Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

This is definately not a good thing to be dealing with at 6:30 in the morning! ;)
I turned my PC on this moring to get frighterned by this crazy ratchet like noise coming from inside my PC and its quite loud!

So I paniced and tried to hit all the buttons to turn it off, but i was still asleep really and it loaded fine, no errors at all, except for this noise!

So i shut it down and opened the case and there was nothing a miss. No fans fallen off and trying to chew up wires! (its happened to me before with a different case!), nothing out of the ordinary.

I turned it on and had a listen to the fans and it doesnt seem to be coming from them, its comign from my main board or processor fan.

At first i thought it might be because it was cold of the ball bearings n the fans, something simple :p: but i dont think so!

Any ideas what i can do to test this? I'm right in the middle of all my c/w and stuff, i dont think i could concentrate with that noise in the background!:disturbd:

I have to go to college now and sort this out when i get back, but any ideas would be very gratly appreciated!!!!:)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

That sound would probably be a wire on a fan but you said you have checked that. I'd disconnect the casing fans one at a time (not the cpu cooler ;) ) and see if it stops. Remember to check all fans possible (some graphics cards have them too) and if possible run the PC without it's case siding for a while to see if you can track the noise down.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

have a look at the vanes on the cpu fan, it is possible they have accumulated some muck & its putting the fan out of balance - remove as best you can (a little 'antistatic fluid' on a cotton bud will help)

:)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Yeah i was hoping it would be a wire! ;) Its definately not my two case fans, so one step in the right direction. My graphics card has a little fan, but i dont think it could be that because a loud that loud couldnt come from such a little fan.

I've had the side off with my head stuck in and it is definately something in the main board. The only thing left is the processor fan, i hate changeing anythign round there, scares the hell out of me!
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the inside of my pc is surprisinly un-dusty but i'll gives it a clean anyway to see if it makes a difference, i hope its something small and silly like a piece of dust though, thats would be good! :)
I better go to college though, i'm all a late already! I'll give it a clean when i get back!
Antistatic fluid? I dont think i have any of that...where would i get it from, or can i use an alternative?

Thank you very much!

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

The chances are that it is the fan in the PSU.
It only costs about £20 for a new one (PSU) and takes 10 mins to fit.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

i have almost the same problem mate..turned out to be coming from the power supply fan..a little tap on the grill and it goes but is still always there when i first turn it on.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

10 mins for a normal person, at least a hour for me! lol, it's quite new so hopefully it'll be easier to get off than my old one, that was a nighmare to dismantle. I'll have to go have a look in a pc shop o the way home. My fans a round intel one at the moment, do i have to get any specific fan? I probably sounds stupid, but i'm unsure of anything around that cpu!

Thx!
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Yeah my old pc does that, sounds the same but much louder and doesn't stop after the pc's loaded. If it isnt the cpu fan, i'll have to have a looky at the power supply. :)

Thanks

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

How old is the PC?
As I said this sort of sound is mostly fan related, sometimes the hard drive can fail and start clicking but if you're sure the sound is around the mobo then I would check all the fans, give them a go with an airduster and some anti-static spray (if you have a maplins, PC world etc store near you then they should sell them) and see what happens. It could be the PSU fan which would be hard to check but they aren't hard to get out as they are often held onto the chasis by 4 screws and then you just unplug the leads from the board and peripherals :) Doesn't take long and you can get replacements nice and cheap now.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

The pc is only well, not even a year old! But ive made frequent posts about it on the forum about its weird beepings and goings on, maybe its just a noisy pc! I got it in late summer last year.
Maplins it is then on the way home! I think i might have to nip into the place i bought i from for a cpu fan, the maplins near me is the only other pc shop and its quite small and only have a small range of fans, and none of them look like mine :confused:

I've dismantled my pc's before when changeing cases and things and getting the power supply out is easy, its those silly plugs everything connected to i cant remove, i'd be useless if i lived on my own!


One More question, i need my c/w off it, if it is the cpu fan can i turn it on and copy my work off it onto another pc in the network, without my pc blowing up or something? :)

Thank you very much again!

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

If it's only a year old, it will 'probably' have overtemp protection built in to the BIOS, so the system will shutdown if the CPU gets too hot. Definitely better to get the data off while you can than risk losing it.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

If it's only a year old, then is it still under warranty? If so, take it back to wherever you bought it, and get them to deal with it.

Did you check the PSU (the power supply unit), as swoop suggested? The first few I've used have been pretty noisy, so I ended up buying a new silent model. A PSU is much much easier to replace than the CPU fan, if this is the cause of the problem ;)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

In my experience the graphics card fan is always the first to go! (Yes such a little fan can make such a noise!)

Problem is replacing the fan is usually impossible.

Does the noise go away once the PC 'warms up'?

