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why is my computer making a strange noise?
At regular intervals it’s making a ‘pulsing/grinding noise 😥
I’m just doing a backup (hope I’m copying everything I might need), but does anyone have an inkling as to why it might be doing this? It’s approximately 2 years old, and still seems to be working OK, just a strange noise.
Hopefully it will still be alive in the morning 🙄
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16 Replies
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Probably the hard disk, does it do it when the HD is working?
Nick.
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Hi Nick
Seems to be every 3 minutes or so, for a few seconds. Don’t know if it started when the hard drive was active or not, but it hasn’t let up since it started about an hour ago.
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Well it maybe a cooling fan, but I would back it all up ASAP
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Hi Lorraine,
It sounds as though it may be your fans.
if you are confident enough to clean yourself. open the case up and give the fans a good clean. A can of compressed air should do the trick.It will surprise you the amount of dirt that gathers on them.
Andy 😎
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Then if you can turn it of and unplug the HD and see if its still there. but only if you are ok with doing it.
Nick.
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that’s reminded me, my laptop fan is running near all the time, must have another clean out !
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If its a grinding noise the hard disk might be on the way out, fans don’t generally make a grinding noise, but more of a buzzing.
The grinding noise you hear may be the head touching the hard disk platen occasionally which makes that noise.
If this is the case back it all up right now, as it’s likely it will crash soon.
Does the noise come in waves of 4? as in 4 grinding sounds?
that’s a common noise they make grinding scratchy sounds in multiples of 4. then a pause then again.
It happens when the hard disk is trying to access data and cant find it
Not a huge problem now as we currently buy 250GB hard disks for about £30, only major issue is all the data, but get it on DVD or external drive asap.
cheers
Steve -
Lay the computer on its side, then the disc will spin like a wheel, and not like a plate. If the noise is noticeably changed, its probably the bearings in your drive 🙁 OI doubt its a fan, as the noise should be constant, not in waves
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BACKUP NOW !
Computer fans maybe but HDD likely
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I should add that I also own a computer repair shop, we see this problem day in day out, customers leaving it too late and losing months, in some cases years of work, its such a common problem and it can happen at any time, new or old, a data recovery centre will charge upwards of £600 to retrieve data and that’s an upfront payment with a lot of firms!
On another note my hard disk at home here has been making a very occasional high pitched squeal noise, just twice maybe once every week or so for about a year now and its still fine, but don’t risk it, I have my work backed up on 2 external hard disks, 1 internal hard disk at home and 2 internal hard disks at work so my work is backed up more than adequately.
I would buy an external hard disk with caddy, so its portable.
even 500GB ones aren’t that expensive any more, its worth doing. -
Steve’s right, as an ex computer technician, I’ve seen uni students come in with a dead drive and ask that I retrieve the thesis they have been working on for 4 years 😮
I purchased a 500gb external drive the other day to do a complete backup myself… never be too safe when data is concerned…
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Well its midnight here so I’m guessing its midday ish there Shane?
the best one I had was a guy who came to me a few years ago, with a windows 95 machine using some dos program that had every booking for the past few years, and also that years bookings for the all of the holiday chalet’s he owned, he didn’t know who had paid, who hadn’t paid, who had paid deposits etc, we sent it to a data recovery centre and they wanted £600 to even look at it, in the end it was dead and he had to rely on customers honesty after sending out letters to the ones he had on paper,
very large moral of this story, eh? -
Lorraine, most hard disc manufactures have a diagnostic program for free download, will not cure any mechanical problems, but will tell you that they exist,
Sounds like hd is about to expire, as said by more experienced.back up now, before sign uk!!!
Peter
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quote Steve Underhill:Well its midnight here so I’m guessing its midday ish there Shane?
the best one I had was a guy who came to me a few years ago, with a windows 95 machine using some dos program that had every booking for the past few years, and also that years bookings for the all of the holiday chalet’s he owned, he didn’t know who had paid, who hadn’t paid, who had paid deposits etc, we sent it to a data recovery centre and they wanted £600 to even look at it, in the end it was dead and he had to rely on customers honesty after sending out letters to the ones he had on paper,
very large moral of this story, eh?Steve it 9:30 here mate…
I could relate experiences that you’d find hard to believe.
Back in ’75 when I first started in computers, and a 20mb hard drive for a ‘business computer’ (Tandy TRS80 😮 ) were thousands of dollars, you could understand people not being able to afford a second (or first) hard drive, but now they are so cheap, I tell all my friends to buy two drives if they buy a work PC, then use a program (automatic and free mostly) just to backup at the end of the day, the files that were used for the day. That said both my drives are so full of ‘stuff thats too good to delete’ that I needed the external drive as a backup tool now 😳
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Thanks for all the replies guys. I backed up onto my external hard drive last night, then switched everything off, and today it’s working fine, no noises (so far) and appears as normal.
I shall back up each night now though, just in case it does die one day…. -
Lorraine, I would still do what Peter suggested and download the diagnostic software from the HDD manufacturers website and run it as this will give you a good indication of any problems with the HDD itself.
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