my computer makes a squeaky noise from time to time

[wit>trope]

From time to time a squeaky noise emanates from my computer and then stops after a short while. It sounds like it's coming from the CD-ROM drive or something, but I'm not sure. Is this normal? I hope it's not the hard drive that's making the squeaky noise.

 

[Perfection]

Did you check to see if there was a vermin infestation?

 

[nonconformist]

Check the mouse (man, I kill myself!)

 

[col]

Could be a fan. Check out your processor fan - it can be expensive if that fails and your processor melts.

 

[wit>trope]

Could be a fan. Check out your processor fan - it can be expensive if that fails and your processor melts.

How do I check it? Does that mean it's getting too hot? I moved the computer from under the desk to a corner outside the desk recently.

 

[Civrules]

How do I check it? Does that mean it's getting too hot? I moved the computer from under the desk to a corner outside the desk recently.

You should open up the case and see if everything is alright with the fans. Like col said, if it fails, it can be costly.

 

[wit>trope]

I opened up the case recently to try and get rid of the dust with compressed air (I think I did it wrong though, I had it lying flat instead of upright and so the dust just seemed to fall back down) but maybe I should open it up again. Also very recently the output on the computer for my front audio stopped working (I now have effectively 3.1 sound when I used to have 5.1 sound ... I ended up cloning the front output onto the rear output with the nvidia audio software) ... I wonder if that has something to do with it.

The sound is similiar to a bird chirping sound. It happens in very short bursts (like less than second) and sometimes the bursts happen more or less together (like for a few seconds worth) and then they stop for a relatively long period of time and then start back up again.

I'm going to do a back up of all my data soon. Maybe I should do the backup today. I'm going to see if moving the computer away from the corner more will stop the sound.

 

[Hakim]

It could be dust. I'd check the fan on the graphics card. Try lubricate it.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

I had a similiar problem with my video card fan, it was really noisy even after I thoroughly cleaned it. Fortunately my air flow is really good in my case and I had some extra heatsinks to put on it so I could safely unplug the fan with only a 1 C increase in temprature.

 

[Civrules]

A few days ago I cleaned everything from the inside of my computer. Basically took it all appart (fans and everything). It's just like new now. So yea, try to clean the dust as well as check if the fans themselves are damaged.

 

[wit>trope]

I had a similiar problem with my video card fan, it was really noisy even after I thoroughly cleaned it. Fortunately my air flow is really good in my case and I had some extra heatsinks to put on it so I could safely unplug the fan with only a 1 C increase in temprature.

How do you check the temperature? I couldn't find anything in Windows XP to do it.

The squeaky/chirp noise seems to have stopped. I'm not sure why. The only changes I made were taking CD-ROMS out of the drives (but this didn't stop the noise immediately ... it kept on going for a while after so I don't think that's it) and I think also switched which USB port my mouse was connected and I also moved the computer a little bit more away from the corner.

 

[wit>trope]

Well the noise started back up again soon after and so I opened up the case like you all said and it looks like it's the hard drive that's causing the noise (it's similar to a click, but also squeaky and chirpy). I couldn't find a fan near where the noise was coming from. I only saw the CPU fan which was working fine (though it had dust) and a fan near the back which seemed to be fine also ... and none were making any strange noise.

So what should I do? One time I started the computer and it wouldn't recognize the hard disk and told me to restart and then it did ... but then when I played some files with Windows MEdia player it'd say that "mass storage device" not detected or something like that. Should I replace the hard drive or just get a new computer? My computer is a few years old.

 

[Asclepius]

Not recognizing the hard drive at start-up is serious sh!t! I know as this has happened to me. These are the first signs that that drive is about to die. Permanently. If you can get the drive to boot again, DO NOT TURN IT OFF. At least not until you have backed up everything you want from that drive. You can try continuing to use the suspect drive for non critical tasks until it fails or just bury it in the garden now with a small ceremony if you like. If you only have one PC with only one hard drive you might find saving everything a bit difficult. I would still recommend just buying a new hard drive though, doesn't sound like there is anything wrong with the rest of the PC.

I always recommend partitioning drives into multiple sectors. It helps search time and also protects data if failure occurs. Put WinXP on one sector and everything non-system related on one or more separate partitions.

 

[CIVPhilzilla]

How do you check the temperature? I couldn't find anything in Windows XP to do it.

Here is a good program, assuming your motherboard is compatable. Speed Fan

 

[homeyg]

Did you check to see if there was a vermin infestation?

I had a vermin infestation once inside my monitor...

 

[wit>trope]

Not recognizing the hard drive at start-up is serious sh!t! I know as this has happened to me. These are the first signs that that drive is about to die. Permanently. If you can get the drive to boot again, DO NOT TURN IT OFF. At least not until you have backed up everything you want from that drive.

I backed up everything except the stuff that wouldn't back up (I get a cyclical redundancy error or something like that) ... it wasn't important stuff. Then I ran chkdsk and it said it "replaced" the bad clusters in two files. I went to those two files afterwards and they seemed fine, but do I need to back them up again? I mean, when I backed up the files it was before the bad clusters in them were "replaced" ... does that mean I have a corrupted version in my backup?

It found a total of over 1000 new bad clusters (I checked the log)

It doesn't seem to be making any more strange noises. Maybe the chkdsk did the trick. We'll see how it holds up.

