Sounds from in side the casing.

[waynetravis]

I have a crazy wierd buzzin sound coming from inside my computer's casing.

Its hard to describe the sound, but its like something spinnig but going 'da da da da da'.
It used to do that for a while and then stop, but since yesterday its been going forever.

I have restarted my machine, but as soon as it gets loaded back up the sound comes again

 

[Bonochick]

When my computer was making a loud buzzing noise, we opened it up, used some compressed air to blow out the dust (there was a lot!), and that solved the problem.

 

[Liesje]

Noises are usually a fan. If it's your heat sink/processor fan, you need to fix or replace it ASAP or the computer will eventually overheat and burn. You can open it up and remove dust, but be careful b/c it's not that hard to charge and shock your mother board. Personally, I'll only blow out dust while I'm attached to a grounding strip and using a 3M vacuum made for computers and printers. Compressed air is the second best option. A regular vacuum is a bad, bad choice (most vacuums work by creating static charge...not good for compies). If it doesn't help, replacing a fan is usually not expensive. Phil just replaced a fan (included heat sink and processor grease) and I don't think it was more than $30.

 

[Liesje]

Is it a desktop or laptop? My post assumed desktop, but I should've asked.

 

[waynetravis]

Its a desktop

Do you need a ground strip to open it? I read you can touch the inside chassis to ground it.

Also if I change the heatsink fan. Do i have to match my comp's specs or can i just buy one?

 

[Liesje]

Technically - yes; practically - no. The only time I ground myself when opening a box is if it's someone else's (at work, not at home). We have to use a static mat and a strip that connects our wrist into the wall outlet (kinda weird to plug yourself into the wall!). I mean, as long as you're not sliding the thing back and forth on your carpet, I don't see a problem. Vacuuming and spraying air is different because that does create certain charges so I'm a lot more careful with that than just opening the box.

As for the heatsink fan, I believe you need to match specs b/c it works with the processor. I don't know much about processors, but I'm assuming they are not all exactly alike. When Phil bought his fan a few weeks ago, he told them what motherboard he has and what processor and they picked out the right heatsink and fan. Sometimes you can get just a heatsink or just a fan, but in his case it was a single unit and it wasn't even that expensive.

 

[waynetravis]

Thanks Lies, you rock

Is there a way to check the temperature of my computer? And what is the average percentage a CPU should opperate at? Mine says 100%.

 

[Liesje]

You can get little freeware programs that give you temp readings on different hardware. I use to have one in my system tray that monitored the hard drive (which averaged about 115 degrees).

CPU should not always be at 100%. I get nervous when mine in consistently above 50%, unless I'm working on several digital images at a time or something like that. The appropriate percentage will depend on what processes you're running and what processor you have. I believe RAM and cached memory also affect the % even though it refers to CPU.

 

[waynetravis]

Currently I have 3 programs open; msn, i tunes and firefox. When I press ctrl + alt+ del it says CPU usage goes bewtween 98 - 100%

Also I broght the tower block forward from the back wall about 7inches this afternoon and the buzzing noise stopped.

 

[Canadiens1131]

For the CPU usage, try downloading Crap Cleaner and running through the diagnostics. It will speed up a lot of flagging computers, I use it monthly on my desktop and laptop to keep things spiffy.

As far as the buzzing, it may be the heatsink fan, or it could be your optical drive (CD/DVD) spinning up as well. Do you have a disc in the drive when this buzzing starts? If not than I'd guess the fan as well.

 

[Got Philk?]

http://pc-wizard-2007.en.softonic.com/

That should give u an option to see temps of your hardware...just download it. It's free!

Is the noise coming from the back of the computer? Or is it more in the middle on the side? If it's the back, it probably is your power supply fan. If it is in the middle on the side wall, it's the fan on the processor/motherboard etc.

I went to a local store and got a new fan for $21.00 USD. I just told the guy my specs and he said, "Oh, this one is the best." And all is well.