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Yeah so I usually like my passive heatsink-based graphics cards. I'm not obsessed by benchmarks, shootup games or the like so I'm happy to sacrifice power for the silence... although that said I do have new fans that are perversely low-noise but sound like jet engines- actually maybe that might be the cpu fan. I'm not sure, they're all a month or so old now.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Get yourself a length of tubing / a straw and put one end to your ear.

Point the other end at various components, you can use the tube/straw a bit like a stethoscope and it will help you isolate which component the sound is coming from.

Don't use anything metal though and (if it's a nylon straw) don't touch any of the components with it.

You never know, it might help.....

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

I don't think the place i bought it from has a warrenty, its a place where you can buy all the parts seperatly and then if you ask nicly, they put it all together for you. They arnt that professional anyway, i had to lug it all the way back to the shop twice in the first 2 weeks, one they didnt connect the back fan to the motherboard, and my motherboard didnt like that much, then when i got home after that i went to plug everything back in it to boot it up and the eejits hadnt put the backplate on right and it had covered up my network cable slot, so no internet for me and back to the shop!

I'm not sure how to test the PSU...I have an old pc, i could take it out and test it in there, but the voltage is a lot higher than my old computers one, i dont want to blow them both up! :shocked: The noise doesn't sound like its coming from the PSU tho' definately around the motherboard area. I've had PSU's go that way before and it sounded more muffled.
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Argh my expensive graphics card! i hope not! The noise is pretty much constant, it doesnt stop once the pc is up and running. One an old psu it used to make similar noises on start up then stop when it warmed up, but not this one. :dozey:
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Wow, i never would of thoguht of that! What an idea! Y'no its quite a good idea! I'll go home soon, get some stuff from maplin and a straw! I'll find that problem, it'll be like Sherlock Holmes, but without any crimes....:rolleyes:

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

If you are booting your PC to backup your course work, make sure you do it with the Heatsink fan still on the CPU, even if it is noisy.
Even though new motherboards and CPU's have an automatic shut down feature if it gets too hot, its not worth risking it.

It definately is worth checking out the smaller fans as these can be the most noisy.
Also, check to see if any small object could have dropped down in to a fan, like a screw thats come loose.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

The wattage might be higher but I doubt the voltage is ;) The PSU will just supply as much power as the system needs as long as there isn't a major electrical fault with it the spare board will be fine:)
All I can suggest is the same as before, disconnect any fans that you can safely (all but the CPU cooler) and listen to the system. If it continues then disconnext the cpu cooler, switch on, listen, switch off before it heats up too much. If after all that the noise continues I would suspect the PSU. You can always disconnect the hard drives and graphics card too if you feel like it, won't do any harm to the system.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Lol, can you tell i don't know much about psu's! well as long as i dont blow it up!
Right i'll go home and check the cpu, i have discontected the case fans and its defiantely not them.
Right i'll disconect the cpu fan for a second and if the noise stops it will be that...
If not i'll take out the power supply and test it in my old pc (now i know it wont blow up;) )
And if not that i'll disconect everything and try it! I'll have a busy afternoon!

Thanks for your help guys, i really apreciate it!!!

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

well well it isnt the cpu fan! I'm shocked...hmm what next i'll try graphics card i think...
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erm well...i took the graphics card out and well ive got nowhere to plug my monitor to in the back, does it matter?

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

It will fail the POST with out a graphics card, but at least you will see whether the noise is still there. All the other fans should spin up despite the missing GPU.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

well bugger me it was the bloody graphics card! Congrats to Lee who got it right first! I'm afraid i dont have any prizes, but you get the title of "smartarse"!:D
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oh crap i have no onboard graphics....

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

bummer - what kind of card is it Jem?

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

well now i have another question, can i change the fan on my graphics card....its this one
lol, yeah bummer, all i want to do is my coursework!....and well world of warcraft of course! ;)
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i just found a nvidia graphics card in a box, might stick this in, think is Plonking's old one!
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wooo and we have graphics again...not as good though :( *sigh*
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I'd like to thank you all for accompaning me on my journey of fixing my pc without supervision, I couldnt of done it without you!
lol, now fix my graphics card fan, a new journey, to boldly go where i have never gone before!!! Well ive been to maplin before but y'no what i mean! ;)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

So long as it's not a "5 year ongoing mission"..... :D

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

The problem is finding a part that will replace the existing fan, they tend to be individually designed for the card, rather than generic, like case or cpu fans.

As a stop gap you could try something to lubricate the existing fan. The trouble with doing this, is that any liquid lubricant will be a dust magnet. So the quantity used would need to be really small - literally one drop of a really light oil like sewing machine oil, or spray some WD40 into a saucer or something & use a drop of that picked up in the eye of a needle. Unless you can get hold of a dry lubricant - e.g. graphite or teflon powder - difficult to apply though, very messy. (powdered pencil 'lead' would do it, if finely powdered enough)

Having said that, you were saying the system may not have a warranty - but the individual parts should have - may be worth a word with the shop???

