My Computer has been making loud sounds

[Duerga]

I opened my computer and my fan was extremely dusty. The fan works ok. I unscrewed the fan and lots of dust that I don't know how will I get the other dust out. I notice to the right the huge metal fell off that sits on the SIS 760LV. Could that be why the computer fan is so dusty? There's these hooks on each side, but I don't kreally know what each hook connects to O_o.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/Duerga/P1070258.jpg

Here's where the SIS 760V is where the metal part was stuck on top of:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/Duerga/P1070260.jpg

I tried undusting parts that I can get rid of.:confused: :confused: :confused:

[PrntRhd]

The component you show in the picture is a heat sink. DO NOT run it without a heat sink!
You need to clean the base of the heat sink and the chip it was mounted to by scraping with a plastic card and finally with high purity alcohol. You then need to apply a thin layer some heat transferring compound like Artic Silver and remount the heat sink.

[jlreich]

There's these hooks on each side, but I don't kreally know what each hook connects to
There should be a couple of metal rings sticking out of the mobo near the northbridge that the heatsink came off of that the hooks grab onto to keep the heatsink in place.

[OO-Q]

Hello, I am working on a friends computer and opened his COmpaq to discover the exact same problem shown above, the photos might as well be of this PC. Is the 760vl the memory controller? The computer has been run at least 3 times w/o the fan on it. To describe further, the metal pins that hold down the metal clamp on that cooling fan came straight off of the mother board, that's gonna be fun to re-attach. I was wondering if any knows just how durable this particular chip is, Last time the PC was running it got through the ram check and then had an error reading start files and said press CTRL ALT DELETE to restart. This is when I opened the case and saw the heat sink sitting at the base of the motherboard. It's a decent computer but I really dont want to replace his motherboard... Any advice thoughts or prayers would be appreciated, awesome forums btw.

[jlreich]

You can buy a new NB (North Bridge) heatsink or heatsink/fan for $20-$30. Many have universal methods of attachment that will fit on that board. They do sometimes require the removal of the board to install them though. Look at any instruction and compatibility lists.

Or since it is just a heatsink you could get some Arctic silver thermal Adhesive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100005) and just stick it on. This is probably the cheapest and easiest way to go.

You also may be able to find something to refasten the heatsink back on. I would avoid anything metal, but other than that you can get creative.

I would take care of it though. Although it isn't as important as the CPU but you do risk damaging the system by the NB getting too hot. Or at the least instability.

[OO-Q]

Well today I got the Arctic Silver Thermal Adhesive and am re-attaching the heatsink. Sorry for the confusion above, I was tired and had cooling fan instead of heatsink in my head for some reason. Any how I snipped the useless metal hooks off the side of the heatsink and will be attempting to boot and/or recover the system tomorrow. To be continued...