After having to install a Zip drive(much against my wishes)in the rig I run at work,I've been experiencing some problems - the dreaded click of death - that seems to plague some of these drives.Yesterday,it started doing this while I tried to access the disk.It continued doing this for quite a while and with no other recourse,I shut the power off.I finally got the disk out of the drive and tried to restart,but with no luck.Tried disconnecting the drive and restarting - nope.Signs and symptoms:hard drive starts to work and the board emits 2 beeps and everything comes to a halt.And the monitor stays on standby.Anybody got clue about fixing this?

Hello tubeguy and welcome,
Is this an internal Zip? If external, what type of connection to the PC? When you say "Everything comes to a halt", do you mean the fans stop, no lights, no HDD noises, Or do you mean it goes no further then that?

It sounds like you are getting power to the machine just fine, but you have classic symptoms of a poor connection on RAM or vid card. Maybe a bad connection on the monitor cable to the back of the computer.
Try reseating your RAM and vid card and check all other connections.

I have never heard of the "Dreaded click of death" on these drives http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif What exactly do you mean by this?

------------------
Waiting patiently for the future to arrive Frank's Place (http://www.members.aol.com/frankscompsrvice)

Here (http://grc.com/clickdeath.htm) is a pretty good summary of the problem and tons of advice...from none other than Steve (Privacy-Warlord) Gibson http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Are you able to boot with a boot disk? You may have to go that route to do any repair work...I am not familiar with this problem...but have heard about...thus the link...too much new stuff for me to read now...researching a new mobo for the kids pc I'm building...what a headache me being so picky about it http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
Careful With That Axe, Eugene

Flush 'N' Forget (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

[This message has been edited by bassvax (edited 01-24-2002).]

Hard drive starts to make usual noises,gets just so far and then the board gives off 2 beeps.It doesn't get far enough into the process to kick the monitor in.I tried restarting with a floppy in the a drive,just to see if it would recognize it,and with no luck.I've tried disconnecting everything (zip,cdrom)and that doesn't help.The zip is an internal that was tied with the cdrom and ran to the secondary ide connector on the board.Nothing out of the ordinary.And everything had been running fine,although there had been previous clicking tantrums from the zip.I did run GRC's zip program and did find many problems.I'd read about this on Steve's site and it wasn't my idea to install the drive.In fact,I protested,but probably not loudly enough.One positive note - I took the hard drive out,brought it home,and tied it into my machine.Fired right up with no problem.I had the jumpers set so that it booted off that drive and it worked OK,so the problem isn't on the hard drive.It appears to be on the board somewhere.And just for the heck of it,I took some of the important stuff off the drive and burned a CDRW.So at least all my work for the last 2 years isn't lost.Lesson #1:Thou shalt have nothing to do with zip drives for all eternity.

Situation fixed.After reassembling and trying again,I had the same result. So I got in touch with a local tech guy and brought the tower to him this afternoon.After explaining everything,he hooked up a mouse,monitor,and keyboard and hit the go button.My jaw almost hit the floor when it booted like nothing happened.After checking things over,he mentioned the idea of reseating RAM and/or processor.Then it dawned on me that as I was loading the tower into the vehicle,I had gently dropped it on the seat.Must have been just what was needed.Talk about relieved.And there was no charge.That fix will stick in my memory.

Thanks for letting us in on the conclusion...and I'm http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif that is was a good one at that...the ole "bang on the side of the box" routine like we used for TV's in the 60's & 70's http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
Careful With That Axe, Eugene

Flush 'N' Forget (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

Reminds me of a long article I read through about trying to get data off a failing hard drive. Freezing the hard drive was one thing listed that might work..dropping hard drive from about 1 foot onto surface was another. Fortunately, we've never had to try either. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Here (http://www.techrepublic.com/download_item.jhtml?id=dr00320000510jed01.htm&src=search) is the link to download that puppy entitled 200 ways to revive a hard drive http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
Careful With That Axe, Eugene

Flush 'N' Forget (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

[This message has been edited by bassvax (edited 01-25-2002).]

The tech guy said he's seen this happe many times.I should have told him to mount a camera in the shop and get pictures of folks as they see their machines boot up.I can only imagine the look on my face.Thanks for the advice.