what's causing the noise?

newbie · Post by **newbie** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 4:29 am

AcoustiCase 6607
Nexus 3500
Amd athlon 2500+
Zalman 7000 ALCu
Samsung Spinpoint 80gb
Asus A7N8X - VM
Crucial 512mb Ram
Samsung CD-RW DVD Combo
Nvidia Geforce 4 mx440
No other fans
Usb broadband modem

Hi,

I recently was posting about whether I had acceptable temps, and that prompted me to remember that I hadn't cleaned out the dust filter on the front of my case for a year. Which I did, and the temps dropped a lot. However since then my computer has become louder and there is a constant white noise type sound, (although it is not terrible I had got used to lower noise levels, only hearing a bit of grumbling now and then and it's bugging me.)

Would this then be because of increased air flow? I have read the sticky on locating noise sources, but I don't feel comfortable trying to stop the fans. (I'm not used to messing about inside my computer.) I thought it might be possible for someone to know what the main source is from the information I have. I don't think it's the cpu fan because it's on it's
lowest setting and I've heard what it sounds like on it's highest setting. It seems to produce a more grumbling sound. So that leaves the hard drive (not suspended) and the psu fan. I was guessing it would most likely be the psu fan, because of the change in air flow?

my temps before cleaning out the dust filter were
cpu 55 case 42/43 hdd 44/45

afterwards were
cpu 44 case 36 hdd 39/41

These temps are for low power stuff only which is all I use my pc for.

(this was in similar hot weather conditons. they are even lower today but I think that's due to the end of a heat wave.)

Any changes I would make to the computer I would need to get somebody in to install stuff etc.

alglove · Post by **alglove** » Tue Jul 05, 2005 12:46 pm

Here is one way to test the hard drive for noise without fiddling around inside your computer. In Windows, go to Control Panel --> Power Options. You should find an option to turn off your hard disks after a certain amount of idle time. Set it to something really low (like 3 minutes), hit Apply, and wait.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed Jul 06, 2005 4:14 pm

Hello:

A good possibility is that one of the fans is wearing out -- or at least the bearings are getting loose. To test this, you're going to have to figure out how to stop them...or maybe swap them out with a different fan.

Ackelind · Post by **Ackelind** » Thu Jul 07, 2005 1:55 am

The zalman cooler would be my guess. A friend of mine has it, and it makes really strange, low humming, buzzing noises even though it is brand new.

newbie · Post by **newbie** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 5:37 am

Thanks guys for the tips. I now don't think it's the hard drive. I'll trying turning up the zalman fan to see if it makes the same noise but louder, and then see from there. I suspect a fan mighht be wearing out since the pc has got louder over time.

Edit - I did actually pluck up the courage to stop the zalman fan v. briefly and that does appear to be the noisey thing.

Simplest solution to this - new cpu fan?

No doubt that's really obvious!, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Like I say I'm not very confident with the pc innards at all. Was very wary of opening up the case when it was running. Scary. Would probably get somebody in to install a new fan.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri Jul 08, 2005 6:27 pm

Hello:

Are you using the Fanmate to slow the Zalman? It is possible to install a different fan, but takes some doing.

newbie · Post by **newbie** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:57 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello:

Are you using the Fanmate to slow the Zalman? It is possible to install a different fan, but takes some doing.

Yes I'm using the fanmate at the lowest setting. I guess changing the fan/ getting a whole new heat sink and fan combo is what it will have to be. I will get somebody in to do this, because if it's tricky it will be too difficult for me.