Posted on 06/20/2005 11:05:57 PM PDT by birbear
Hi all you wonderful tech savvy guys (and gals).
I'm having some strange noises coming out of my PC. Sounds kind of like the power supply fan hitting something (what it could be hitting, I have no idea.)
There seems to be some debat among my local techies on if it's a power supply, or if it's a hard drive (I have 2 in the machine.)
What's your best guess? It's a 3 year old machine (Dell Dimension 4500) with a 250 watt power supply. The oldest of the two hard drives is probably 4 years old.
Any thoughts?
;-)
yeah yeah... I'm prepared for the jokes...
My educated guess is to go first with the power supply or a fan. They start doing exactly what you wrote when they get old and they need replacing.
See, that's what i thought, and went ahead and ordered a new PS. Now I've got people telling me it's a failing HD... and I'm seeing no other indication of that.
Have ya blown out the power supply and other fans with compressed air? You can tell Windoze to shut down the HD's after 5 mins. under the power options tab, and then when they spin down see if you hear that sound. Should be easy enough to isolate.
Who is the mother of all those people?
Can you open the case and then restart it?
If you can, get your ear close to the power supply and close to the hard drive. You'll know then.
I'm betting that if you unplug the computer and take a shopvac to the power supply fan vent, you might well solve the prob.
That said, though, the impeller fan in the power source inhales all KINDS of kwapola over time.
If you intend to swap parts in, I for one would definitely start w/the power supply.
Just fwiw, best results, and FReegards to you!
If you still can't tell which fan or drive is making the noise, use a screwdriver as a sound conductor (hopefully one that's at least semi-insulated, LOL).
Place the tip near the suspected part and the handle in your ear. Keep moving it from part to part (carefully, on the metal case parts, not the circuitry, DOH) 'til the noise gets loudest.
Could also be the little fan that is stuck on the CPU. The bearings seem to go quite often on them, or the little power supply wires sometimes flop around and hit those blades.
And do blow out any furballs you find.
Although we do need to know....are you logged in?
How hot do the hard drives run?
Run the computer for an hour, then disconnect the power and open the case. If one of drives is scorching hot, that might be your problem. Hard drives will be warm, but should not be extremely hot.
It is more likely that the lubricant in the power supply fan has dried out. Theoretically, you could open up the PS, remove the fan and put a few drops of machine oil on the bearing which is usually under a rubber grommet covered by an information sticker on the fan.
Don't open the power supply if you don't know what you are doing because it has capacitors that can zot you into the next world.
You could unplug the drives and power-up and see if you still have the noise.
Before they get here, I am having the same problem on my old MAC G4. It humms fine and then, like a bad dinner, it starts growling and I put it to sleep. I think it is the power supply, since it has basically been running non-stop for almost 3 years. (Yeah, I know a mac plug, but it has with maybe 50 restarts in 3 years!).
I mainly use a laptop now, but I may replace the power supply on the G4 as the noise is getting creepy.
Sounds like the ball bearing fan in the power supply needs to be lubricated. I recommend a couple drops of sewing machine oil. If it's a ball-bearing fan, if you pull back the round sticker that is the label of the fan, you'll see a a recessed area silver in color, put the two small drops of oil there and spin the fan and press down on the the fan gently to work the oil down onto the ball-bearings below. Once you work the friction out of the fan by spinning it with your finger, you'll know it's been properly lubricated. Put things back together and all should be well.
thanks. I already have a new power supply on order, I'll just replace the whole unit. but thanks!
I'd just replace the power supply.....they are fairly cheap and ya eliminate one suspect pretty much.....just my opinion . Paging some picky puter pro's.....
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