What’s that Sound – Could be Gremlins…Could be CPU Fan

Your PC is broke and making an awful sound like baseball cards in the spokes of your bike. You have rebooted, hit your PC, and done some chants, but it is getting worse. As a last ditch effort you take your PC into the local repair shop. As you enter the goon behind the counter gets this gleam in his eye almost like he just won the lottery.

At this point the man behind the counter is scratching his head and says I will need it for at least 24 hours, maybe more. Now you are beginning to think it was probably not a good idea to tell him you know nothing about fixing PC’s. You leave wondering if the goon shopkeep needed 24 hours just to find more ways to charge you.

Dude, let me tell you right now you are most likely going to be ripped off. Most issues with PC’s are imposable to diagnose without physically looking at the PC. However the sound I described (99% of the time) could be one of three easy to fix inexpensive problems.

You need to power down your PC and take the case off your PC. Turn the power on and observe where the sound is coming from.

The first thing to check is your power supply. This is the most expensive (but most likely not the issue) of the three issues. Most good power supplies range from $45 to $200 depending on the type you need. What you are looking for is to see and hear the fan on the back. Most likely it should be OK. If you do have to remove the power supply DO NOT OPEN IT. It still has electricity flowing and could hurt you, badly, even kill you. If there is a recycling program in your neighbor hood or with the store you are buying the new power supply from use it.

The second thing and usually less expensive is the CPU fan may be going out. If it is and you do not replace it right away you will end up with worse more expensive problems. The prices on CPU fans range from $15 to $60. Follow any directions the fan has to the tee. You do not want to crack the motherboard or miss a step that will make your CPU overheat.

The third and most likely problem is there are cables touching the CPU fan. As it rotates it scrapes the cables. This will cost you a whopping $$ nothing $$. Just move the cables to a different location. If you need to get some pull ties to help wind the cables up a bit. Even better yet use the twisty tie that your child’s Christmas gift was caked with, and made it almost impossible to get the gift out of the box.