Computer doing wierd things when scanning for IDE drives

Try to describe this noise better. And open up your machine and try to locate it. No way we can help you on that basis...

You should be able to find it by putting you hand on top of the drives as well as listening. Most likely the hdd with the OS on it is going bad. I'd back up your data on at least 2 of these drives until you figure it out

reset your bios/cmos manually with the pins or pull the battery out of the mother board and wait ten seconds then put em back in. then boot it up and should only detect it once after you reset it, as stated.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I've no idea where it's coming from atm, I'll try placing my hand on the drives (listening really wasn't working) and I'll also try resetting the cmos and seeing if that makes any difference.

Hopefully my hard drive isn't failing! ;_;

The noise is hard to describe, when I say it's a squeaking sound, it's more like an electricity warping sound, or something, I don't know, hehe  

Like I said, weird thing is, when it's actually booted up it runs perfectly!

I've just gone through my computer unplugging things and plugging them back in trying to work out what the problem is.

Turns out that if either of my ATA hard drives are plugged in it makes the sound. So I guess it's either the PSU or motherboard.

Also, I only just realised this, but you know the sound a PC makes when it powers down? The power noise, not the fans spinning down, but that's the exact noise it makes over and over again for like 30 seconds.

Again, after that it's fine, no crashes, no noises, no slowdown, the computer runs perfectly!

If the noise only occurs when the hdds are plugged in, make sure they are tightly screwed into the case. You could also try using rubber grommets when securing the hdds. Even found a rubber grommet sitte  
https://www.westernrubber.com/mainframe2.aspx

Good call thanks, but they're on the side mounted things (don't know how to explain them, but they slide in and out of the case) and already have the rubber grommets ;o

by shutdown sound do you mean like a bzzzzzt sound? PSU'd make a sound when they discharge.....but normaly only when the power is uplugged and it's not loud at all.

Get near the psu vent and listen for it. if thats it your psu may be going. or the voltage regulation system may just be noisy(they all make some noise. its just not in human hearing range most times).

Last off have a listen to your CD/DVD drive(s). my brothers make a hell of a noise on startup when he leaves a cd or dvd in.

It's probably the noise it makes when the PSU discharges yeah, sounds quite likely, but I still can't tell where exactly it's coming from! I doubt it's the hard drives tbh, I don't know how they'd make that kind of noise! It's deffo not the DVD drives either, I had those unplugged at the time ;o

It's getting a lot worse now;

For example two days ago it wasn't detecting my downloads drive when I booted up, but was fine when I restarted, and the last two days it's had trouble recognising my main Windows drive, but again one reboot and it's been fine... ;_;

Sounds like your MB is starting to fail since there are two drives involved. I could imagine that a capacitor is taking the bend. They can make strange noises. especially if the fail...

Yeah? Damn, I'd rather not get a new motherboard if possible  

what is your psu?

It's an Antec one, it just came with my case (Antec Sonata)

The Smartpower PSU that came with my Sonata-II case only lasted 18 months. The smartpower series don't seem very reliable.

If you rest a screwdriver blade against a hard drive and place your ear to the handle you can listen to each drive powerup. What size/age are the drives? What CPU and graphics card? Check the label on your PSU for power rating, total, or 12V rail(s). If drives slow to run up to speed, may be PSU or dodgy drive bearings, or both. Drives draw max power while spinning up.

Mike.

Oh damn, it is indeed a smartpower drive!

The two ATA drives are 40GB/160GB and about two years old, the SATA drive is 320GB and about four months old. I've got an AMD Athlon 2500+ (lol) and an x1650 (lol)

I've tried with the CD drives etc disconnected and it still does it, so I'm not sure if it's drawing too much power although I guess it wouldn't surprise me ;/

You know the noise a computer makes when it finally powers down? I mean, it actually sounds like it's powering down too, I can't really explain it, but that's the noise it makes repeatedly

Sonata(the first one) came with a True Power 380PSU

Sonata II came with a Smart Power 450 PSU - Maybe i lucked out as its still humming along with no probs and its QUIET!!!

I would have to say its time to try a new board as drives dont die in bulk. But if you have a spare cable (its IDE right?) give that a try too.

Also if you can steal a psu test away.

Ahh good idea, different IDE cable! Thank you

Bah, still no luck really. Earlier I tried:

- Using the cables from my DVD drives instead of the current ones.
Same problem, can't be the power or IDE cable

- Resetting the CMOS
No difference

- Disconnecting/temporarily stopping fans
No difference

- Reseating the memory
No difference

- Reseating the graphics card and power connector
No difference

Not sure what to try next, whether to buy a new PSU or a new motherboard. Can anyone at all please suggest whether the noise is made by the PSU or motherboard before I go and buy one?

Have you tried speedfan or some other util to monitor voltages?

Have you tried the simplest of all? A good visual inspection of all the capacitors around the CPU socket could give you a clue to weather your MB is failing or not. Check if there are any sort of fluids or "swealing" on any of the electronics. It could be your MB mate. Other case scenario is indeed your PSU cause as you said, sometimes it reads the drives, sometimes it doesn't. I had the same problem when I maxed out my PSU running 3 HDD at the same time. Sometimes all 3 would come up, sometimes just 2 or 1, plus random restarts. Once I removed one of the drives, everything was good again.

Many thanks again for the replies, I just tried a new PSU as suggested (it was the one from my parents computer, 260W! lol) and it worked just fine, so I've ordered a new power supply. Fingers crossed that is actually the problem and it's not just a coincidence! It's a 500W Antec modular one anyway so I can always use it on my next PC I guess if it doesn't work ^_^