Pc Issues

Sylvester

Turned on my PC this morning to an unhealthy sounding noise and vibration which appears to be coming from the back where the air is supposed to come out - and it's not! I've opened the casing and the fan inside is working. How long do I have to save all my documents to CD etc before it overheats and when it does, what will happen? PC will just shut down? I'm using an old pre-historic PC to post this and it can't do anything and can't afford new PC, so i'm slightly frustrated Thanks

bonsoirbonsoir

Which fan is vibrating? With the case open you should be fine. I don't expect you would find much air coming out, its more about circulation than anything else. If the CPU fan is spinning that is the most important thing.

In the meantime, open the case, and if you have a normal desktop fan (the kind you find in offices), point that at the inside of the PC to keep it cool.

Let us know which bit is vibrating. It could be: the power supply fan, the CPU fan, the Motherboard fan, a Graphics card fan, a case circulation fan, a dodgy CD drive etc etc all of which can be replaced fairly cheaply.

Edit: also, I don't know how old your PC is, but most PCs made in the past few years will shut down rather than overheat - you will get some beeps off the internal PC Speaker before this happens though.
David

Sylvester

It appears to be coming from the power supply. Where would I point the desktop fan too for the power supply fan? At the fan hole at the back of the PC? PC is about 2001, which is quite old, but new compared to this one i'm now using. My main fear is the PC blowing up! Thanks

jaydeeuk1

Sounds like either a fan blade is catching against something in the powersupply, most likely a wire. Although it may be ok to power on for now, the wire could shed the plastic coating, disconnect (might be an earthing wire) and short - all bad.

To fix, you will need a new ATX power supply, about £10-15 for a generic one.
Fitting is really easy. From the power supply you will see a large blcok of cables and a plastic connecter - unplug this (with computer disconnected from the wall and having earthed yourself). See image:


There may also be a smaller plastic connecter, remove this too




At the back of the computer, there are 4 screws holding the power supply in. Remove these, and the power supply will slide out.

To fit the new one, just do the reverse of these instructions. will take no more than 5 mins!

bonsoirbonsoir

Yep, I'd go to an independent computer repair shop, take your old power supply with you to make sure you are getting the right replacement. Power supplies are generally sold by watts. So yours might be 250 or 300, perhaps 350 even. You always want the same or more, but you always pay for more, so if you can get the same that would be best.

On the otherhand you might just have some worn bearings, or even some dust. Personally I would take the power supply out, try to get to the fan and clean it, perhaps putting a drop or two of oil in the centre. More often than not that would solve the problem. (Usually if a power supply makes a noise I give it a whack with the back of my hand, even if the pc is on! - but that's not recommended!)

They used to be £10 or £15 but the price has gone up, so don't be too surprised to pay upto £40 for your requirements. Of course you could buy a second hand one off ebay or something.

EDIT: regarding the desktop fan, as long as the power supply fan is turning at a decent rate that should be ok for the time being. It is actually drawing air from the outside into the power supply. Having worked with PCs for the last 16 years, I can assure you that there are thousands of PCs in offices with the same problem working day in and day out.

Sylvester

Update.

I turned the PC on to try and save some data, but there was a burning smell coming from the back of the PC, so it's been switched off.

Sorry for delay in posting, it kept saying I was less than 10 characters.

Frustrating day

Sylvester

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

Sounds like either a fan blade is catching against something in the powersupply, most likely a wire. Although it may be ok to power on for now, the wire could shed the plastic coating, disconnect (might be an earthing wire) and short - all bad.

To fix, you will need a new ATX power supply, about £10-15 for a generic one.
Fitting is really easy. From the power supply you will see a large blcok of cables and a plastic connecter - unplug this (with computer disconnected from the wall and having earthed yourself). See image:


There may also be a smaller plastic connecter, remove this too




At the back of the computer, there are 4 screws holding the power supply in. Remove these, and the power supply will slide out.

To fit the new one, just do the reverse of these instructions. will take no more than 5 mins!

I think I may get flatmate to ask her brother. He lives about 2 hours away but his business is PC's and i'm not technical at all

Thanks for the advice, i've looked inside PC and it's scared me off!

chilli_dog

If your power pack blows it is possible for it to take out your motherboard & processor.

Replace your power pack, they dont usually give you a warning, you lucky boy!!

Sylvester

bonsoirbonsoir wrote: »

Yep, I'd go to an independent computer repair shop, take your old power supply with you to make sure you are getting the right replacement. Power supplies are generally sold by watts. So yours might be 250 or 300, perhaps 350 even. You always want the same or more, but you always pay for more, so if you can get the same that would be best.

On the otherhand you might just have some worn bearings, or even some dust. Personally I would take the power supply out, try to get to the fan and clean it, perhaps putting a drop or two of oil in the centre. More often than not that would solve the problem. (Usually if a power supply makes a noise I give it a whack with the back of my hand, even if the pc is on! - but that's not recommended!)

They used to be £10 or £15 but the price has gone up, so don't be too surprised to pay upto £40 for your requirements. Of course you could buy a second hand one off ebay or something.

EDIT: regarding the desktop fan, as long as the power supply fan is turning at a decent rate that should be ok for the time being. It is actually drawing air from the outside into the power supply. Having worked with PCs for the last 16 years, I can assure you that there are thousands of PCs in offices with the same problem working day in and day out.

My power supply says 145w?

The fan seemed to have stopped moving and burning smell started after about 2 minutes. £40 is better than a new PC I cannot afford!

I'm going to have to get along with this old PC for now - 3GB HDD and only 140mb spare......what on earth do I delete!

I've lost my letters that I needed to post as on other PC and this one has no printer and is too big HD space wise for this one. I'm gonna have to hand write and I have RSI.

Not a good day at all

Sylvester

chilli_dog wrote: »

If your power pack blows it is possible for it to take out your motherboard & processor.

Replace your power pack, they dont usually give you a warning, you lucky boy!!

I'm going to see if flatmates brother can fix it as he's an expert. I'm not confident enough to do so myself

chilli_dog

why dont you put your other hard drive into the pc your using now, make sure its set to slave and you can access your stuff

** i am assuming both hard drives are IDE & not an IDE SATA mix or anything else**