Intermittent Noise From Inside Case

sci2000 · 30 Jul 2011 at 10:15

For sometime now and intermittent I have to say when I switch on my computer every now and then I'd say perhaps once a month I hear a noise from inside the computer case like as if a fan is in trouble, often it doesn't start as soon as the PC has been turned on but can start any time after, if it doesn't start within a minute or so then it won't happen.

But today I just left it as normally I wait till it has fully booted then I turn the PC off, start it up again and noise gone, but today I left it with the noise going on and it eventually went away by itself.

Any ideas what this could be and why would this loud spinning noise go away on it's own after around 3 minutes?

-fedexer- · 31 Jul 2011 at 22:05

Out of curiosity what sort of cpu cooler do you have? On my old machine the motherboard had a built on cpu cooler, it turned out this poor fan was dieing very slowly causing this horrible noise, again it would also eventually stop after a while but this was like it'd ground to a stop... might be an idea to take a look at your fans

sci2000 · 1 Aug 2011 at 12:41

To be honest I don't know what kind of CPU cooler I have. I haven't needed to open the case for sometime now.

If I remember correctly there looked like there was a built on cooler like you mentioned, it seemed to be seated on the top.

-fedexer- · 1 Aug 2011 at 16:59

Hmm this might sound odd, but try sticking your head in there next time and see if you can locate the source of the noise, it's definetly not a good sign eitherway there mate.

sci2000 · 1 Aug 2011 at 17:11

-fedexer- said:
Hmm this might sound odd, but try sticking your head in there next time and see if you can locate the source of the noise, it's definetly not a good sign eitherway there mate.

But that would mean keeping the side panel off all the time until the noise erupts again, and that could be anything between now and 1 or 2 months.

-fedexer- · 1 Aug 2011 at 22:18

Does it not last long enough for you to quickly whip the side off and give it a quick check then and there?

sci2000 · 2 Aug 2011 at 08:59

-fedexer- said:
Does it not last long enough for you to quickly whip the side off and give it a quick check then and there?

Hard to say, I may consider it the next time.

Kyo · 2 Aug 2011 at 15:15

I had this once and it ended up to be the PSU fan making vibrations due to dirt and the unit itself not sitting securely in the case.

You know it is definitely a fan so go through each one in your case to elminate the possiblities.

hlennie · 3 Aug 2011 at 17:28

Might be a DVD rom spinning up some times they can rattle like hell

sci2000 · 6 Aug 2011 at 11:44

It did it again this morning, dam problem I had was I couldn't find the keys to open the case, lol by the time I had found them the noise had stopped on it's own, must have lasted for about 5 minutes.

sci2000 · 10 Aug 2011 at 12:45

Right, ok, I found out that the noise is coming from the PSU as I managed to open the case as the noise started the other morning.

I remember someone had difficulty inserting this PSU when my older one went on the blink, so I am slightly worried that if I bought a new one that I may have the same problem although he managed to replace and fit this current one eventually, not had it too long though, I'd say around 6 years, perhaps that is long enough I suppose.

I take it that I just need to keep a note of which lead goes where before I remove it and replace, I also took a picture so I get the same size or model.

Do they all come with a similar size?

Edit, I have had the computer on all night as I have performed a defrag, not had one for a long time hence the duration of the defrag.

I must say that when the noise goes it never comes back again until maybe the next cold boot some time in the future.