Computer is gone?

[Ace 0]

Ok, so about 2 days ago, when I got back from school a terrible thing happened to my computer. Now the monitor was in power save mode like it should be, but the tower only showed that the computer was running but theres no loading. I moved the mouse so that it should get out of power save but it didn't. Then I realized that the keyboard NUM Lock doesn't even work anymore, so it had to be a big crash.

 

I tried to press the reset button but nothing happened. I turned off the power bar it is connected to and tried to boot it back up but it didn't. All it did was come on and off right away. After unplugging things and adjusting things, the computer booted back up finally. The computer looked fine, everything was running smoothly and I did a Norton System check and everything was fine.

 

Now the next morning the same result happened again. With the keyboard the responding and all. It looked like it was in hibernation mode but I checked that before and it was off. This time I just shut the computer off until I came back from school. Only this time the computer didn't boot up at all.

 

When I turned it on, the red loading light was just glowing there and something inside the computer was making a weird noise. It was like a CD getting scratched slightly. After waiting a few second the green light comes on but that's it. No monitor responce, no keyboard responce, nothing.

 

I am now stuck. My only ideas are that a virus got in, a hacker got in, or my hard drive has somehow become corrupted. Might any of you have suggestions?

[mezron 0]

Is it kind of a rhytmic tic tic tic sound? If so I think your hard drive bit it

[Ace 0]

It's not a tic tic tic but a more of a sic sic sic.

[mezron 0]

hehe... subtle difference, I think we're talking about the same sound though. a sic about every 3/4 second or so... dead hard drive.

 

If you know the manufacturer of the hard drive (Maxtor, Western Digital, etc.) you can download a utility from thier website to check it. The utility usually creates a bootable floppy that'll check the drive out and if your drive is still under warranty it'll help with returning it by giving failure codes.

[jmmijo 1]

I would agree that most likely it's the HD as well, the tell-tale was the fact the HD busy light stayed on constantly when it locked up last time

 

Hopefully you backed up any important data

[Ace 0]

Yea, it most likely is my hard drive, but when I'm hearing the sic sic sic sound, it sounds like it is coming from the power supply part. I opened the tower up just to see if there is any visible damage but I couldn't see any. When I turned it on, the sound seemed to be coming somewhere near the processor and the power supplier. Maybe it's my ears but I really don't think so.

[mezron 0]

Try unplugging the power from your hard drive then try to boot it. I'd bet the sound goes away.

[Ace 0]

Hey, looks like it was the power supplier. My mom brought it back to the store and it ends up that the power supplier fried. At least they replaced it for free since we still got warranty.

 

Off-Topic

 

Got a question first. I got a switch that is dividing my two IP's for my high speed. Now I can't figure out how to network my two computers to share files. I know to use the Network Wizard but it hasn't worked. Can you help me out here?

[mezron 0]

Glad it was your power supply and not the hard drive

 

Here is a pretty good walk through on enabling file sharing

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm

[Ace 0]

Well actually, I think I need to be more specific.

 

I got a Linksys Switch and I got a laptop and a desktop computer running XP connected to the switch. I have Zone Alarm Pro 4.5.538 or something. Now I already added the laptop's IP and put it in the trusted zone. I turned off the XP firewall and the ZoneAlarm's sharing firewall. I ran the Network Wizard but that didn't work. I set up the option where it gives the option "This computer is connected to a hub and the other computers are connected to the hub as well." I do the samething on both computers but that we still can't see each other. Also the hard drives are share enabled.

 

Any help?

 

Thanks people

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

what re the compuetrs IP's?

 

are your sharing 2 diff ip's from your ISP

 

or just 1 ip - into the router - then your 2 systems..

?

 

 

have you shared and directotories and made sure theya re in the same workgroup?

[Ace 0]

I have two seperate IP's on both computers. I was provided two different IP's by my ISP and both computers are connected to a switch. My directories are shared and our workgroup name is both OFFICE.

 

Would it work if I disconnect the high speed, leave only the computers connected to the switch, turn off the firewall, restart both computers and try the Set Up Network Wizard again?

[jmmijo 1]

Just in case, are these IP addresses on the same subnet ?!?

 

The reason I ask is that if they are not then this will cause sharing issues.

 

Ideally you'd want two concurrent IP addresses like the following:

 

192.168.1.2 & 192.168.1.3 as an example.

 

So what you want to look at is the last two octet's, but of course the entire thing is used but if you setup your subnet mask properly then this will be ok.

 

Using the above example if you have say

 

192.168.1.2 = machine one and

192.168.0.2 = machine two then this is most likely the cause of this issue.

 

Also double check the subnet mask so if you do indeed have concurrent IP addresses then make sure that both subnets are the same. Sometimes you have to use something like the following for proper network sharing to occur, 255.255.255.0 instead of what you may have, 255.255.255.248 or something similar

 

Also make sure that you have shared some object, either on one or both machines and that you've set the permissions for guest account access.

[Ace 0]

Yes, both of my subnets are different. Machine one is 255.255.248.0, while machine two is 255.255.240.0. How to I make it so that both are on the same subnet?

[madacgrav 0]

you can't because that information is supplied by the ISP, or so I am gathering from earlier posts. One thing you can do is drop your service down to one IP address or one account(however you have setup) from you ISP and get a router (Linksys makes different types usually with builtin switch, around 60-100 bucks) and then connect the two PCs. They will then be on the same subnet with private IP addys. This kind of setup will give you a little more security as well especially if the router you buy has one builtin. This will also save you money in the long run, will allow easier expandability and manageability for a larger home network.

[Ali 0]

Quote:

Would it work if I disconnect the high speed, leave only the computers connected to the switch, turn off the firewall, restart both computers and try the Set Up Network Wizard again?

Is that a Switch or a router? a router can assign IP's to your computers and you can share your internet connection. a switch is just a dumb device and cannot be used for sharing internet connection. it somehow works if you have one computer and the internet connection on the swithch but the poroblem starts when you connect two computers AND your internet connection to the switch and try to do internet/file sharing! If that is the case that is not how you use a switch!