PC Making Extremely Worrying Noises From The Inside

[Vanchatron]

Yesterday my PC started making loud & extremely worrying purring noises from inside the case. It has NEVER done this before & I don't know what the problem could be. I have no malware or viruses etc on my PC and I've checked the temperatures of the components & they're all fine.

I even opened up the case to check whether any of the leads were getting caught on the fans but that's not the case. I don't want the PC to just blow up on me as I've spent a lot of money on it.

My PC specs are as follow:

OS - Windows XP Pro
CPU - Intel Pentium D 2.8Ghz
RAM - 2gb DDR II
Video Card - 256mb Nvidia Geforce 7600GT
HDD - 2 hard drives (1 with 40gb & 1 with 320gb)

When I bang on the side of the PC the noise stops for about 10-15 minutes though. Obviously I don't want to have to carry on banging on the side of the PC incase anything gets damaged.


HK

[mjc]

When I bang on the side of the PC the noise stops for about 10-15 minutes though. Obviously I don't want to have to carry on banging on the side of the PC incase anything gets damaged.


HK

Sounds like it probably a fan...one that is either dieing or is loose. With the case open, disconnect each case fan (power down before connecting/disconnecting anything inside the case) in turn...the reason I suspect one going bad is because the 'banging' stops it. If one were just speeding up due to increased heat, banging would not stop the noise.

[azzey]

And if unplugging fans doesn't work, don't forget about the PSU fan... speaking of that, what PSU do you have in there anyways?

[jlreich]

Yep, most likely a bad fan. I have heard that noise several times and had to replace fans.

The last one I had like that was so annoying it was about to drive me crazy squeaking and making awful sounds. Ended up being the NB fan this time.

Sometimes it can be hard to figure out which fan it is. Easiest way to narrow down which one it is is to open the case and carefully stick you finger on the fans to stop them from spinning one by one until the noise stops. Then you have your culprit. Obviously you don't want to do this for more than a second or two on the CPU fan. I usually leave the CPU fan for last and I usually find the noise maker before I get to it.

Also, I just got a new case, but my old one had the right side panel that would sometimes rattle when my DVD drive would spin at certain speeds. Quite annoying...

[Enjoii Lyfe]

Couldnt you tell where the sound was coming from when you opened it up?