My problem happened awhile ago and now its getting worst it use to be I couldn't restart my PC without it freezing I'd have to unplug the power and let it sit for a while then come back to it but I wouldn't have a problem if I shut down until now. Now no matter how I shut down it will not start and I get an OH OH sound from the PC but if I unplug the PC or just the hard drive power and let it sit 20 min or so then power up I'm all set is my hard drive on the way out or is it XP?:confused:

I doubt it would be the hard drive. More likely to be something power related like the power supply. I'd take the PC to a repair shop. They'll have the parts and tools to correctly diagnose and fix the problem. Otherwise, you'll just be buying and installing parts just to find out it was something else.

But when I unplug the hard drive power the PC will boot up not hang up of course its looking for a boot disc though but thanks for the input.

To check if it's the power supply unit, try removing all cd drives and floppy, that will reduce the load and tell you if the hard drive is at fault. I have to agree with Lee that it is unlikely to be the hard drive causing the failure, but it can't be ruled out entirely.

Make sure you have a good (tested) backup available just in case!

Hi,
I agree with your other answer about taking it to a local, reputable, computer repair/sales store. Ask about the approx. cost, and let them handle it, fix it for you. Sometimes, this will save a lot of time, trying to troubleshoot and as mentioned, buying new equipment that might not be needed.
I do wish you the very best of luck.

Well I've checked the power supply and I'm getting the correct voltage I've also taken out my hard drive and tried it in an extra system I have and it starts but the screen says bad disc I've tried to start in safe mode but get the "bad disc" error could this be a software error? And as long as I put my system in stand by I'm all set but if I shut down I have to wait at least an hour with the power cord unplugged from the unit until I can start up again normally. If I don't wait it won't start up the screen says "no sync" and I get 2 beeps??

I think your hard drive is faulty. I would back up the data as soon as possible, copy an image of the drive onto a new disk and throw the old one away.

How do I go about that?

Firstly, if you can continue to get your machine booting, backup all your documents onto CD or DVD if you can.

Imaging a drive onto another drive can be difficult, it all depends on how much experience with hardware you have. As always, if you don't feel comfortable doing any of this take it to a repair shop or knowledgeable friend and ask them to do it.

Imaging a drive is the process of making an exact copy of everything on your current disk and transferring it to another disk (one that isn't faulty). To do this, ideally, both hard drives need to be in the same machine at the same time. You then run some software (Norton Ghost or Acronis true image backup for example) to copy the old onto the new.

When this is done you can remove the old disk and continue using the new one as if it was the old one. Make any sense? (didn't think so:D )

Both the above mentioned software are commercial, but I believe there are some similar freeware products out there.

As you are having problems, this solution will only resolve the issues if the data copied from the faulty drive is not corrupt. Again - make document backups first, if this does not work you will probably have to re-install windows and all your applications.

Thanks for the info. I took an old hard drive (from my son's system) and connected it to my system and nothing happened just the same 2 beeps. But if I put my hard drive in my son's system the bios would start then stop when it was going to the hard drive but in my system with the my son's hard drive or mine I don't even get the bios. The only way it would boot up was too unplug for 30 to 40 minutes. So I'm wondering if it has something to do with the bios or something on the mother board has to discharge? Not sure what the next step is I would bring it to the repair shop but I think they'd be going through the same steps as me or just try to sell me another system. As usual if I keep my system in stand by I don't have a problem. :confused:

If you think its bios related reset the CMOS.. little jumper by the battery... unplug the main power from wall and connect the jumper for about 10 secs.. resets all bios setting so you will need to go in and tweak again if you did before... but if you are getting disk error that to means the O/S needs reinstalling... hope this helps a little.. later

Well I tried that and as soon as I got in to I set the time and date and when I hit F10 to exit and save the screen went blank but the system stayed on? And I haven't been able to get it up and running since I've tried an other power supply but nothing. It will power up but not boot all I get is a long beep and 2 low short beeps. I have phoenix bios/awards but the chip itself says phoenix on it. Does this mean I need a new mother board:confused: