OT Computer Guy Question

Re: OT Computer Guy Question

A.J. Hamler

Could be dust buildup. And if you have pets, add stray fur to the mix.

A.J.

Re: OT Computer Guy Question

ebd

First, shut it down, open the case, and vacume the insides. It could be an accumulation of dust is overheating the insides.

Second, download, install, and run some maleware/virus software. Good, free software can be had here:

https://www.totalav.com/download-now

or

https://www.pcprotect.com/download-now

or

https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download/

Third, if after 1 & 2 the problem persists it could be that the machine is thrashing (I know too much jargon). This is hard to explain because it involves system internals that you don't want to deal with. Believe me - did this stuff for 40+ years.

Best to take it to a reliable computer shop and have them deal with it. Tell them the symptoms and that you think it could be a pagefile thrashing problem or a fragmented drive that is overly full.

Thanks.....

Barry Irby

I had sense enough to clean it. Opened the case and vacuumed the vents and the internals. Surprisingly little dust. Would have thought there was more because I have a long haired cat that sheds about a cat a day. Was surprised at how clean it was but vacuumed anyway. Have done that twice now.

Will download the software and give it a try.

Thanks again.

Ten years old maybe just a good cleaning

Dustmaker Mike

As stated before it might just need a good cleaning. Shut it down and take the case off. Evict the dust bunnies. After it is cleaned out leave the case off and turn it on. Look at the fans in the case and see if they are spinning really fast or sluggishly. Use compressed air to clean them. See if you can pin point the noise to a fan or hard drive. If hard drive, then a shop visit is necessary. If a fan I am pretty sure you can replace it your self with just a screw driver and one trip to a computer shop to get a new one. Just bring the old one with you. Mark the spot where it plus in so you don't forget. Leave it plugged into the wall while cleaning this will give any static a place to go if it happens. Touch the metal of the frame first then work away.

Check Youtube for instruction on how to remove your case cover.

Re: Ten years old maybe just a good cleaning

Bill Howatt

Pay close attention to the fins of the heatsink on the CPU chip - it typically has a small fan mounted on top of it. Often the dust gets packed between the fins and this is really what you need to clean out if present.

Bill

Re: OT Computer Guy Question

Matt

Good idea to clean it up a bit internally, but be careful not to generate static as the bits-and-peices are sensitive components.

If the machine is worth upgrading, you wil be pleasantly suprised with what a new generation power supply, fans, and solid state hard drive will do for reducing the noise levels and helping peforamance as well.

Re: OT Computer Guy Question [longish reply]

John McGaw

As others wrote, cleaning is a good (and usually safe) first step. To me the only concerning thing is the "Winding up and winding down" part. Typically in a home PC the only thing that normally will do that audibly is the fan on the CPU cooler and it will do this in response to heat changes but under many or most circumstances you will know if you are running a program which will stress and heat the CPU. The hard disk may make a slight sound but in almost every case unless you have a gaming computer with a super-fast hard disk it will be inaudible (unless it is dying a painful death).

With apologies if I get you in over your head, a way to get a handle on what is going on would be to 1] run task manager in a small window and watch the CPU usage (sorting on that column will place the heaviest user on top) and 2] installing a temperature-monitoring program to see if there is a correlation between the sound and measured temperature. I use Core Temp for the latter and run it constantly but there are others out there.

Oh, and before I forget I would be just a but suspicious of whatever hardware is holding the CPU cooler in place. I can't begin to number the times I've found an old PC where the heatsink had come loose from its moorings. This has nearly always been on systems using the standard abominable Intel plastic-pin fastenings which can let go or snap spontaneously. If the heatsink is loose it would make the system susceptible to wild temperatures swings which might explain "Winding up and winding down" for no discernible reason.

Re: OT Computer Guy Question

mark

Unlike Woodworking tool technology which has advanced only slightly by comparison( Saw Stop, Festool, ) computer processors, energy efficiency, performance, capacity, speed has advanced pretty significantly in the last decade.

Also, like alot of Technology, as the product has advanced in functionality, the average price has fallen significantly.

If you can simply clean the fan etc , and improve perfromance fine, but after 10 years you would be able to pick up a vastly superior computer for a significanly reduced price then you likely paid for the one you have.

Your Table Saw was built to last 10 years plus ..your current computer was not .

If you can I’d shop for a new one .

Check the power supply

Ellis Walentine

Those units have fans, and they have primitive bushings, so they make a lot of noise. There may be a way of lubricating them, but it should be cheap to replace the whole unit.

Ellis

Question

David Yoho

Barry you said "Lately my computer has become very noisy. It sounds like its fans and hard drive maybe are revving as fast as they can. Winding up and winding down. Goes on longer and longer. Sounds like something is going to die. "

Does this noise sound sort of like a jet engine might make when ramping up to take off and then tapers back to normal or is it a squalling sound?

If the first, it sounds like something is taxing the CPU and causing the cooling fan to kick into high speed to cool it down. If the second, it is likely a bearing in one of the fans going bad. Your computer probably has 2 or 3 internal fans. One in the power supply, one for the CPU chip, and perhaps one that cools the inside of the case. It's possible to have more fans but I'd guess you're not using a stand alone graphics card.

If you've cleaned the dust from the fan blades and cooling fins (so they are doing their job efficiently) and the sound is not one made by a bearing going bad (squalling sound) and you've checked to see there is no malware, then I'd say a visit to your local computer repair place would be in order.

OK, OK, I confess....

Barry Irby

I go on Facebook and play online Poker. Not for real money, Imaginary money. I have $40,000,000 Of completely unspendable money.

I have been online on WC for 45 minutes, and hear nothing or just barely hear the fans whispering. If I go to the Poker site, soon the fans will windup.

I also have been on YouTube. Go to Doucette and Wolfe and check out the wood porn. It really is worth a visit.

I am wondering if I have something weird like somebody using my computer to mine for Bitcoins?

Success, I hope....

Barry Irby

Thanks all...I ran Malwarebytes and it found and quarantined about 126 PUP's. Not sure, but that seemed to help. Then I dragged the air hose up here out of the shop and after vacuuming the inside of the case, I blew it out. A shocking amount of dust came out. Don't know where it was hiding, but I should have been wearing a dust mask. Seems to have returned it to silence.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Success, I hope....

George Koch

Barry, Maybe that wasn't dust but some of that completely unspendable $40,000,000 you were stashing in there. You had better retrieve it.

One Caution ***

David Yoho

I learned the hard way years ago that blowing compressed air from my compressor in the shop directly onto a computer fan caused them to go bad sooner. I think perhaps it spins the blades to fast. Anyway I stopped doing it after a number of fans soon started squalling indicating the bearings were going bad.

Since then I use a small wooden dowel or pencil to hold each blade from turning while I blast it with air. Never had an issue since.

Re: Success, I hope....

ebd

Glad your problem is resolved.

Re: One Caution ***

Barry Irby

I wondered about that. Decided pretty quickly to stop over revving the fans. Hopefully I did not damage them.

Nest tiem i will stop them with a pencil or something. Thanks.

Re: OT Computer Guy Question

Walt

10 years old? If i had anything important - financial & tax records, that sort of thing - I'd make sure I had at least one backup copy, two wouldn't hurt. I've read/heard that blowing out with modest air pressure is better than vacuuming due to the possibility of static discharge while vacuuming. After I was through cleaning I'd reseat all the cables in case one became partially unseated. I'm typing this on an 8 year old desktop with 4 year old hard drive. It's working fine but I won't be surprised if one or more parts don't want to wake up one morning. PCs, especially consumer grade PCs don't live forever.