Weird clicking sound when viewing webcam in My Computer

I'm not sure if this should be in the WinXP forum, or the hardware forum, so I'm posting it here first and feel free to move it if necessary.

Yesterday I added a stick of 512 RAM to my computer. Due to a bit of carelessness of my part, I was forced to get a new PSU (430 W Antec) and a new floppy drive. So I had my machine unplugged and apart for a few hours while I worked on it.

After I get it all back together, I booted up and then on a whim decided to check out if I could view my webcam through My Computer now (I'd been unable to previously because of a black overlay). This time, the image came up. I was happy for about one second.

When it tried to bring up the Windows Explorer stuff around the image (the Take a Picture and manage the files stuff on the outside), Explorer crashed. While it was crashing, I heard these weird knocking sounds from inside my computer. Knock knock -- knock knock.

I checked my Event Viewer and this is the error code I got:

I figured it might've just been a weird occurrence. This morning I tried viewing the cam through My Computer again. This time it came up and didn't crash, but again the knocking sound, this time knock knock. Just two.

So could this be a HDD problem, or just a coincidence? I haven't heard the knocking except when viewing the webcam through My Computer, and only through My Computer. I can view it using its own software or in MSNM and it's fine.

The webcam is a Logitech Quikcam for Notebooks with the latest driver installed.

 

While it was crashing, I heard these weird knocking sounds from inside my computer. Knock knock -- knock knock.

You better open her up in case someone is in there trying to get out!

Due to a bit of carelessness of my part, I was forced to get a new PSU (430 W Antec) and a new floppy drive.

Are you saying you fried the PSU and Floppy? If yes, then chances are you may have fried something else.

 

Yeah that's what I'm saying. But if I had fried my HDD, I wouldn't even be able to get into Windows, right? I ran CheckDisk and it said I'm clean. What else can I look for?

edit: I didn't actually fry the PSU. I kinda plugged it into the floppy wrong (didn't cover all the pins) and I saw smoke coming out the side and got a floppy boot failure message.

When I went back in, I found that the wire to the PSU had been melted and had melted into the IDE cable that goes to the CD drives. The power connector to the floppy drive was charred.

 

Checkdisk should have picked any problems, but I would suggest you run the drive manufacturer's utilities before trying again.

Suggest you open the case and place your fingers on the drive/s to see if you can feel the vibration (or identify it's location by ear). Hopefully it won't be the read/write heads of the drive crashing at the end of their travel.


Matt

 

I downloaded two files from WD's site. The two I got are DLG Diag and Win DLG. Which is the right one for me? The description of DLG didn't say what kind of HDD it was for, nor what version of Windows.

edit: I ran the Win DLG one's simple test and the HDD passed it. Are there any tests that actually tell you if the read/write heads are doing stuff they're not supposed to? I think most of these tests just look at the surface of the drive.

 

If you run a few of the surface tests that should be enough. It should tell you if there are any problems. It looks OK if it is passing the surface tests.

Could the noise be from an optical drive?

Matt

 

I wasn't using them at the time.

 

Shadow Hawk,

This happened to me too, but in a different way.

What happened with me was i had two HDD's in my computer.

And the way my case was built, I had to lay the hard drives on top of each other with no space between them.

After a few hours on the computer i heard a clicking noise.

I opened up my computer to find the primary HDD to be HOT AS HELL!

I removed the other HDD that was giving off the heat that my Primary HDD was absorbing.

Ever since that day, never heard a click.

So I think this might be a heat or temperature problem.

Try to leave your computer opened with a High powered fan directly on it for like 15-30 minutes.

See what happenes and report back if this is case.

 

I have an 80 MM cooling fan right in front of the HDDs. I've had them stacked like that since May and never heard any knocking. Thanks for the idea though.

 

Just trying to help.

Try a few of these things then:

Defrag your computer

Try a different webcam instead of the one your using to see if the problem persists.

Delete your temporary internet files, cookies, clear history, delete your system restore points and thats all i can think of for you now.

 

Thanks for the info. I don't have another webcam. I have already defragged and run checkdisk on this volume. So far I haven't heard anymore knocking. I think maybe one of the cords resting against it was responsible.

I'll post again if anything happens.

 

Update

I'm going to break the rules and double post just this once.

Turns out the sound was my floppy drive looking for a diskette.

 

Same Problem

When I load Logitech's WebCam software,
a knock knock sound will come on....suddenly...
But its not continous and will randomly come on later after sometime...because I was doing some recording on my webcam.
-I have Logitech Quickcam Express