What does it mean when the sounds coming from the tower sound like @&^#?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chopstick Head
  • Start date Start date
C

Chopstick Head

My PC is only 3 years old but lately the sounds coming from the tower are
freaking me out. Lately odd things have been happening. Random reboots,
weird colors on the screen, games freeze up when they never used to. Sounds
like rusty innards! I am no expert... I need to know what to do here...
shitty sounding cooling fans? Will cleaning them help or is my PC going to
die?
 
Chopstick Head said:
My PC is only 3 years old but lately the sounds coming from the tower are
freaking me out. Lately odd things have been happening. Random reboots,
weird colors on the screen, games freeze up when they never used to.
Sounds like rusty innards! I am no expert... I need to know what to do
here... shitty sounding cooling fans? Will cleaning them help or is my PC
going to die?
Click to expand...

My guess is your hard drive is going. I would back up now because once your
HD fails it's going to be difficult if not impossible to recover the data.
 
Chopstick Head said:
My PC is only 3 years old but lately the sounds coming from the tower are
freaking me out. Lately odd things have been happening. Random reboots,
weird colors on the screen, games freeze up
Click to expand...

nvidia cooling fan failure

when they never used to. Sounds
 
There are MANY moving parts inside a PC that can make odd noises. The
simplest thing to do is open the case and, using canned air, blow all the
dust out of the fans and boards that you see WHILE THE COMPUTER IS OFF. If
that doesn't solve the problem, then it's time to take the computer into the
shop for some expert analysis.
 
If it sounds really bad, it will have to be a fan. There is nothing else
really that could be doing that.

I don't get the feeling you have been troubleshoooting this, so open the
case, and run the machine with the case open.
You might see yourself what's causing the problem. It could be a case
fan or the processor's fan, but more likely it will be the fan on the
graphics card as suggested below.

Take out the card (if the motherboard has built in card) and see if the
problem stops when running the machine without this card. Alternatively
change to any other card tif you have one.

Obviously you won't be able to play some games, but you need to find out
what the faulty component is,and change it. Reading the postings here, I
understand that although the dust inside machines look revolting, it is
not that common for it to be the reason behind failures. Cleaning your
fan is probably not going to fix the problem, although it is a good
thing to do. Be careful while you do it. You need a bottle of compressed
air for getting the dust off.

You can also do what 99% of computer users would do, take the machine
somewhere for service. No shame in that at all.
If you are going to do it yourself you will have to be patient and use
the documentation for the different components in your machine. Asking
for help in this group is only going to be useful if you genuinely want
to learn how to fix your own hardware.

Fans can be changed: I just changed a fan on an nVidia card. It took
apprx 4 hours because I had not done it before. I used the installation
instructions for the fan and had to start over several times because I
was struggling to interpret the pictures in the installation guide.
Patience is required.

Alternatively you may want to upgrade your graphics card to another
card. This is a very easy upgrade.
Jo
 
Back
Top