Semi-loud fan

[xbrianx]

I posted something about this in the Spyware section, to see if any spyware or viruses were causing this, but I'm assuming it's not since I didn't get a response and AVG and Spybot haven't detected anything.

 

The problem is, one of the fans, I'm assuming CPU fan, gets a bit louder when I load programs... which has never happened before. Generally, my fan is really quiet and will only get louder when I'm running over 50% CPU usage. Which, in this case, my CPU usage goes back and forth(unstable, I might add) 0%-5%, sometimes up to 20% depending on what I'm doing.

 

Say, when I go to check my DeviantART messages and open up two tabs from there, along with Meebo.com, Gmail, and Myspace open in tabs, the fan will spark up a little louder then get quiet again. Same thing when I load a few other sites.

 

My CPU temperature, according to SpeedFan is 33C, which is how it's always been. I've Defragged, used Disk Cleanup and CCleaner multiple times. I clean out my Temp and Recent Document folders everyday.

 

This began when I had to unplug everything while the room was having the carpet taken up. While it was unplugged, I took the opportunity to clean it and part of the inside. I didn't touch anything on the inside, I just blew some of the dust off with my mouth. I plugged it back up and started using, and then I noticed the fan noises occasionally and sometimes the Hard drives makes a noise when I use Disk Cleanup(which I've never heard the noise from it before, only on my External Hard drive when I add stuff). Could something be off-balance or crooked? That's the only thing I can come up with as to why it's louder, I mean, nothing else has happened and it didn't start until I plugged everything back up.

 

 

 

Oh, and to add another irritating problem, Firefox keeps getting script errors and needs to close. It happens usually on Myspace band sites, when they have many videos and pictures on their profile. Could I need to update one of the plug-ins, since I also get something about "The plug-in has performed an illegal action, it is strongly recommended you close and restart Firefox"(or similar)?

 

Thanks.

[heymrpaul]

Depending on the board you have, you may be able to set the fan speed by software that comes with the motherboard. Since this started after you moved it about and blew "out" the dust, it may be that what you blew ended up inside the fan sleeve, causing the RPM's to drop due to increased friction. The software may require the fan to rotate at a given RPM when the CPU is at a certain temperature. I think the easiest thing to do is to just swap out the fan and see what happens. They are not expensive. If you can't change the fan without also changing the CPU heatsink, you might want to remove them both (don't forget to ground your hands to the case first) and then clean them with compressed air. It may be if you have a sleeve fan instead of a ball bearing fan, you cannot lubricate it. The fact that the CPU temp has not changed much leads me to believe this is simply dust in the fan. If you can, get one with ball bearings instead of a nylon sleeve. They will last longer as a rule.

 

In 2001 when I bought a PC with a 1ghz AMD CPU, I loaded the motherboard CPU temp, and fan speed software, (From Asus) and ended up taking the PC back to the vendor 3 times before they put on a heatsink and fan large enough to prevent the CPU from exceeding the recommended temperature. The fan and heatsink I ended up with were more than twice as expensive as the one they supplied me with originally. That could explain why they preferred not to load the control software with the systems they were selling.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mr Paul

I posted something about this in the Spyware section, to see if any spyware or viruses were causing this, but I'm assuming it's not since I didn't get a response and AVG and Spybot haven't detected anything.

 

The problem is, one of the fans, I'm assuming CPU fan, gets a bit louder when I load programs... which has never happened before. Generally, my fan is really quiet and will only get louder when I'm running over 50% CPU usage. Which, in this case, my CPU usage goes back and forth(unstable, I might add) 0%-5%, sometimes up to 20% depending on what I'm doing.

 

Say, when I go to check my DeviantART messages and open up two tabs from there, along with Meebo.com, Gmail, and Myspace open in tabs, the fan will spark up a little louder then get quiet again. Same thing when I load a few other sites.

 

My CPU temperature, according to SpeedFan is 33C, which is how it's always been. I've Defragged, used Disk Cleanup and CCleaner multiple times. I clean out my Temp and Recent Document folders everyday.

 

This began when I had to unplug everything while the room was having the carpet taken up. While it was unplugged, I took the opportunity to clean it and part of the inside. I didn't touch anything on the inside, I just blew some of the dust off with my mouth. I plugged it back up and started using, and then I noticed the fan noises occasionally and sometimes the Hard drives makes a noise when I use Disk Cleanup(which I've never heard the noise from it before, only on my External Hard drive when I add stuff). Could something be off-balance or crooked? That's the only thing I can come up with as to why it's louder, I mean, nothing else has happened and it didn't start until I plugged everything back up.

 

 

 

Oh, and to add another irritating problem, Firefox keeps getting script errors and needs to close. It happens usually on Myspace band sites, when they have many videos and pictures on their profile. Could I need to update one of the plug-ins, since I also get something about "The plug-in has performed an illegal action, it is strongly recommended you close and restart Firefox"(or similar)?

 

Thanks.

[xbrianx]

Instead of getting a new fan right away, could I just try to clean the other one with compressed air, or is the dust in a hard-to-reach spot now? I got a replacement fan from Dell not too long ago, I think last Christmas.

 

Thanks.

 

 

Depending on the board you have, you may be able to set the fan speed by software that comes with the motherboard. Since this started after you moved it about and blew "out" the dust, it may be that what you blew ended up inside the fan sleeve, causing the RPM's to drop due to increased friction. The software may require the fan to rotate at a given RPM when the CPU is at a certain temperature. I think the easiest thing to do is to just swap out the fan and see what happens. They are not expensive. If you can't change the fan without also changing the CPU heatsink, you might want to remove them both (don't forget to ground your hands to the case first) and then clean them with compressed air. It may be if you have a sleeve fan instead of a ball bearing fan, you cannot lubricate it. The fact that the CPU temp has not changed much leads me to believe this is simply dust in the fan. If you can, get one with ball bearings instead of a nylon sleeve. They will last longer as a rule.

 

In 2001 when I bought a PC with a 1ghz AMD CPU, I loaded the motherboard CPU temp, and fan speed software, (From Asus) and ended up taking the PC back to the vendor 3 times before they put on a heatsink and fan large enough to prevent the CPU from exceeding the recommended temperature. The fan and heatsink I ended up with were more than twice as expensive as the one they supplied me with originally. That could explain why they preferred not to load the control software with the systems they were selling.

 

Sincerely,

 

Mr Paul