Buy Microsoft Office Home & Student
Community Newsletter: Q&A: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns?
- 3/21/08 10:47 AM
Hum
by curtis_chadwick - 3/7/08 7:43 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First try the cooling fan in CPU and NB. I have to replace mine twice so far.
Hum Hum Oh hum
by liteways - 3/7/08 7:43 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
A hum can come from the fan motors, the hard drive itself, or something loos inside the power supp;ly that vibrates in the magnetic field. The most likely suspect is the fan motors or the hard drive. You can check the fan motors by unplugging them one at a time to see if the hum goes way.
A full hd backup and good cleaning
by alexvelloso - 3/7/08 7:51 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
1 - Full backup of the internal hd to an usb hd. As often as possible, but at least once a week.
2 - As a custom machine there won't be a problem to unscrew the side panels and apply a serious vaccum cleaning. The inside fans, power supply and panel's grills should all be free of dust.
3 - The use of a software to measure the eficiency of power supply, system's running temperature and cpu's performance before and after the clean up.
And keep in mind that both electronics and mechanics systems have a certain lenght of time life. Soon or later they will fail. Not necessarilly together. But will happens.
Humming PC
by Alain Martel1 - 3/14/08 12:55 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You are right in suspecting something mobile. Now, let take a look at the possible causes and solutions.
I will start by the easiest, and cheapest, element.
Maybe your fans are dusty, or something is touching them.
With the computer OFF, inspect the fans and gently remove dust from them and around them. Cost: zero.
Look carefully to see if anything comes in contact with any fan. A whire may have shifted and came in contact with a fan. Move that whire so that it no longer touch any fan. A bit of string can help keep the whires away from the fans. No cost.
Faulty or worn out fans.
Open the case and watch the fan or fans present. Does the sound apears to come from a specific one? Try to shortly stop a fan, no more than a second or two for the CPU fan. Does the humming stop?
If yes, replace that fan.
The CPU fan is the more critical of all.
The cost can vary a lot depending on what fan have to be replaced.
While the case is open, look to remove dust from the heat sinks. Your computer will run cooler without that acumulated dust.
Faulty or wornout PSU fan.
Put your ear near the PSU fan at the back of the computer. If that fan is defective, it's simpler to change the PSU.
Cost: from $25 to over $100. A $30 to $40 PSU should be well enough for your needs. Make sure that it have at least the same watts capacity as the original one.
Hard drive nearing the end of it's life.
Once you have ruled out other causes, it's time to look at your hard drive(s).
If the new noise do come from a drive, it mean that that drive can die anytime.
Get a new drive and copy everything from the old drive to the new one.
Connect the new drive in the computer, leaving the old one untouched.
There are drive cloning applications that can automate the following process.
If you don't have access to one of those:
If the drive don't contain Windows: Optionaly, partition it to your convenance. Format it. Copy everything to it.
You can now disconnect the old drive and do whatever you want with it.
If the drive to be replaced is the one that hold Windows:
Disconnect your current drive. Connect the new drive to the same connector.
Install Windows on the new drive.
Reconnect the old drive to another connector. Copy it's content to the new drive. DON'T copy the old copy of windows. DON'T copy any file from the root: files NOT in any folder.
Copy any personal files from "documents and Settings", skipping any and all locked and "in use" ones. You are interested by your "Favorite" folder and "My doccuments"
You can copy the start menu folder, but most programms wont be useable untill you reinstall them.
A disk cloning application can help you greatly in this case, and may save you from reinstalling most if not all programms.
Hard drives are not that expensive, and will probably have much more capacity than your actual drive(s).
Don't sweat it...
by Impreza WRX - 3/7/08 8:00 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The humming noise most often is a fan. To be sure, you have to open your case and listen for what piece of hardware is making the humming. If it is a fan, read below, if it is a hard drive or the power supply, scroll down to the appropriate section.
NOISY FANS
Typically, the bearings go bad on the fans after a long time. This can be fixed. If it is the rear or front (or side) case mounted fan, all that needs to be done is to remove the troublesome hardware and install a new fan. All you need is a screwdriver.
If it is coming from the processor, northbridge, or graphics card fan, that might be troublesome. If there is a lot of dust, try using a Dust Remover can, which sprays compressed gas, to clean the heatsinks and fans. This should be done regularly as preventative maintenance. If the noise persists, then the bearings are bad. SOMETIMES the fan is removable, other times it is not. Typically, Intel factory heatsinks have integrated fans, whereas AMD factory heatsinks have fans that are clipped on and can be removed. IF it is removable, simply buy antoher fan of the same size and attach it. For the CPU, install the fan so it blows air upwards, for better cooling, unless you have a side fan blowing down.
