Grinding Noise...

[PornMaster]

Ok, I leave my computer on pretty much 24/7. but it recently started grinding at start-up, i think it's my hard drive or my fan, i'm not too sure, it kinda sounds like a really quiet car with no muffler.

usually i get the problem when i leave my comuter off for the night or even 2 hours.


Any opinions on what it is or how to fix it?? Thanks in advance!


And also, I am thinking of buying an extra hard drive (60-80Gig'er) and 256 MB's of RAM, i need to know what is cheap but good, I don't really have a price limit, but i need something at least cheap..... Any opinions on that??

[Krell]

Open your case, and observe where the sound comes from when you reproduce the problem.

Shut down your PC.

Pull the ram that you have, and write the #'s down exactly, all of them. Reseat ram. Check under your heatsick, see if your CPU has heatsink grease, if not, get a small amount.

Make sure that you have 2 IDE cables, and that they have 2 connectors on each of them. Also, make sure you have a free 12v connector or not.

Buy the EXACT same memory, or at least the SAME EXACT specs, as what you have.

When you purchase these, buy a can of compressed air. When you go to install the new parts, blow it out thoroughly. Blow out the power Supply too. Blow out your CPU fan, etc.
If the noise is still fan related, replace it.


www.googlegear.com

[Undermind]

Why don't u just open the case and observe and listen to every component on startup to get a better feeling of where the noise is coming from, and then after you narrow it down do some trouble shooting ,like unpluging things and re-pluging them, to see if it is in fact that component that is making the noise, that is what i would do, cuz it is damn near impossible to tell you from this end what it is without actually seeing your computer

[MarkB]

I had that problem once. Found out that it was my fan getting clogged up with a fur ball (I tend to shed a lot)....Costs me 5 bucks to replace the fan.

[The Hunter]

A problem I had sounds very similar, but after doing the usual to isolate the problem it turned out to be the fan on the video board. Replaced the board, and the noise went away for a few months, and then returned. The solution was to remove the cheap ass fan, and install one with bearings.

[MarkB]

So I guess it's not recommended to get a cheap fan?

[The Hunter]

Its just my opinion, but I have had 2 fail so far, and this fan is working well so far, but my pc lives in a very dusty environment, not to mention the donations of cat hair that I find in amazing quantitys considering the size of the cat.

[PornMaster]

OK, so i turned off my computer for about 2 and a half hours. Then i opened it up, Turned it on and the noise was coming from the fan (the one that sits on the processor). turns out that their was tons of dust and cat hair caught in it, but removing all the dust/cat hair didn't slove my problem, so i'll just buy a new fan.

but thanks for all your replys!!

[zaphodiv]

It is usually possible to fix a grinding fan for a couple of months by pealing off the label, pulling out the rubber bung and spraying WD40 or similar aerosol lubricant into the bearing and gluing the label back on.

Handy tip if you want to get it going for a bit before you have time to buy a new fan.

[The Hunter]

Just be careful using any kind of lubricant not designed for that specfic purpose. Some may fly off and cause an untimely end to a PC. There are some lubricants made for high speed applications.

[zaphodiv]

I assumed that would be obvious to anyone who works on the innards of their computer but for the benifit of the clueless;

Remove the fan entierly from the computer while lubrcating it.

Use lubricant that evaporates and make sure all stray liquid is gone before putting the fan back.

Use non conductive lubricant, check the can to see if it is ok to use it.

[Krell]

zaphodiv

What may not be obvious to anyone who works on the innards of their computer is that lubricant, in a fan, will get dispersed. The oils will then accumulate in other areas, and even tho they may not be electically conductive, the addition of an oil across the surface of your mother board etc, will collect more dust, which also isnt a good thing. Some oils act as petrolum distillates and make plastics soft.

It's not that I cant appreciate a somewhat non-conventional approach to problem solving, as I have cleaned many a computer in a bathtub. (thats right, hot 409 water, and a good bath) However, I told him exactly what he needs to do to make a proper determination, and solve his problem.

Fans are not expensive, around $10 with bearings. For the effort of disassembly, he could just as well replace it, when he ordered his ram.

[zaphodiv]

Ok,save this tip for power supply fans which blow air out of the computer.