Couple of odd problems

[Xtremehobo]

The past few times I've rebooted my computer, right before the windows XP loading screen comes up, my harddrive "clicks" off, instantly comes back online again, then I either get a disk error or the computer hangs. It takes me about 5 tries before my computer will actually boot. after that, it seems just fine!

Also, my power supply fan quit working a few days ago (and I noticed this because I smelled burning electronics), so I spun the fan with a screwdriver and it seems to be working now. Could my power supply just be screwed up and not getting enough power to my harddrive?

Any ideas as to what's going on?

Also, to avoid creating a new thread, I'm having a problem with streaming audio over my network with both windows media and shoutcast.

I've got a windows 2000 machine that I use to stream a local radio station to a friend who's on vacation in japan. It streams just fine for about 15 minutes, then the connection drops (and I've tried with both winamp/shoutcast and windows media encoder). The streaming program freezes, I do ctrl+alt+delete>end task, and after pressing "END TASK" on the following dialog, the computer just hangs. I reboot the machine, it doesn't recognize my network card, so I have to shut the machine off and move the NIC to a different PCI slot, boot it up, and it runs just fine.

Any ideas as to what could be causing that problem?

Thanks and best regards,
Matt
EDIT: system specs:

mobo on comp with 'failing' harddrive: AK77-8XN, Athlon XP 1900

mobo on streamer comp: FIC AZ-31 (Socket A) with 900MHz duron

Computer with 'failing' hdd OS: Windows XP

Streaming computer OS: Windows 2000

[Gait_Keeper]

you got me??

Welcome to Techimo

I'll read it again, and get back to you

[Xtremehobo]

Thank you for the welcome Gait_Keeper

[Gait_Keeper]

if you smelled burning , you need a PS, somethong is wrong, and you don't want too much current going to you mobo or other componets.

also never stick a screwdriver in to anything electronic and plugged in , OK?

[Xtremehobo]

heh, it wasn't plugged in or on when I stuck the screwdriver in

[Micro Bean]

mobo on streamer comp: Can't remember, its a socket 7 with a VIA chipset running a duron 900MHz cpu

Socket 7 with a Duron?

Welcome To TechIMO!!!

Can you Give us more specs as to what wattage is your power supply and also what else you have in your computers?

[Xtremehobo]

EDIT: Waiiiittt wait wait wait... LOL, nope, WRONG motherboard! The streamer comp has a socket A motherboard, made by FIC. its an AZ-31.

It's got a CD drive on the second IDE channel and a 10 gig maxtor on the first channel. The video card is an ATI rage 128 all-in-wonder (agp) and there's one Linksys LNE100TX PCI network card. the audio is a built in AC97 chip. Power supply on that comp is 400watts (this is the computer with the streaming/freezing problem, not the hdd problem).

The computer with the harddrive problem has a 300 watt power supply, 40 gig WD harddrive on IDE channel one, and a cdrw drive on IDE channel 2. Video card is a Radeon VE/Radeon 7000 (agp). Using onboard nic.

[Micro Bean]

I could be wrong here But I would to first hand for that streaming computer to be a heating issue. Which might be the cause of the lock up and freezing.

I would honestly Swap the PSU with both comp Giving the Freezing comp with a 300 watts which should be good enough for the system and the 400watts for the other which I belive that the Video on the HD problem is really sucking on that PSU. If you did smell something burning and seen that the fan wasnt spinning I would Change that PSU Because even though u got the fan to spin that burning smell caused a short in that PSU and later down the road it will be a nightmare

[Xtremehobo]

I'm just going to buy a new PSU to replace my burnt one. I don't want to swap them because my 300w (burnt) psu I would guess might be less reliable and my streaming comp happens to be my server and Im not around it that much to monitor the PSU fan and make sure everything is working. I guess overheating could very well be the issue, but it strikes me odd that it only hangs when I try to end the (streamer) task.

[Micro Bean]

I would add a few good case fan and get a nice air flow going into the case for that server. Maybe since it constantly running it gets pretty hot and plus it summer unless you have ac but still Heating inside can still sit in there and build up Good luck