If the fan is NOT removable, you will need to install an aftermarket heatsink. This often requires dissecting your computer's hardware. For this you will need Arctic Silver 5 (a small tube of special compound), Isopropyl Alcohol, Cleaning cloths (or q-tips), a screwdriver, and that manual for the motherboard and aftermarket heatsink.
CPU Heatsink
If you buy a heatsink that does not require additional hardware, you should be good. Typically these look like stock heatsinks, but are made by different companies. If you bought a very large heatsink (such as the ZALMAN CNPS) or a Peltier or Liquid Cooling, may the force be with you. To install those, you need to disconnect everything, remove the motherboard, and install new mounting brackets that are provided, then put everything back together.
For the direct replacement heatsinks, it's pretty straight forward. Socket 478 heatsinks have 2 levers you pull up to release. Socket 775 Intel heatsinks have 4 tabs that you have to rotate and then pull up to release. AMD Socket A (462) and Socket 939 are much like old Socket 370 (Pentium III). Just a clip that you push down and pry away with a screwdriver on one side, which when it releases you watch fly into your head, leaving a massive penetration wound. AMD Socket AM2 uses locking levers on each side, which is easy and secure. Wiggle by rotating the heatsink some before pulling up, or the processor might pull out with it. Carefully use the Iso and cleaning cloth to remove all traces of heatsink material off the processor, and apply a very small (!) dab of Arctic Silver 5 to the top of the processor. Only the top square part, not the whole top area. Use a business card or folded paper to even the AS5 perfectly flat on the CPU. Then, take the NEW heatsink and install it, reverse of removal. Make sure you lock down any levers. Follow the directions they give you!
If it is the graphics card, there are options. Determine if you have AGP or PCI-Express, and buy a newer card as an upgrade, or get an aftermarket heatsink. it's going to be just as difficult as putting on a new CPU heatsink.
If it is the Northbridge, and the fan is not removable, it's going to be a chore. Buy an aftermarket heatsink and install it, just like the CPU. You WILL be removing the motherboard for this.
HARD DRIVE
This is not good. If your hard drive is making noise when it hasn't before, you have a failure coming on the way. Your best bet is to back up your data NOW, and buy a new hard drive. Determine if you can use SATA, and if you don't have it (you don't see SATA 0 and SATA 1 on your motherboard, they are L-shaped and marked so), get IDE. Find ALL your software install disks, and WINDOWS install disks, and when the new drive comes in, disconnect old drive, install new drive, format, install Windows, install Programs, connect old drive, transfer files, done, disconnect old drive, put drill through drive, and discard.
POWER SUPPLY
If your Power Supply is humming, this isn't immediately bad, unless it is an electrical buzzing. Electrical buzzing means imminent explosion, whereas humming means fan bearings. Either way, I can not recommend opening a power supply to put a fan, because it is dangerous. New power supplies are inexpensive. Remove the old one, check to see that the new PSU it has all the right connectors, buy it, connect it, done. If you don't want / can't remove the PSU, get one that is 20+4 pins instead of 20 pins or 24 pins. That way if you have 20 pins you can leave the +4 disconnected without consequence.
In any case, the only real expensive job is the integrated heatsink for mobo, GPU, or doing the hard drive, all of which will take a significant amount of labor and time and money to pay someone to install. The fans and the power supply are easy fixes that the mechanically inadept can do. Just remember to read the manual.
Regards,
Mike
humming comming from yr computer-mike
by efren c velez - 3/15/08 12:40 AM In reply to: Don't sweat it... by Impreza WRXAbove all answers the easiest one I have not heard is the drive, the upper drive , the one you use most may be the culprit. Change it and most likely you will save a bundle in wrong approaches
It's probably just the fan
by yahooz - 3/7/08 8:21 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If it's just a hum that comes and goes, it's probably the fan. You might be able to open up the case (with the CPU turned off and maybe even unplugged) and vacuum carefully inside. This usually only provides a temporary fix, though. You might want to just get a new fan and put it in at the same time that you do the vacuuming. They're not expensive. You probably shouldn't just ignore it, since the fan's purpose is to cool and you could run into more problems if the fan is not doing its job.
Check the fans.
by samgrove - 3/7/08 8:23 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've replaced fans on my computer to cure noise.
To check a fan, open the cover and see if you can track the noise to a particular fan. There will be one in the power supply and at least one chassis fan and a cpu fan.
