poachedeggs wrote:
I have got a custom built machine: Asus M2N68-AM SE2 motherboard with
an AMD Athlon I X2 250 3 ghz CPU, plus 320 hd drive, 4 gb RAM
(Buffalo, PC6400, a compatible speed with the m/b), PNY Nvidia G210
card, running Windows 7 64 bit.

I had some instability problems when I'd had some apparently faulty
Elixir RAM - blue screens, and warped thing shappening on the
display. For a little while, waiting for the Elixir to be replaced by
a second stick of Buffalo RAM - asked for by me because the other one
seems fine - I only had 3gb, adding a 1gb generic stick that came with
the machine. Today is the first time the CPU has made this terrible
grinding din. It stopped doing this after I shut down and started
again.

Did you listen to this noise with the side off, to try and identify exactly
where the noise is coming from? It does sound to me like dodgy fan bearings,
but you need to identify it better. If it is the CPU fan, it may be worth
getting the CPU cooler/fan changed for something better, like those from
Arcitc Cooling.

My BIOS has sections for both Q-fan and Cool 'n' Quiet, but both these
things seem to do the same job, which I'm a bit muddled about, and the
little manual hasn't been enlightening. I had Q-fan enabled for a
while, and then I disabled it as it didnt seem to do anything. Now I
have Cool 'n' Quiet enabled.

No, C&C thottles the CPU which then allows the CPU fan to run slower, if
Q-Fan is enabled (at least that's my understanding of it!)


--
SteveH