Noisy computer

[venator]

My 2 year old machine has started to make a loud vibrating noise when switched on. It stops after 10 minutes or so. A sharp tap stops it, but it starts again.

Any suggestions? I'm going to clean it (again) and run it with the side off to see if I can hear where it's coming from.

[LewPaper]

I know it's pretty obvious but have you checked for anything loose? Is anything leaning against the fan? I think the worst scenario would be that it's an indication that one of your hard drives is on the way out.

[ChuckFickens]

It's a fan bearing going.

Normally two choice, CPU or power supply (you may have extra case fans, in which case it could also be those)

Although probably not best practice as such, if you can't easily hear which one is making a noise just stop the fan by putting your finger on the centre of the fan (not in the blades!) and see which one stops the noise. if it's the power supply one then strictly speaking you need a new power supply (it's possible to change the fan, but you're not really meant to, if you do attempt to change a PSU fan take care not to touch the caps as they can be live for hours after switch off) if it's CPU you normally need a whole new cooler.

[venator]

Thanks once again! I really hadn't thought about the fans, but it seems obvious now.
I'll get a techie pal to come & have a look - worth investing a couple of pints.

[venator]

Success! Just used my wife's stethoscopes on the fans - the wooden Pinard's model turned out the best. It's the CPU fan.

[ChuckFickens]

LOL, never thought of using a stethoscope (then I don't have easy access to one)

Sometimes CPU fans are standard fans, in which case you can buy a fan on it's own and unscrew the fan and change it, but more often you need to replace the whole lot and how to remove the heatsink from the CPU differs from cooler to cooler.

If you are able to take a pic of the cooler and post it on here I can give you directions. but make sure if you get a whole new cooler it comes with a tube of thermal paste and ideally you'll need something like isopropanol or acetone to clean the top of the CPU.

[venator]

Thanks for your help, Chuck. I won't do anything myself, but will get a techie pal to come over for the day - he builds & maintains computers.

And it's a good excuse for a pint or three.

Just going to post asking for feedback on new desktops people have bought. My pal would want to build one, but I don't want that option.

[ChuckFickens]

Unless somebody wants to build a computer as a learning project, or they want very specific hardware combinations that wouldn't otherwise be available then I'd never recommend self building these days. places like Dell, HP, or whoever buy their components in millions and get them at a hugely discounted price because of that, you would never be able to build a system at the same cost as you can buy the same spec system pre-built.