You can check a fan by touching the hub for a second to see if that alters the noise.
The blades may also have accumulated dust and pet fur. With the computer power off, clean any noticeable dust from the blades. This is a goof time to see if the chassis needs dusting. Pressurized air is good for this chore.
Four year old machine with a hummmmmmm
by LionsMike - 3/7/08 8:35 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The first thing you should do is open the case with the power turned off, and take a look. You may find some dust. YOU MAY FIND A LOT OF DUST. carefully clean out the dust. get it completely out of the computer. Dust lying in the bottom will quickly get moved back up into components. if there is enough dust clogging a fan path it will humm. Dust is just one possibility, but one worth dealing with first.
You said that it has a humm. You did not say that you hear a humm when the hard drive is active, I assume that the humm is constant, so the hummmm probably comes from a fan. Computers have lots of fans. try to identify the one that is humming. to do this you will need to have the computer running. be careful if toy have the case open. There will be on or two fans in your power supply near the top rear where the power cord connects. If the humm is comi9ng from your power supply replace the power supply. There will be at least one in the back of your case and it is very easy to replace. Their may also be an input fan on the bottom front of your case, or their may be one on a hard drive. those will also be very easy to replace. There will be one on your proccessor. Their may be an other on a chip on your mother board, or on your Video Card these are no so easy to replace.
I have seen some computers with a fan in the middle of the case and ductwork directing air to a particular area on the mother board, but those were not custom built computers. If you can identify the fan which is making the noise, check to make sure that there is not something like a wire of dust in or around the blade. If there is nothing visible, you will probably want to shut down your computer and take out that fan and replace it. If it is a CPU cooler or Video cooler fan, talk to someone about doing this replacement. it is not real difficult but it is easy to screw up if you do not know what to expect. both of those fans have heatsinks which are specific to the proccessor and to the fan and have thermal conductive grease between the chip and the heatsink.
If your computer is a high power gaming computer, you could have liquid cooling, and the pump could be the source of the hummmm. If so, let a geek deak with that.
DON'T WAIT TOO LONG. HEAT IS YOUR COMPUTERS WORST ENEMY.
Checklist
by Renegade Knight - 3/7/08 8:39 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Humming pretty much means moving parts. That narrows it down to Fans, Hard Drive, and CD/DVD/Floppy Drives.
Open up your system and listen. Often you can narrow it down by listening. It's probably not a CD or DVD since those drives are normally empty on most machines. That leaves the Hard Drive or a Fan.
Fans you can normally 'touch' the frame and feel the vibration. I'm going to assume you can do the same to the Hard Drive. Still once the computer is open and humming it should be quick to narrow down the area the noise is coming from. If there is only one moving part, that's your problem area.
Fix...
by lehmberg - 3/7/08 8:40 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The hum generally comes from one of 3 places-- the power supply, the hard drive, or the chip fan. What you can do first is listen-- Listen first by the power supply fan at the back of the case. If the hum is from there directly, then you would need to power down, remove the power cord, pop the case open, remove the 4 screws that secure it in place, and disconnect the electrical cables. Then take it to your local computer shop and purchase a similar one. Make sure the wattage of the new one matches or exceeds the wattage of the old one. I recommend 300 watts or greater. It should be noted, that if the problem is the power supply, your computer is probably not in any kind of danger from it's failure. Usually they just fail one day from overheating (the fan bearings usually go bad), and they stop working. You then replace it, and your pc is fine. This repair is usually $50 or under. Sometimes you can get a power supply for $25.
If the hum sounds like it is inside the case, I recommend opening the case, and then re-powering up your machine. Walk, do not run on this repair if it is not the power supply, as failure of either of these things will cause an immediate loss of your pc. Listen once again, and try to determine if the hum is coming from the chip fan or the hard drive.
If it is your chip fan, power down the pc, remove the 4 points the chip cooler where connects to the mother board, disconnect the power cord to it, and again, take it to your local computer shop for repair. Be sure you use chip grease between the chip cooler/fan and the chip. It helps even out the cooling properties of the chip cooler. You may have to purchase it separately. Chip coolers are proprietary by the kind of chip you have, so they are not normally universal or one size fits all. You must get the same type. This repair is generally $20 or so. It should be noted that if the chip fan does go bad, it will fry your chip, causing your computer to fail, however your data on your hard drive would remain intact. If that happens, and your computer has some years on it, it's generally best to purchase a new computer if it fries, and re-install the old hard drive in the new pc and copy the data over from old to new hard drive.
