Loud Noise in PC Troubleshooting
How I Silenced the Noise and Was Able to See Again*
By Chongchen Saelee
Jan. 20, 2010
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A TUTORIAL. HOWEVER, IF YOU CAN FIND IT INFORMATIONAL TOWARDS FINDING A SOLUTION TO YOUR OWN PC PROBLEMS, BY ALL MEANS, PLEASE USE IT. BUT IF IT WORSENS YOUR PC, DON'T BLAME ME. THIS IS JUST A "SLICE OF LIFE" ARTICLE, A LOOK AT MY MUNDANE LIFE.
Symptom: Loud, whirling "jet engine" sound coming from inside PC
Possible causes: Case fan, CPU heatsink fan, graphics card fan, hard drive failure
I'm sure many Internet users scour the vast Net for solutions, and if they have just as much luck as I do, they won't find anything specific to their personal delimma. My computer is almost 10 years old, so most articles relating to my model of pc and operating system are outdated. But as long as there are articles about the same problems, I can still find those useful. At the least, it adds options to the troubleshooting process.
So after using the computer for the first year, it became loud. I wasn't as acknowledgable about PCs like I am now (though that's not saying much), so I didn't know how to troubleshoot. Like any new computer owner, I just assumed the whole thing was broken. I didn't know the PC had many parts, and one failing part could be replaced and have the system back running again. It's one thing to use software troubleshooting, it's another to do hardware troubleshooting.
What's up, doc?
Upon researching possible causes of loud noise coming from inside my computer, I found some forums with users saying it could be the case fans, the cpu, the graphics card, or the hard drive. Of course, each part plays a vital role to the pc running at optimal performance so removing any without properly diagnosing the problem is detrimental.
nVidia GeForce MMX-440
This was a 64 megabyte (MB) video card with passive cooling. I didn't know what passive cooling was back then. Passive cooling is a technique of dispersing the heat generated by a hardware component by way of a heatsink, spreading the heat over a wider surface area attempts to reduce heat concentrated in a single area. Then there is active cooling, which is a cooling fan built into the hardware component. Usually these fans, as seen on graphics cards and CPU heatsinks, produce lots of noise to keep the component from bursting into flames or melting. See, I didn't piece together that a graphics card without a fan couldn't make noise... nonetheless, for fear that it could damage my motherboard without further usage, I replaced it.
nVidia GeForce 7600GS
I got this one for a discounted price and it was a whopping 512MB video card. Long story short, I used this card for about 3 years with no problems until the "noise" came back. Again, I assumed it was the GPU fan (because this time, there was a fan on the card). Updating the nVidia drivers didn't help. And the nVidia drivers with every new release was dropping support for my LCD monitor's native resolution like Lincoln Logs. I could draw a correlation with software conflicts and the fan acting up, but I wouldn't know where to begin. Ultimately, the display was getting "torn" and freezing up randomly, leading me to suspect it was malware or virus. Scanned the PC thoroughly, even in safe mode, for days and nothing came up. Had to put good faith into the software that it wasn't malware, so I ruled that out. Anyway, the 7600GS had a warranty of 3 years and the time was appropriate to replace it.
A New Delimma
The 7600GS was freezing randomly, but particularly only when I was using the Internet. Since Internet browsers do some heavy graphics rendering, I guess the GPU took the bullet. The display would tear and freeze. Finally, the PC booted up, but nothing would show at all, a black screen. I could boot into safe mode with the system VGA to troubleshoot, but otherwise setting the resolutions for th card didn't work. This card was done for.
Checking the Integrity of the Hard Drive
Fearing that a possible virus or malware had damaged my hard drive and that was causing the memory errors, I used some diagnostic tools provided by Western Digital and Microsoft. You can only do "chkdsk" so many times with Recovery Console before you realize it's not going to fix the noise or display issues.
ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro
Strapped for cash, I settled for this cheap 256MB card. Upon installing it and its drivers, the noise would not disappear. Now I realized it cannot be the graphics card because it's new. Daring to finally solve it once and for all, I had to see the computer boot up with the case cover off (which I do not recommend you do unless you know what you're doing). Sure enough, there it was, the CPU heatsink fan gracefully spinning with a hum, and the ATI fan was a whisper, and the now-obvious caked-up case fan whirling like a jet engine. Holy crap. So I removed the case fan.
The Rabid, Loud Fan
And here's the joker. I don't think the hardware was failing, but there was a strong correlation with the nVidia drivers (or just plain software conflicts) and this case fan getting loud. Maybe the added components required more juice from the power supply unit and the BIOS wanted to cool the guts inside. Whatever the cause, I never found the exact reason. I'm sure it'll probably keep my PC really cool, but removing the fan will save my hearing and let other people sleep for a change.
Afterthoughts
So my 64MB GPU isn't and was never broken. However, it was good for troubleshooting the 7600GS. But it also can't handle HD video, so it doesn't serve me any purpose other than for troubleshooting. I find it ironic that it took a loud case fan to draw attention to a failing graphics card. The 7600GS fan isn't loud, but I thought it was. Eventually, it was used up, and I had to accept that the 7600GS warranty was up. I ended up replacing the GPU and removing the case fan. The computer is still alive, but not without some effort. So the next time there is a loud noise coming from your PC, check the obvious but expect the worse. Always backup your important data.
*Yes, it's lame like that on purpose. Now where's my Pulitzer?
Copyright © 2010 Chongchen Saelee
