Hard drive question

[Delphinus]

First, let me say thanks to all in this forum who share their knowledge - it is much appreciated.

My question is this: lately, when I've shut down my computer (Windows XP), my sound system (Logitech speakers with a woofer?) gives me feedback - like it's scratching a record. I usually just switch the speakers off until I turn the machine back on. This is new - perhaps six weeks or so - and I've had the system for at least three years.

Today, when I came home from work, my hard drive was flashing - but my computer was OFF! - and my speakers were making that scratching sound. It was not doing it all day, as I stopped at lunch to get something and I would have heard it. I live alone and my dog isn't capable of using the computer during my absence. :)

Any ideas? Especially in regard to my hard drive flashing when it was off! I flipped the switch on the back of the computer to kill all electricity, which stopped the green light flashing.

It was weird.

Thank you!

[ChromeFoundry]

1. Static in your PC speakers can be caused by a lot of

different things. I have seen fluorescent lights, cordless phones, microwaves and cell phones cause noise in speakers.

There is a chance that your power supply in the PC is getting a bit sketchy.

It could be as simple as the PC is not grounded properly.

The hard drive problem sounds rather odd. My guess is that you are allowing windows to perform a shutdown, hibernate or stand-by. Hard drives will usually blink like this when there is an error. It could just be a power/voltage error. If you have another PC available, check to see if the speakers make the same static while connected to it. If so, it is probably a problem with the amp in the speaker subsystem, and unrelated to the PS itself.

[Delphinus]

2. Thanks, Chrome.

Changing the power supply will be easy enough to check out.

I don't have another PC - and I do turn it off the normal control panel, shutdown way. I may take it in to a computer store in this area, just to see if they can see if there's something strange with it. After my speaker system started to act out, I would watch the light continue to blink after it had shut down. That didn't seem too strange. To have the system down for hours, and then see the hard drive blinking when the computer was NOT on - that freaked me out.

[madokie]

3. Heres what happened to me the other day

I reformated and reloaded my hacked version of xp home and for some reason I decided to download a newer version of the printer driver and updated it then I noticed that my speakers would have a clicking sound, kinda sounded like someone sending a morse code message. anyway I think it was something that was riding along with the driver I downloaded. I deleted the file went back to my original printer driver and the sound went away. So I'll ask have you recently downloaded and installed anything lately? Because it sounds to me like you have a bug of some sort on your computer now.

[Delphinus]

4. Adobe Flash -

but that was just recently and I've been having these shooting noises for about six weeks. I'll go back and look to see if I might have added a program in this time frame ... going from memory, which is dangerous at the moment, I can't recall, but I can use the control panel or program panel when I get home.

Thanks!

[IDemo]

5. One way of determining if it's OS/software or hardware related

Download a Linux live CD, a version you can run from CD before deciding whether to install it to your hard drive. Most Linux distributions nowadays come in this form. If the problem vanishes when rebooting from Linux, then you have an XP issue, whether OS, software or driver related.

The LiveCD List