Tower Noise

[Tabby]

My tower has gone really noisy like a dronning noise coming from it help please
Sue

[Rubina]

Is it the fan? If you turn it off until it cool does it go away?

[Aislin]

I have found sometimes a squirt of canned air to clean the dust out of the fan will clean the "noisies". That droning sound you hear could just be a labo(u)ring fan.

[NickM]

Probably one of the fans. Modern PC's can have 4 or more fans. The most important ones are the ones in the power supply (which vents out of the back of the PC) and the one on the processor chip, which is inside the PC. There can be two or more case fans in addition, which are not so important if they stop. You may have to open the PC case to find which fan it is, and if you don't feel competent to do this, you may have to take it to a PC repair shop.

[MarkJ]

Is it a constant droning noise Sue?

If so, then the most likely candidate is a fan. Depending on the computer, there may be fans in various places - all have a fan in the PSU (power supply unit) which is where the power lead plugs in, they also have one on top of the processor (expect in a tiny number of machines with low power processors designed for special tasks usually). Many have a fan on the graphics card, northbridge and, in a lot of machines, a fan or more placed at the very front of the machine (behind the main panel) and some have a fan on the side.

Obviously, replacing the noisy fan is the only real long term solution, but temporary options include standing the machine on a piece of foam or similar to damp down vibration or changing the resonance frequency of the case by sticking bits of blu-tac onto the sides of the case If it is the PSU fan, then the only real option is a new PSU. Not terribly pricey, but unless you are familiar with PCs, not a job to attempt yourself. Likewise changing the fan on the CPU (processor) - best to get it done by someone who knows what they are doing.

Have you moved the tower lately? Sometimes a case will make a lot of noise if it has moved to a slightly different surface for example or if something is resting on it (e.g the power lead could be brushing the case). If you moved the case, one of the leads inside could be brushing against a fan blades - causing a noise. Easy to fix by carefully moving that lead out of the way (with the power off and avoiding touching any of the other bits and pieces inside unless you are familiar with the innards of a PC).

If a fan is on the way out, it would be advisable to change it before it stops running. If the PSU, CPU, Northbridge or graphics card fan packs up, the PC will probably stop working until it is replaced (the machine/motherboard etc will overheat and that will cause the machine to cut out).

Mark

[Marie C..]

Mine was also terribly noisy. PC died two days ago. Son came and had a look and it was , fortunately, not the hard disk but something else(that works the dvds etc). He took it out and fiddled with it. Shoved it back in and pc worked just long enough for him to put all my stuff onto CD . Then it went again. OH gone out now to get replacement part(motherboard?).. which was overheating . Hence the fan having to work harder. Comp. full of dust too . Does yours have a faint smell of something burning?
Mine was 2 yrs old. Check that you haven't got same problem.
And be sure to back up all your stuff as I was always going to do it "tomorrow" and had the problem been the hard drive I,d have lost everything.M

[MarkJ]

Failing hard drives often - but not always - give an indication that they are on the way out. Chirping noises are a pretty bad sign, as are grinding/graunchy noises.
If you are not getting noises, but the machine seems to keep getting errors - especially if the Windows tools are forever repairing "bad sectors" or whatever it is that Windows claims, then get the data backed up straight away in case of drive failure.
As you say Marie, it is a good idea to make backups regularly - especially if you have irreplaceable data!

A good blow out of dust, spiders, earwigs and other debris every so often is a good idea. My machines are stripped every few months as a rule to add new bits and pieces, so they tend to get cleaned then. If you have pets or are a smoker, then cleaning the innards out a bit more often is a good idea - pet hair will collect and jam fans by wrapping around them. Cigarette smoke seems to coat the fans with a sticky residue which will also cause the fan to struggle after a period of time.
Interestingly, those "cool" cases, with lights on the fans etc and clear sides so you can see all the pretty colours, attract tiny little midge things which all seem to pop their clogs once they get into the case and end up as a layer in the bottom!

Mark

[Andrew Mead]

If you can open the case, look for the fans and stop them one at a time (briefly!) with a screwdriver, pencil or similar and see if the noise stops - that will identify the fan!

[Marie C..]

Tabby,
Does it grumble all the time it is on?
Mine did this and it was full of dust when opened up.
The pti board was overheating and the fan was full of dust so now it has a new pti board(the thing that does all the music and video things) and was cleaned out using a compressed air machine and is now working like new. It has been making a noise for 18 months or so. It seems they need to be cleaned of dust every six months.
So you need to get someone who knows about computers to open the back and see what the problem is otherwise it may overheat and die like mine did. Marie

[NickM]

Mine was also terribly noisy. PC died two days ago. Son came and had a look and it was , fortunately, not the hard disk but something else(that works the dvds etc). He took it out and fiddled with it. Shoved it back in and pc worked just long enough for him to put all my stuff onto CD . Then it went again. OH gone out now to get replacement part(motherboard?).. which was overheating . Hence the fan having to work harder. Comp. full of dust too . Does yours have a faint smell of something burning?
Mine was 2 yrs old. Check that you haven't got same problem.
And be sure to back up all your stuff as I was always going to do it "tomorrow" and had the problem been the hard drive I,d have lost everything.M

Sounds like the power supply - that has a fan, and can smell faintly of burning when the fan stops inside, and the PC will shut down when the fan inside it fails. It's a metal box, about 5 inches cubed.