Dying notebook?

[lythande]

I have a HP Pavilion N3478 and for some reason the HD goes beserk and creaks like nuts for awile. It may stop after awile. I wiped the drive and reinstalled windows ME, but the problem persists. Actually, two weeks ago it wouldn't turn in spite of being plugged in. The power indicator lights were out too. I thought it dead, but I gave it another shot and it turned on. Maybe it's something electrical? I know that notebooks usually don't have fans, but this one may in that I hear a fan sound often that goes a bit nuts. Before you think it's the HD, my HD has a creaking sound, not a whirring sound. Unless a HD can do both? Maybe the power box and or HD are both toast? A new HD doesn't cost much but a power box can cost big $$.

Anyway, advice will be appreciated.

Cheers,
Lythande.

PS-It also often makes a high pitched screeeeeeeeee sound too.

[Whyzman]

Hello lythande,

Welcome to Forums!

It sounds like you might want to run the Harddrive diagnostics...if your documentation shows the manufacturer of the Harddrive then you can download the diagnostics from their web site...

Does this have a diskette or only a CD drive??

If it only has a CD then we may need some assistance from mjc along with a CD-burner to produce a bootable CD to be able to run the Harddrive diagnostics...

[Budfred]

If this computer is under warranty still, I would ask HP to deal with it. You could have a number of different problems given your description. It sounds like a dying hard drive, but also possibly a bad power connector or other issue. If not under warranty, you may have to lay out some money to fix this one...

Some laptops do have fans, especially if they have a hot CPU. It is possible that your fan is dying and may need to be replaced. That could potentially explain the symptoms you are having and it certainly would be cheaper than some of the alternatives....