Lately the fan in our home computer [Dell 4700] has been blowing like crazy. Everytime we run more than a few application at once it’s been yelling at us. What gives, this machine has given us nothing but good hard work for 2 years…Are we infected with some sort of something? *
Could the video/graphics cards be heating up waaay too much and it is on it’s last leg?
Any ideas?
*-obviously the proper technical nomenclature eludes me, otherwise, I would be using it for all you technical gurus that come to our dummy aids all the time!
I’ll bet the heatsink is caked with dust. Get some compressed air. Be sure to do it outside! It’s probably not a bad idea to get some thermal paste for the CPU, since you’ll have to remove the heatsink anyway.
Look for something caught in the fan blades or housing.
If those are clear (or clearing them doesn’t fix it) it’s possibly the sleeve bearing on the fan having a problem. If you have a low weight oil (e.g. gun oil) you can try to put that on the bearing and it should fix it for a while. Occasionally there’s a lubricant reservoir accessible under the branding sticker on the face of the fan rotor… refill that and it will fix it for a longer while. Don’t go tearing things apart, though.
EDIT: Is this that the fan is running a lot more often than in the past or that when the fan runs it’s significantly louder?
Upon taking it apart, the whole thing is gunked up to all hell. I blew it all out and vaccumed it…it appears to be doing well now…we’ll see when I boot up tomorrow.
A louder fan could be a result of a worn down bearing (which could be caused by running the fan out of balance with lots of hair). If the fan is still groaning and grinding when you clean out the machine, look on NewEgg or End PC Noise for reliable user-reviewed replacement fans. Most are measured in millimeters, and you should be able to measure the ailing fan to determine how large a replacement should be.
A friend recommends taping a dryer sheet over your intake vent to catch pet hair, but I think this is a waste of effort - the dryer sheet will restrict airflow and eventually it will also succumb to pet hair. In the future I recommend cleaning out your case with canned air every two or three months for as long as you have cats.
Don’t use a regular vacuum cleaner to suck the crud out of a computer. A vacuum cleaner can build up static which can damage the computer. If you insist on using a vacuum, make sure you use one that is designed for electronics and therefore won’t build up a dangerous static charge.
There’s usually more than one fan inside of a computer. A lot of times the CPU fan will spin a lot faster (and will be more noticeable) because the power supply fan or the case fan has died. Without the extra cooling, the CPU gets hotter and the CPU fan has to work harder.
That’s what I was going to say. Compressed air or a very fine brush to get the dust out of the case, then the vacuum. This also affords some fine opportunities for competetive ‘OMFG! Look at the amount of crud I got out of my computer!’
I will be really humbled if thats what it is.