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Try buying one of these as a replacement fan.
I replaced my nvidia 5950 ultras heatsink/fan with one (fan was buzzing) and it's fine now :tu: :)

(2nd one down is probably what you need)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

I agree with Homealone about the GPU warranty.

Alternatively, you could check out an Arctic VGA silencer. That replaces your existing ATI fan with a nice quiet, working fan! IIRC it needsa spare PCI slot next to the card, but otherwise should do the trick.
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Great minds think alike, hey Rammie :)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

good find - did it come with any thermal compound?

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Yes, but only just enough and it was really sticky which made covering the chip properly a little tricky.


edit--not my find......someone here showed me that page when I had a GPU fan problem a while back :)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Oh i dont think i fancy anything that fiddley! it would be everywhere if i was left in charge!

hmmm yeah! i think i might give the people i got it from a ring< just to see< but they"ll probably say i did something to it though!
but worth a try!
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ooh if i have no luck with the shop, this is definately what i looking for! Thank you very very much!

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

If you go for a replacement heatsink/fan then look around for the best price as overclockers may not be the cheapest.........and PM me if you want any advice on fitting the bluddy thing :disturbd:

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Thank you very much for your help!

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Well I finally took the old noisy broken graphics card back to the shop I bought it from, it was in its years guarentee, so all fine, they took it from me with no replacement and said they would contact me when they had cleaned it up (suspecting it was just dust). I thought thats ok a few days, i wont bother asking for a replacement of their just going to give it a clean.

I had to call them over a week later because they hadnt got back to me, and I was told, "hang on i'll go see what they did with it" and he says the fan is completely worn out, so i started whining about not having a pc and coursework to be handed in thats on it (they dont know i have a spare graphics card in there at the mo) and he said to get a replacement from them in the meantime.

I went in today and got a piece of rubbish, half as good as the one i bought, that not only the cable wasn't screwing in right, when we put it the the pc for some reason the power wouldnt come on at all :confused:, but when we swapped them back it worked. There was mass panic for a few minutes though! ;)

Could the crappy graphic card have caused the power not to come on?

Should i annoy these people everyday to get my graphics card back? I was a bit miffed when they didnt call me for a week the first time, i dont want to wait a month for it. He said it would take 2 weeks the first time i went in, for the replacement to arrive.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Possibly,if it was pretty old it might have had an incompatable voltage for your board

Ignore what i said i just followed your link :D(unless your board is old and only agp2 x)

Sales of goods act 1977 amended sometime in the 90's :D states if the product becomes faulty after 6 months then they have to fix it before 6 months you can demand refund, But it has to be done in a reasonable time,I called them about something similar and they told me 2-3 weeks is a reasonable time

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

cool, i'll give them 3 weeks then, but im not sure what to do about this faulty replacement they gave me to tide me over. Seeing as it didnt work when i put it in shall i take it back and say that? ive already broken the seal on the packageing so i cant say i didnt put it in my machine, i dont want them trying to charge me for it.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

If it was the fan on the video card, you could have replaced it with a Vantec Iceberq4 (fits a 9600 no problem), costs around £6 if you shop around and is far superior to the stock HSF.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

So they gave you a brand new sealed card as a loaner? That seems strange,I hope they don't think its a replacement<how long have they had your card now?If its 2 weeks I would start hassling them

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Out of principle I knew I could have done that but I didnt see why I should pay to fix it when it was about 6 months old, I'd rather have a good old strop in the shop first and get a new replacement! :D
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Not brand new, but it was sealed in a bag...as far as they know I dont have a spare card you see...I thought it'd get them moving a bit faster!;)

So they gave me one to use for now and I take it back to them when my replacement card come in. This isnt an ordinary pc shop, its a kinda buy the parts from them and they put it together if you ask. So they arn't as fussy, i cant imagine pc world giving out spare grapics cards to hand back after the works done! :disturbd:

What i linked to was the one they gave me, were as this one is mine that the fan broke on and they are going to send off for a replacement.

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

I personally would be on there case,then just take the loaner back when you pick up your fixed card,yours is a shed load better :D

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

blimey, a 9200 for a 9600 is not exactly a metro for a ferrari, but it isn't far off, I'd be glad you couldn't get the 9200 working and just give it back & say nothing when they get your replacement 9600 back.

- I don't know why they didn't just fit one of the fans Bifta linked to in the first place...;)

Re: Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!
 

Ok, good plan, I'll just deny everything! :D Yeah i dont know why they didnt just fix it, but hey I guess a brand new one isnt bad. ;) It's lucky i had a spare though or i would have been a bit stuck!:) Thanks for the advice guys!