My computer has been doing some odd things that I think is related to hardware lately. My system is not currently overclocked so I don't believe that is the issue.
Last weekend after spending some time playing a game, I noticed my USB headset shutdown on me, indicated by the normal USB shut-off tone. Shortly afterward, the computer locked up, and I had to restart. When I did, the screen was distorted and then Windows wouldn't load. I shut the computer off for a short time then booted back up and everything seemed to work fine.
Since then, whenever I cold boot, I have noticed a hissing noise during POST and OS loading coming from what I believe is the harddrive. It is not the normal hard drive clicking noise; rather almost a grinding, "whirring" noise. After that the noise goes away and does not begin again untill next boot. Load times in games have also been observed as being much slower than before. This leads me to think that I may be headed for a harddrive failure.
This is not where the problems end though. Last night after leaving the computer on for aprox. 2 hours or so, about 45 mins idol time with only AIM running, the computer decides to restart itself for no apparent reason. This may be attributed to a PSU failure. What makes me question this though is 4 of the Dell computers at the place where I work have also had this problem. Which we contacted Dell and they simply replaced the motherboard which seems to solve the problem. So could my motherboard be shot as well?
Everything is still under warranty, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any other ways I could troubleshoot a little better in order to isolate the problem more effectively so I don't waste time warranting parts that aren't even bad ( and if HDD failure is one of the problems, reinstalling everything ).
Help will be much appreciated.
Last weekend after spending some time playing a game, I noticed my USB headset shutdown on me, indicated by the normal USB shut-off tone. Shortly afterward, the computer locked up, and I had to restart. When I did, the screen was distorted and then Windows wouldn't load. I shut the computer off for a short time then booted back up and everything seemed to work fine.
Since then, whenever I cold boot, I have noticed a hissing noise during POST and OS loading coming from what I believe is the harddrive. It is not the normal hard drive clicking noise; rather almost a grinding, "whirring" noise. After that the noise goes away and does not begin again untill next boot. Load times in games have also been observed as being much slower than before. This leads me to think that I may be headed for a harddrive failure.
This is not where the problems end though. Last night after leaving the computer on for aprox. 2 hours or so, about 45 mins idol time with only AIM running, the computer decides to restart itself for no apparent reason. This may be attributed to a PSU failure. What makes me question this though is 4 of the Dell computers at the place where I work have also had this problem. Which we contacted Dell and they simply replaced the motherboard which seems to solve the problem. So could my motherboard be shot as well?
Everything is still under warranty, but I was wondering if anyone knew of any other ways I could troubleshoot a little better in order to isolate the problem more effectively so I don't waste time warranting parts that aren't even bad ( and if HDD failure is one of the problems, reinstalling everything ).
Help will be much appreciated.