[Discuss] OT - HDD light blinks in a pattern with audio before bootup

[epp at sillydog.org (Edward)]

One of my desktops (HP Compaq CQ5110F) briefly failed this evening, 
while trying to determine why the HDD light blinks in a pattern (blip, 
blip (pause) blip) several times, with pops coming from the speakers at 
the exact same time, before the BIOS screen appears when it's powered on 
every time. I determined that it was the PCI-E x16 Radeon video card I 
installed, am using that because nouveau doesn't seem to want to play 
nice with Linux. During the investigative phase before the system 
failed, from the BIOS, I ran both the short and extended SMART tests on 
the HDD and they completed without any errors.

After removing and re-seating everything not fastened down 
(video/network/RAM) and resetting the CMOS, the system came back up but 
(l)ubuntu wouldn't fully boot up, there was some slow HDD activity, but 
it did not get past the splash screen after 15 minutes. I then 
reinstalled (l)ubuntu, which took no more than 10 minutes and it now 
fully boots up again.

I ruled out everything else, but am curious as to whether there might be 
a particular reason why the HDD light blinks like this with the presence 
of the video card.

Thanks in advance.


-- 
If it doesn't work right out of the box, they're in the wrong business.