PC making strange noise.

Rev

Hi.

I'm hoping someone can give me a clue as to what this might be.

I have a P4 (3.GHz) machine with a gig of ram, three hard drives (2 Maxtor 80gig and a maxtor 120g), radeon 9600 (256mb), running windows XP.

For a few weeks now my PC has been making a strange buzzing/grinding noise on start up. It sounds as if a bee is stuck in there or something. It only ever happens the first time I switch on (i.e., if I turned off now, and switched back on in a few hours it doesn't happen). It doesn't happen all the time, it'll stop for a few days and then start up again. And it's stopped by the time windows had finished loading. The PC is running fine, so it's not effecting performance (for now).

I've checked all the fans numerous times and they all seem to be working perfectly and I can't seem to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. It seem to be at the back around the general area of the CPU and the PSU but I just can't seem to pinpoint it.

I realise it could probably be a million things but I thought I'd ask here before taking it in to get checked. I don't want it to be something going wrong and I'm just ignoring it because it's not effecting performance.

So, does anyone have any idea's?

All advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Rev

intel

I would of said CPU fan or HDD.

Brodel

when you say you've checked the fans, do you mean you have by taking the case off? It should be fairly easy to tell where it is coming from that way. It sounds like a bearing has worn out on one of your fans. If you can tell which one it is it should be easy to fix.

Rev

Yeah I've taken the case off a few times and all the fans are running fine. Even with the case off I can't pin point the sound, just seems to be around the CPU and PSU.

The CPU fan is running fine. Is there anyway of testing the PSU fan? or should I just try replacing the power supply unit and see if it still happens?

PS. If this is the case, can someone point me in the direction of a suitable power supply. Or tell me how to figure out what I should be buying. Thanks.

pinkfluffybabe

Rev wrote:

For a few weeks now my PC has been making a strange buzzing/grinding noise on start up. It sounds as if a bee is stuck in there or something. It only ever happens the first time I switch on (i.e., if I turned off now, and switched back on in a few hours it doesn't happen). It doesn't happen all the time, it'll stop for a few days and then start up again. And it's stopped by the time windows had finished loading. The PC is running fine, so it's not effecting performance (for now).

Im not a techie person, so if I am being patronizing/stupid please ignore me!

I had this same problem in the summer and my IT friend took it away to look at it and he said it was just a build up of dust on the fans. He used some sort of spray and that sorted it out.

Rev

I thought that at first. Used a can of air to clean it and its still happening . Thanks for the suggestion though.

slobbery

Not sure if this will help, but I had exactly the same problem for many months, and whatever I did didn't fix it. It eventually cured itself a month or so ago and hasn't yet returned.
I did notice however, that the only thing your system has that is the same as mine is the graphics card - I wonder if this could be the problem?
If you cure it let me know as I'm sure mine will be back...

Lorian

Do you have a little 40mm northbridge chipset fan? They are they are often a cause of noise on startup that vanishes later. Often they can just be removed, or lubricated (by removing the sticky label on the reverse side).

Rev

I've never noticed a chipset fan, so I'm guessing not. I'll have to check.

cougar_3

The fans may be running OK, but still creating noise. Can you disconnect them when the PC isn't under a strain like at start up and see if it stops when one's disconnected?

Connect them all as soon as you're done!

Rev

I did that this afternoon and the noise still occured. The only fan I couldn't check was the PSU fan.

I'm really baffled as to why it only happens the once, the first switch on of the day. I can shut down, leave it for hours and switch back on and it doesn't happen.