Noisy PC

Lendusapund

Hi
My Dell Optiplex GX260 used to be nice and quiet despite getting on a bit. Lately though, not long after Ive booted, I start getting a whirring? or blowing noise constantly. Its not the disc drive as never use that hardly.. more like an internal fan perhaps?

Any ideas what I can attempt to resolve? Im quite techy in that Ive so far managed to change my ram about.. and thats it.

Oh by the way.. my comp used to have 256 ram (2 slots) and I beefed it up to 1 gig with 1 piece. Initially when I booted up - it was at the surfing stage in less than a minute - wow!.. a month or so later and its taking a little longer .. hm? any ideas here? (Ive a prob with Genuine Microsoft software but this cant slow it surely?) I did attempt to have 1 gig plus 126 stick and wasnt sure if it made it better or worse.

Thanks in advance.
RichT

caveat_emptor

Try disconnecting the fan temporarily. How can you use the PC without the HDD?

Lendusapund

Hi
thanks for the quick reply - Ill atempt to disconnect the fan. Re HDD, I should have said disc drive.
Regards, RichT

DatabaseError

don't disconnect any fans! I made the mistake of running a CPU without a cooler just once..within 3 seconds it was destroyed!
Open the case and clean it out...ideally with compressed air (lots of dust) then listen again.
Once you know which component/fan is making the noise you can progress

Lendusapund

Hi
After buying a can of air and giving it all a good dust, the noise appears to be comingfrom the power-supply fan (see pic link http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v364/computer-reclaim/Power%2520supplies/DellGX240180wattpsu.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.martbase.com/Dell-Spares_C17080/&usg=__DJV51dJmUE4WekP5r71RW_GmVa0=&h=487&w=716&sz=262&hl=en&start=23&tbnid=nzbmeFuO8CzT7M:&tbnh=95&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGX260%2BFAN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20.
Is this serious or OK to leave humming away?
THanks, RichT

kippen_noedel

sounds like the psu is on its way out, minimum spec you should look for is 400W with 4 sata connectors

a cheap one would be £20 a very good one £50

sharkie

Noisy fans are not the wost - seized silent ones are.

kippen noedel, dells of this age have eide drives and if it is not a tower box, then the take a bespoke PSU - it is a size/shape thing. The tower box may be a bespoke psu too - have not delt with towers that much.

andy2004

Spray the compressed air inside the PSU aswell, to clean the dust of that fan, if that picture you posted is your PSU, i think your going to find it difficult to replace, measure the size of the height, width and length, then see if you can find one the same size. The PSU you pictured looks rather thin compared with normal generic PSU's

Samba_Pa_Ti

yeah its a dell one in the picture, notoriously difficult to replace as the motherboard wiring isnt always standard. (ie you could buy a new psu and the plugs might fit but they arnt tied to be powering the same points).

Lokolo

Blow into it tbh.

Just like the wolves and the 3 piggies, a huff and a puff and blow all the dust out. You will get some back in your face but heh, it does the job. Do it a few times and all the dust will be gone and the noise will stop.

Lendusapund

Hi
Thanks to everyone who replied.
The PSE in the pic I added earlier was exactly like mine. It just came to me that a couple of years a friend replaced my psu as computer wasnt booting. Anyway, Ive blown loads into the fan and it seems relatively clean.. but still hums away.

Based on the fact I pd 150 approx 3 years ago for my computer,
1. put up with the noise hoping it wont lead to anything else
2. get someone to buy and fit new psu..(parts and labour )
3. buy new computer
4. I had quick search on ebay and found another gx260 in working condit with Windows etc already on.. £55 inc delivery. I could also use my new 1 gig ram in this if decided to get it.

Not that Im a cheapscate, its that I only use the machine for a few hours iternet browsing during the week so dont need any fancy bells and whistles.
Thanks again,
RichT