Yeah, I am cleaning up my cousin's computer. I am doing a reformat reinstall of Windows XP. I took the computer home and sometimes I get this noise coming from the tower. Usually the tower is pretty quiet. I opened up the case and removed 5 years worth of dust. I thought it might be the case fan making that noise. Now I am not so sure. The noise goes away when i tap the side of the tower a few times. Comes back though. I am beginning to wonder if it is the hard drive on its last legs. My cousin says she has noticed that noise before. I ran a diagnostic test on the hard drive and it passed. I am not an expert on computer hardware so I am not sure what I should do. Just reinstall and send it back without worrying about it? LOL
Is it a loud noise that sounds like a jet engine? If so, I would suspect a cooling fan with bad bearings. Try stopping or slowing each of the fans one at a time by pressing on the spinning fan blade close to the center (no, don't put your fingers in the fan blade ... just the hub part close to the center). If the sound changes or goes away, you have found the problem.
Well I would have to wait til it happens again and also open up the case right? Hard to explain the noise. Like a continuous nnnnnnnnnnnnn. Like a chain saw except not as loud lol.
Yes you need to open the case, except if it is the power supply fan. You can usually stop the power supply fan from the back using a Q-tip swab
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I mentioned the fans because you asked about the hard drive. Failing hard drives do not make the sound you described, so I would discount that (they make a click-click noise... I call that the "click of death").
Is it safe to open up the tower while its turned on? Also if the fan is making that noise how long before the computers components fail because of the fan making the noise?
Yes it is safe to open while it is turned on. Components usually don't fail while the fan is making that screeching noise... only until they stop turning. While searching for bad fans you don't want to stop the CPU fan for more than about 1-2 seconds. Stopping it longer may cause the PC to shut down. You only want to stop it long enough to verify that is the problem or not.
I think the noise maybe coming from the PSU. The PSU on my PC makes noise on startup. Though it subsides down after a few minutes, when the PC has booted up. I sometimes give it a tap too, and it stops .
If the machine has a video card that has a fan on it check the fan on the card. Those small fans can make an unbelieveable amount of noise when the bearing is bad.
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