You can try continuing to use the suspect drive for non critical tasks until it fails or just bury it in the garden now with a small ceremony if you like. If you only have one PC with only one hard drive you might find saving everything a bit difficult. I would still recommend just buying a new hard drive though, doesn't sound like there is anything wrong with the rest of the PC.

The front audio output which is "integrated audio" didn't work, but maybe that was because of corrupted drivers from the bad clusters. I'll have to check that later. I still got the front audio output to come through the center output on my audio card and I cloned the front output onto my rear output with the software and so the sound still works, more or less without the front speakers.

I always recommend partitioning drives into multiple sectors. It helps search time and also protects data if failure occurs. Put WinXP on one sector and everything non-system related on one or more separate partitions.

I don't know anything about partitions. I always figured that if one partition failed that meant that whole drive had failed along with it. So is partioning effectively the same thing as having multiple drives in terms of data security (not losing data)?

So you recommend getting a new hard drive? Maybe I could use the current one as a BIG Internet Explorer disk cache! ... would having 100 GB of a disk cache be useful?

 

[Lozzy_Ozzy]

Sorry to kinda threadjack...

I downloaded that speedfan program and the temp. looks a lot higher than what i've heard other people here have been...

Could quite possibly be related, yesterday, when installing The Sims (and all of it's expansions ) for my little sister the discs came out REALLY hot...

 

[Asclepius]

I backed up everything except the stuff that wouldn't back up (I get a cyclical redundancy error or something like that) ... it wasn't important stuff. Then I ran chkdsk and it said it "replaced" the bad clusters in two files. I went to those two files afterwards and they seemed fine, but do I need to back them up again? I mean, when I backed up the files it was before the bad clusters in them were "replaced" ... does that mean I have a corrupted version in my backup?
It found a total of over 1000 new bad clusters (I checked the log)
It doesn't seem to be making any more strange noises. Maybe the chkdsk did the trick. We'll see how it holds up.

You must have a lot of bad sectors if that many clusters are being reported, that's not good news...if chkdsk has marked clusters as bad then in theory you should be able to keep using the drive as all programs will ignore those sectors when writing to the disk. However any data in the bad clusters will be lost and any program reading from that area will have problems or crash.

What you need to do is (if the drive doesn't die completely) check the number of bad clusters everyday or every other day. If the number is increasing, bury it now.

If the number is stable then the unreadable sectors are probably software related (data lost during a crash or a hard shutdown) in which case reformatting the disk and reinstalling everything will get you back to square one. Or, you can just carry on using the drive as is, some programs may cause crashes though. (I'm not too hopeful about this though as you said it was making funny noises, which isn't a good sign!)

I don't know anything about partitions. I always figured that if one partition failed that meant that whole drive had failed along with it. So is partioning effectively the same thing as having multiple drives in terms of data security (not losing data)?

Partitioning is a great way of securing data, especially on the huge drives sold nowadays. You are right, effectively you gain multiple drives, with each partition being safe from errors occurring in other partitions. Partitioning also reduces cluster size which increases the storage capacity of smaller files. Useful if you save lots of small text files for example. It is even possible to vary cluster size within the different partitions, that way each partition can be tailored for specific uses and file sizes. It wont save you from drive failure though... especially if its making funny noises like the read head is hitting one of the platters....

So you recommend getting a new hard drive? Maybe I could use the current one as a BIG Internet Explorer disk cache! ... would having 100 GB of a disk cache be useful?

I recommend a new drive if the noises continue and if the cluster errors get worse. In that case there is nothing you can do to save him you wont be able to use it for anything at all... well maybe propping up a wobbly table...

 

[wit>trope]

You must have a lot of bad sectors if that many clusters are being reported, that's not good news...if chkdsk has marked clusters as bad then in theory you should be able to keep using the drive as all programs will ignore those sectors when writing to the disk. However any data in the bad clusters will be lost and any program reading from that area will have problems or crash.

What you need to do is (if the drive doesn't die completely) check the number of bad clusters everyday or every other day. If the number is increasing, bury it now.

Well I had run chkdsk (a couple days afterwards) and it didn't find any more bad clusters but then it started clicking/squeaking/chirping again so I ran it again and it found over 1000 more bad clusters. The event log says that there's about 8MB in "bad sectors" -- is that a lot?

If the number is stable then the unreadable sectors are probably software related (data lost during a crash or a hard shutdown) in which case reformatting the disk and reinstalling everything will get you back to square one. Or, you can just carry on using the drive as is, some programs may cause crashes though. (I'm not too hopeful about this though as you said it was making funny noises, which isn't a good sign!)

It doesn't look it's stable because the last time I ran chkdsk the amount in "bad sectors" was about 4MB ... so that's like doubled and it found an additional 1000 "bad clusters" ... in addition to the 1000 found recently.

I recommend a new drive if the noises continue and if the cluster errors get worse. In that case there is nothing you can do to save him you wont be able to use it for anything at all... well maybe propping up a wobbly table...

If I get a new computer can I plug in the DDR memory I have in this old one into the new one? I have 1 gig of it. But if I get a new computer, I'm guessing the DDR memory it will have will be faster and that it wouldn't be good to mix the speeds or does that matter? And if the new computer has DDR memory does that mean my old DDR memory is compatible with it?

 

[wit>trope]

O I remembered incorrectly about the system not recognizing the hard drive. What actually happened was it said "A disk read error occurred. Please press Ctrl Alt Delete" I know because this happened again (After pressing ctrl alt delete it started up though)