12 Clicks, stuck on BIOS welcome screen (HP screen)

[Som1Lse]

I have a HP Pavilion p6035sc desktop pc, with Windows Vista installed, and recently I left it running overnight, so I could charge up my mouse.

It began making weird click noises, and the fan was loud, and when I began moving my mouse, it froze entirely shortly after.

I left it off for the rest of the night, but when I tried turning it on again, it heard the same click sounds, and it didn't get past the BIOS welcome screen (the one with the big HP logo, blue background, and the "ESC=Boot menu"  stuff). It does not respond to any key inputs, like pressing escape, or F11, so I cannot go into BIOS setup, and try to solve the issue there. I can't as well do a system recovery, or anything like that, so I am pretty much out of luck, when it comes to solutions not involving tearing the computer apart, and putting it back together.

There are exactly 12 clicks every time, and there are a little less than a seconds delay between them.

It is about 3 years old, so it might just be that it's time is up.

I have some files on the hard drive, that I really DON'T want to loose, and if I send them to a repair service, without backing them up before, then they'll probably get viped of it.

[erico]

Try removing the hard disk and then powering on the PC to see what the BIOS reports.

If the BIOS complains, but does report that it can not find a bootable disk then your hard drive is probably no longer operable and your motherboard is OK. You will need to replace the hard disk and use your recovery disk set to restore your PC to a useable condition. Loud, strange clicks when booting up a PC are sometimes a symptom of a hard disk failure. That was once called the "click of death".

A failed memory module can also cause this to happen.

You can also test the memory modules by removing all but one on the slot closest to the CPU. Try it to see if the PC boots up. If no joy, try the other module(s) in the very same fashion one at a time in that slot. Most PC shops will test your memory modules for you if you bring them in.

[anitaash50]

In my od HP Pavillion a1340n  (yep, it was working up until today)is stuck on the BIOS welcome screen.

What do I do?  It was quiet last time I turned it off.  It is asking for a floppy disk, I have no idea where it can be

found.  Help.