fork

So I turn it on and it goes to the compaq screen the goes to a screen that says windows with the little bar that moves across for a second the the arrow/cursor and hourglass come up on a black screen and then the computer clicks like when I turn it on or off. I tried booting it in safe mode and it does pretty much the same thing except when the hourglass and cursor come up th screen also says safe mode in the corners. this will go on until I push th epower button. I checked all the cables and everything seems fine and all the fans turn on. This blows thanks for the help.

PureCRXtasy

Your description doesn't give me much to go on. So does the computer boot into the OS at all? What is the clicking you speak of? Is it constant or does it only happen once? After it clicks, what happens? It sounds to me like the Hard Drive is going south, but I need more info. If you can, record the clicking and post it as a wav file.

fork

the clicking is just the noise it makes when you turn it on I don't know if its the hard drive starting to spin or a relay somwhere but it is a normal sound that happens when I turb it on and off but it happens now every time the computer "reboots".

So If you think it is a hard drive thing should I plug it into an other computer as a slave to check it?

PureCRXtasy

Yes. Then Image it with Ghost or Snapshot.

88crxSi

windows xp?

if so, pop the cd in and try to do a recovery. sounds like the OS got corrupt.

have you visually checked the fans, make sure they are working.

i would do a format / reinstall. Doesnt sound like the HDD is dead to me, usually they wont even boot they would just freeze right after POST (where it counts the memory)