Super weird problems due to dusting pc

[Xplo]

Firstly sorry for mega long post

Ok the other day i dusted my pc out, took side panel off and gently went round with a small paintbrush.

Plugged everything back in and I get a high pitched noise coming from my second HDD and it hangs on post while detecting hard drives, on the first boot after cleaning it hanged for 20seconds or so then booted windows, as windows was loading and the cursor thing was scrolling accros i suddenly got a blue screen and pc restarted itself.

Once agin it hanged for 20seconds, bit this time booted straight to desktop, i then got 'pc recovered from serious error'.

I checked both hard drives back when i was in windows, both showing up ok and everything looked ok. I then shutdown my system and took side panel off to see if i had plugged IDE cable back in properly. Looked ok, reboot, hanged on post while detecting drives, still getting the high pitched noise.

After this reboot as windows loading the checkdisk thing comes up for no reason (never set it to) and it starts scanning my second harddrive (currently the culprit for the noise etc), it stops mid scan and says it cannot continue due to corruption.

Anyway i get back into windows again and goto check on my harddrives, its detecting my second hard drive but its saying its 0gb etc wont let me acces due to corruption, primary HDD is fine.

I think omg and shut pc down, unplug sec HDD and just run off primary, theres no londer delay at post, straight into windows no problem.

My secondary HDD is a 40GB IBM Deskmaster, ive heard about these always dying and apparently there nicknamed deathstars, I accept its probs dead and pretty gutted that ive lost all my movies etc.

I now move on in life and forget bout it, learned my lesson and being to browse some forums, i use the scroll button on my mouse to scroll up and down, on each scroll of the button a clicking noise comes from the pc, wtf is going wrong now i think?

Doesnt really bother me so i goto play some games, double click icon, game begins to load up, just as the first screen loads, monitor goes black and pc crashes, have to restart by the restart button!! Tried to play every game i own but a no go.

Now my question is..

ALL I DID WAS DUST MY PC OUT, IVE DONE THIS HUNDREDS OF TIMES BEFORE WITH NO PROBLEM WHY NOW!!!!!

Does anybody have any ideas at all? I was very careful and certain i did not press too hard or break anything or anything and i wore an antistatic strap!

Specs =

Tyan tiger mpx
dual 1800 xp's
2gb ram
6800gt
120gb maxtor
40gb ibm
600w jeantech

Thanks!!

 

[DinAlt]

Hi,

This is a quick guess but if you used a nylon paintbrush you may have had a small build up of static whilst brushing your components.

The other thing is is may just be pure coincidence and your pc was on it's way out anyway.

DinAlt

 

[Xplo]

I dont knwo if it was nylon or not. Will try to find out though thanks.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I too am thinking that it was a static problem from the brush. This is why I always use air to dust a case rather than something that actaully touches the components.

I guess you should try some basic troubleshooting. Be sure that all the jumpers are in order. It's possible that you disturbed something and it was making intermittent contact.

 

[Xplo]

All jumpers are fine!

 

[Xplo]

Anybody got any more ideas please?

 

[Phil2008]

buy your self a 1000watt wet n dry hoover with a blower,, it gets rid of dust in secouds without touching anything

Try a new ide cable.

 

[no_1_dave]

Hoovers cause loads of static & can mess things up more then you can imagine.
Good old Tin of Air Duster is what you need.
I use Kenair

 

[quadboi]

I used the hoover once... glad about this post will never use again.

 

[Phil2008]

hoovers are fine if your blowing and not sucking, and not touching anything inside. plus a plastic pipe dont cause no static.

 

[lordedmond]

snip plus a plastic pipe dont cause no static.

that what causes the static and holds it

rub a plastic comb with a nylon cloth 20kv of static easy

 

[Phil2008]

that what causes the static and holds it

rub a plastic comb with a nylon cloth 20kv of static easy

never knew that

 

[malccy]

Scary - was hoovering out my vid card fan the other day; thanks for pointers ppl.

 

[Phil2008]

get a hoover with a blower or a can, then you dont need to touch anything inside your pc

 

[Xplo]

Ok Thanks

 

[goreblast]

First let me say hard luck mate. Hate it when anything breaks in my computer.

I would say it is total coincidence. It won't be anything to do with static - you had anti-static wrist band on (something I have never ever used - jees I even leave the stuff sitting on a partly synethic carpet while I work on the computer, eg X1800XT, 2GB ram etc; never had a static problem). And lets say there was a tiny static buildup in the bristles is could maybe fry a small chip on the motherboard. It is NOT going to fry a hard drive.

I would suggest taking out both (if you have another graphics card) 1800s and with Ghost (or such at the ready) boot with the intention of making a ghost image of the lost drive onto the good drive. Worth a try, although it does sound dead - happened to me before, but i was in warranty still.

The scrolling thing I would think is software related.

 

[Phil2008]

touch wood I havent ever had hardware probs like that, since I first got into pcs in 1996.

I have had a tv card for about 4 yrs now, and since I havent been using it, its been thown around all over the place, stuffed in draws, bags, and had things plonked ontop of it. Im using it in my new pc now and it still works perfectly. To be honnest its a really good quality tv card, its a "Hauppauge analog WinTV with fm radio".... Just think how much static and stuff that has had over the years.

 

[R B Customs]

was the power cord plugged in when you dusted it ?
tyou specified plugging everythign back in... but just making sure
if it was left in surly any static charge would just shoot through to earth via the power cable right ?

maybe it is just bad luck
sorry to hear it mate !