Help! My computer sometimes growls while booting up. Has anyone ever heard of this before? Also, at one time it was so bad that Windows did a special disc check while booting up and told me that a serious error had occurred. However, my computer hasn't 'growled' for a while during bootup...but what I would like to know is: Does this sound like a hardware problem to anyone? And if so, could this 'growling' sound be an indication that my computer is starting to get old and that I may need a new computer? Also, I never did get around to installing the 100 MB of RAM that I needed for this computer. But if this growling sound is an indication that my computer is going bad, then obviously, I wouldn't want to invest in the RAM. Also, I wanted to mention that my computer is in it's 6th year. Any comments would be appreciated.
You would growl too if someone turned you on, used you until they were content, then left without kissing you goodbye or even a thank you. Seriously though, I have no idea other then maybe ther's so much crap (dust) builtup inside. (have you looked lately?) My PC was making some serious noise untill I opened it up and sprayed the hell out of it with a can of compressed air. (10 year old computer here)
I had a similar 'growl' with an older Dell box - compressed air through fans/grills turned the growl down considerably. I was advised to hold the fan blades to stop them spinning wildly when spraying them, so as not to trash the gearing (or bearings?). philby
In my opinion, you are experiencing one of the following two things: 1) a cooling fan of some type is either clogged up with dirt of having a bearing issue (i.e. you need to clean it or it is going to fail prematurely) which is causing an excessive build up of heat. or 2) there is a mechanical issue with the hard drive itself. If I were you, I would definitely make sure that all of my critical data was backed up to either an external hard drive or some other type of removable media. This is something that should be done regularly anyway.
I just saw this thread. For what it's worth when I need to trace down a unknown sound I sometimes us a Stethoscope. It has been helpful. They can be had for as little as $10.
But, LoneWolf, I always give computer a good firm handshake and a pat on the shoulder after using it. No, I haven't given it a look inside yet.
Hey, dallen. Your no. 2 caught my eye since I had mentioned that Windows did a special disc check while booting up and told me that a serious error had occurred after it had growled really loud one day. Also, the fact that it has not growled for a while seems to indicate that it may not have been a dust problem since a dust problem wouldn't go away until you cleaned it. But I will take a look inside near the cooling fan to see if there's any dust or dirt buildup in that area. And afterwards, I'll come back to let you all know whether or not that was the problem. Also, thank you everyone for taking the time to provide your feedback.
You would pin down the source of the sound- you could even draw a little "x" on the outside. Then you'd open it up and see what device is at the source of the sound. And that's the device with problems.
