Argh! Loud noise coming from my poor PC!

[xcdtowg]

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 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!

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

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by xcdtowg

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 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!

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

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.

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)

[xcdtowg]

Originally Posted by Paul

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.

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!
__________________

Originally Posted by homealone

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)

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!

[swoop101]

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.

[pazor]

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.

[xcdtowg]

Originally Posted by swoop101

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.

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!
__________________

Originally Posted by pazor

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.

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

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by xcdtowg

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!

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.

[xcdtowg]

Originally Posted by Paul

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.

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

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!

[Aragorn]

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?

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.

[Gareth]

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

[Lee]

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'?

[nffc]

Originally Posted by Lee

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.

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.

[Raistlin]

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.....

[xcdtowg]

Originally Posted by Gareth

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

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! 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.
__________________

Originally Posted by Lee

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'?

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.
__________________

Originally Posted by Raistlin

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.....

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....