What is this? (computer question)

Rushie

Rushie

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Rushie
My sister says this light on her case is blinking orange (right above the three disk like things). She's googled and can't figure out what it is. Her machine is acting up when it blinks (browser locks up or something).

Is that a hard drive indicator? Is the machine trying to to swap memory on the HD? She says it's an HP computer but she has no manual. I'm thinking she needs to take it to somebody. I'm in another state and can't go help her. Any of you know what that symbol means?IMG_1592.JPG
 
Yes, that is most likely the hard drive indicator. There are a lot of things that can cause disk thrashing, memory swapping among them. If it is running Windows, bring up task manager and you can see what processes are using disk. You can also see how much memory is being used. When MS auto updates, it will cause a lot of behind the scenes disk writes which will hurt performance.
 
Do a Google image search for "Power On Symbol".

I see it most often on power buttons.

Can't say what it means if it's programmed to flash - probably need a manual for that.

If she knows the model number, I'm pretty sure someone can find a manual online and see what it says.
 
If she is not trying to power down the machine, it is likely there's an issue with the power supply. From the sound of things, she's not and whenever it blinks orange (low power) her machine freezes? Power supplies do go bad... she can have it tested at her local computer shop.
 
Yes, it's the hard disk access indicator.
 
My power down button will flash like that when the machine is sleeping. But see rtk11's post just above, it could indeed be a bad power supply.

How old is the machine? It could also be a low battery indicator for the CMOS battery on the motherboard.
 
Hard disk activity light, just means it's doing things with the hard disk.

Have you tried turning it off and on again?
 
Looks like HD indicator to me. They normally flicker/flash when under normal operations, but if it has a steady flash after a system lockup I'd be inclined to think there was a disk error. May be able to run diagnostics to check hard drive for condition.


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Thanks for the answers. I talked to her and got more information. When she said the "browser locks up" what she meant was she is using the browser, and the whole entire machine locks up. She has to do a hard shut down. So yes that sounds to me like her PS might be going bad.

She did open task manager. She says iCloud and Apple are running a bunch of stuff but her computer savvy friend from work had "put stuff on there for iCloud" so I've no idea what that is if not just to back up all her photos. The rest sounded like mostly Windows processes to me. The CPU usage was 25% and memory was 2.8 GB. The machine has 6 GB. It's running Windows 7.

It's a HP P6210Y dated 2009. So eight years old and don't most machines come with relatively crappy power supplies in the first place?

The machine is doing "slightly better" after I told her to open the case and clean it out. Apparently it's the first time she's ever done that. :yikes: So she was having some overheating issues and probably needs somebody to look at all the fans, see if the heat sink needs to be reseated or whatnot.

But for now I told her if it were me I'd replace the power supply and see if that fixes it. I also agree with your suggestions that the hard drive may have issues or the CMOS battery needs to be replaced. Maybe all of the above now that I know how old the machine is. I do think that light is the HD indicator, and it's telling her it's time to rebuild this thing or get a new computer.
 
On an HP, the orange light means that the computer has sensed movement and parked the actuator to protect the drive. I think it could be called "Protectsmart" or "Drive Guard" or perhaps some other such thing depending on the era and model.

If the computer hasn't been jostled, then it's fair to assume that either the accelerometers are malfunctioning or the hard drive is dying. Either way, I'd make a backup posthaste, temporarily disable the protection, and run some hard drive diagnostics -- in that order.

Once the drive is backed up, a S.M.A.R.T. test would be a good start; but the drive's manufacturer probably has better tools available.

Rich
 
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