Computer has got noisy?

[paul]

have been hammering a bit more of recent!!! have googled and found that founds make noise / bearings etc! but i dont think this is whats wrong with mine! only started yesterday!

have had it all apart (as i have a little knowledge) good hoover around as it wasnt very clean! Machine about 5/6 years old! sound like its coming from the hard drive :S all works ok just humms

any thought please

My clean doesnt seen to have done anything?! guess its just wearing out?!

 

[tyranical]

Does it do it when you first start up, then tend to quieten off? When you cleaned it did you clean ALL the fans in it, they will start making alot of noise after a build up of dust in them, there'll be a fan on your motherboard, in the PSU (the big box at the top, fan is on the back by the black power plug) and depending on your comp you may have a small one on your graphics card and maybe others around your case.

Hard drive noises tend to sound a bit metallicy but if its not your fans, thats the only other thing it can be really as theres no other moving parts in there to make a noise. In which case, get your stuff backed up ASAP (you should do this anyway) so that if/when it does go, your not gonna lose it all.

 

[paul]

i cleaned all the fans iirc there was 3 - it humms a bit like what a fridge does?!! :S

does it when it starts up with in the first 5 seconds and continues during use!

 

[tyranical]

Well all i'd suggest is get your s**t backed up just incase and see what happens.

Theres nothing you can do to stop it failing if its on its way out, i'd go over the fans again though you might need more than a hoover if the dust buildup was that bad you'll need to scrape all the hard dust off the blades etc and if you've got any compressed air in a can i'd give that a blow through them aswell.

 

[paul]

can you spray a bit of wd?! or is that a no no will back up

 

[The Ironist]

Wd lol

 

[paul]

glad i amuse!

 

[Munson]

Disconnect the HDD and power it up. If it's still noisy then it's not the HDD. Most likely a failing bearing, if it's a humming.

 

[Christopher]

Yep. Back up now before the disk spits it's arse out.

 

[Darren S]

Disconnect the HDD and power it up. If it's still noisy then it's not the HDD. Most likely a failing bearing, if it's a humming.

Munson's right - you need to go through a process of elimination. With the side off the PC, try unplugging the power lead to the hard drive and switch it on - see if the noise returns.

If it does, try going through the fans within the PC - unplugging each in turn. EXCEPT the processor (CPU) one. If you're running an AMD processor you wold have approx 2 seconds before it went bang without a fan running - lol.

Could be the fan on the graphics card? They are the most common ones to fail in my experience.

D.

 

[paul]

thanks guys! backed up photos which mean the most to me

still buzzes lol!

 

[DrR]

I WD my fans, no probs in doing that, as long as it's dried before you switch it on

 

[Munson]

thanks guys! backed up photos which mean the most to me

still buzzes lol!

Did you try any of the suggestions to isolate the noise? No one was saying it would stop buzzing if you backed up your s**t.

 

[paul]

im toooo scared to start unplugging stuff! doesnt seem to be as bad today :S

 

[Munson]

Ok well in that case, here's what I'd do. Write down all the possible sources of the noise on separate pieces of paper. Put the pieces of paper into a hat and shake it up a bit. Put a hand in and pull out just one piece of paper. Whatever is written on it, buy a new one. If the noise is still there, simply repeat the process until it's gone.

 

[paul]

if it packs up a new one will be invested in! they dont last for ever and it is about 6 year old! as i say some times doesnt sound as loud (its more of a hissing noise tbh)

 

[tyranical]

Ok well in that case, here's what I'd do. Write down all the possible sources of the noise on separate pieces of paper. Put the pieces of paper into a hat and shake it up a bit. Put a hand in and pull out just one piece of paper. Whatever is written on it, buy a new one. If the noise is still there, simply repeat the process until it's gone.

lmao, christ roy, glad you don't work on aircraft if thats your problem solving technique :rasp:

Yeh if it packs up you might aswell get a new one, if its 6 years old like you say then it'll cost you more to repair it than its worth as it'll be worth peanuts.

 

[Munson]

Roffle. Yeah. If it's a fan bearing, the whole PC is a write-off.

Fair enough if he wants to replace it anyway, but it's not necessarily beyond economical repair just because it's making a bit of noise.

 

[tyranical]

I was meaning if it was the Hard disk, not the fan . Or possibly if its the PSU if its one of those bloody dell/time etc units that had a custom PSU which are a ballache to get hold of and cost 3 times as much as a normal 1.

 

[Marky_]

Can you get a video of it Paul?

 

[paul]

it doesnt seem to be as loud as it was thanks guys! still working fine!