HELP! I'm confused. Yesterday morning I installed some software which required me to restart the computer. Upon restarting, nothing happened, i.e. "the lights were on but no one home", there were none of the usual BEEPS, the only noises I can hear are the fan and a "click-click", "click-click", "click-click" sound coming from the back of the computer. The lights on the keyboard were not illuminated nor was anything appearing on my monitor. I inserted the disk it came with and tried to restart it with that, but still nothing. I've read Q&A on this WEBSITE...the no Post beeps points either No power (which it has), loose card or a short, and the repetative clicking sound points to a hard disk problem. I'm confused now, which is it? And could installing software create such a huge hardware problem or could this have been a fault in the machine itself. It's only a month old and if it makes any difference the os is Windows Vista basic home The clicking sound you hear is usually indicative of a hard drive failure. Installing software would not in itself cause the problem, but the restart could have been "The straw that broke the camels back" as it were if the PC SHIPPED with a less than perfect hard drive. My advice would be to return it from whence it came, if it's still under warranty.Buscrew--Cheers me dear! You're a star!Right! Another stupid question regarding my initial posting. I rang the manufacturer tech support line this morning to request they collect my computer for repair. Before they would come and collect it they told me to take the battery out of the motherboard for a few minutes and put it back in. I did this and amazingly ENOUGH the computer started.

Can anyone tell me why this worked? I makes no sense to me, but then again I have only a very basic understanding of these things. But then if I don't ask my stupid questions I'll never learn. That batteries small but important job is to retain the SETTINGS in the BIOS...
In simple terms this tells the machine how it is configured ; what hardware is installed and what time it is...
When you boot without this info the machine struggles to right itself and loads everything in a haphazard way and usually gets PRETTY cranky as it did.

Replace the battery.
Part # CR 2032 about 4 bucks and even available at Wally World or your local computer retailer...

p.s. There are no stupid questions and Welcome to CH !