suspect the mobo myself but it's a difficult call. Nothing seems to be working incorrectly outside of this issue.

 

[Indigo]

You can try building the PC on a box and testing it with another PSU that way if the PSU is buried. There's nothing wrong with running the mobo on an old motherboard box for example, then just connecting the bare essentials and seeing if that helps out.

 

[Kwonnie]

I did indeed test with another PSU and as it turns out, the problem was in fact electrical. But since the old PSU's connectors were all grated into the board, I couldn't diagnose the source of the problem and actually made it worse. As a result, I had to simply replace the PSU. Thankfully I happened to have a spare one. Only problem now is the lack of a connector for my video card, I suppose. Thanks for your help, og!