3rd.. the hard drive. If you hard drive is humming, know that you're on borrowed time with it, and you're probabaly better off buying a new pc. It's a pain to go and get a new hard-drive and install it (proabably about 1/4 of the cost of a new, much better pc anyways), and then you have to start from scratch again on it anyways-- reinstall XP, all your software, etc. Then you'd install the old HD in the pc as the slave drive, and again, copy over all your data to the new hd (or use some sort of copy program like Norton Ghost) which could keep you from having to do the complete reformat, reload of XP. So if it's your HD, my recommendation would be to get a new CPU, install the old HD in it as a slave, and copy your data over.
Save Your Computer
by peter_quale - 3/7/08 8:42 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First of all, BACK UP YOUR DATA. Most of the basic data files people have now can be backed up onto a cheap flash drive. If there are programs you need to save, you may need to invest in a portable hard drive. No matter if there is an issue or not, if there is critical data on your computer you need to keep another copy. There're tons of software like Migo that can synchronize data files across machines with no effort.
Now, there really isn't enough data to go on from your post to say whether it's the hard drive or the power supply, a hum can come from a lot of places in a computer. And to troubleshoot them all, is nearly impossible.
For the hard drive, the easiest way is probably to take another hard drive and swap it in for your current and see if the problem persists. Power supply I don't think it would be otherwise you'd be seeing other problems since the power supply powers the cooling system for the processor as well as the rest of the boards, you'd be experiencing crashes if the power was going.
The hard drive on the other hand, can crash much more suddenly. Use the CHKDISK utility to scan for bad sectors, and if it was the hard drive going, it'd probably be more of a grinding noise. You can also download tons of programs that let you monitor the heat of drives, if the drive is running hot, then it might be crashing.
Another thing you might want to look at, is pulling up the task manager and checking to see how hard your computer is being run. If it's running at or near 100% of CPU and the RAM available is lacking, unload some of the start-up processes using MSCONFIG to reduce the workload. Might as well do a defragmentation and registry clean-up while you're at it (Ccleaner is generally good).
It sounds to me though like it might not be either.
Do you have fan-based cooling or liquid? (I'm betting fan because of age and other factors). You might just crack open the casing and try tightening down all the screws for the power supply and fans.
Basically:
A) Back up data (ALWAYS)
B) Run CHKDISK, Program to see drive heat.
C) Check Task Manager and see how much memory/CPU power is being used - is your system being run near its maximum? If so unload some start up processes or do a clean install of windows.
D) Tighten down elements in the casing.
The hum alone isn't an indication of a serious problem I'd say, though it COULD lead to a problem if you don't diagnose what's causing it. I'm betting due to the age of the computer though, it's just that the cooling system/CPU is being run hard because of start-up processes.
Hum in PC
by maddogthegreat - 3/7/08 8:44 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
turn off your PC, open the cover and clean the dust and grime out of the machine. Turn on the PC, if it is still humming, turn off, hold the processor fan to prevent it from turning. Turn on the PC, if it isn't humming, turn the fan loose and see if the humming starts. if it does, you need a new fan. If it hums with the fan stopped, turn off the machine, put a screwdriver bit into the PS fan (if there is more than one fan repeat until all have been tested. Turn the PC on if it doesn't hum, release the fan. The power supply is bad.The fan can be replaced, but if you had the knowledge to do it, you wouldn't have to ask about problem
Noisey computer
by tbone69069 - 3/7/08 8:45 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Mike,
Your problem can be many things, Does it make the noise all the time or when it is being used to access the hard drive? The easy way to find out wgere the noise is coming from is to get a empty toilet paper roll snf put it up to the power supply. Then take the side pane off you computer and try ir near the hrd drive, The cooling fan ETC to try to pinpoint wher the noise is coming from. If it sounds like the power supply. If you have an extra one laying around or know a friend that has one you can borrow. Replace it with yours and see if the hum is s till there. Try cleaning the dust out of the inside of the case with compressed air. Don't forget to clean the cooling fan while you are at it. Also, I would get a new hsrd drive if you still have the hum. You don't want to lose your data or family photo's and other important dtuff.
I hope this helps
Ron
Repair
by cschilling7 - 3/7/08 8:55 PM In reply to: Humming coming from my PC, what should be my concerns? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The easiest thing to do is open the case and listen to it. The hum should be pretty obvious as to whether it is from the front,(hard drive) or back(Power supply). Either way if you can do the repair itself the power supply is a cheap fix about $35-$60. The first thing you should do is save all your data and make a software backup, this way you don't risk loosing your data for good if it is the hard drive. It sounds like the machine is new enough however to where it's worth repairing.
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
