Iffy motor noises

S

(Shovel)

Guest
Simple one this:

When I swtich the computer on I get a very disturbing low-pitch whirring noise. However, within a minute the noise has always stopped and the computer runs fine.

I switched it on with the case off to inspect the fans but they seemed to start up find no problem and there was no cable resting on them or anything like that. The "PC Health Check" option in my BIOS also doesn't report any abnormal temperature (runnng at about 48dC after restarting later in the day).

I've recently put in a lot of new harsware, which I've marked next to my spec below. Does anyone know if this is a problem? Or what I should look for to fix it?

Spec: (anything that moves)
AMD Athlon 1.33Ghz (NEW)
w/ Thermaltake Volcano 7+ Fan (Set to "slow") (NEW)
Abit KT7 (v1.0~1.2)
Abit Geforce 4 Ti4200 (NEW)

DVD: Pioneer SLOT loading 16x
CDRW: Creative Labs 12x10x32x

Hard drives:
IBM DTLA 30-50-40
Seagate Barracuda IV 60GB (NEW)

I'm really worried about it being a hard drive, BUT everything works OK. It just makes this noise at startup and it always goes away.

OS is Windows XP Home (though the noise starts before any OS loads, I have SuSE Linux too).

So, err, any ideas or reassurance?

Thanks very much.
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
as a test you could dl drive-check thingys from your respective manufacturers and run them. I used to have some scsi drives that made the strangest sounds on initial spin-up, never a prob though.
 
S

S-Gray

Guest
Lately if i use my CD-RW it makes a noise of a fuckin Jet Engine, its deafening :eek:
 
F

FatBusinessman

Guest
One of our computers at home does this too, doesn't seem to be a problem beyond being bloody annoying...
 
Y

~YuckFou~

Guest
I have a system fan thats vents out of one of the free slots on the back of my PC. This occasionally does the same thing. If you have any old fans in there (although you mention none) you might want to replace or lube them. The lube point is usually under the sticker afaik.
 
E

Embattle

Guest
I guess it could always be your new hard driving spinning its self in to full action.
 
S

(Shovel)

Guest
Well, possibly, except that it didn't do this before. As in, the parts have been in for just over a month now and these noises have been going for about 7 days.

As Fatty says, it doesn't seem to cause any problem whatsoever.
 
W

Wilier

Guest
it could possibly be the bearings on one of your fans. Initially they vibrate a bit, but as they run for a while and warm up, they settle out.

Try gently rocking the fans (with the pc off), if one wobbles too much, that could be it.
 
S

(Shovel)

Guest
Well, the noise has now stopped the last couple of boot ups. I've downloaded those utilities though - thank you very much for the link - I'll give them a go if it comes back :D

Thanks.
 
X

Xavier

Guest
the noises you describe generally arise from poor fans.

when installed the bearings/brushes are lubed but cheap fans (including many aftermarket offerings) have crap lube that literally dries or evaporates in no time... which means unhealthy vibration when they spin up - we see it a lot with power supplies and graphics card coolers.

Best bet if it comes back is to disconnect all your drives, power on with a pencil stopping the PSU fan from moving, if the noise is gone chances are it's a jub PSU fan (replaceable - though not recommended due to the huge charge the caps in a PSU can hold) - if it still lingers first look at your graphics card, then the fansink on the CPU

some mobos also have a fan on the northbridge which isn't properly fitted - if at all loose the rotational forces on startup can cause the fan body to oscillate and grind the bearings which also sounds like a mini chainsaw massacre inside you system.

Xav
 
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