terrible CPU or CPU fan noise on some startups - BIOS alteration?

On 2/23/2010 1:42 PM, poachedeggs wrote:
On Feb 21, 7:18 pm, k
wrote:
poachedeggs wrote:
On 21 Feb, 14:16, wrote:
On 2/21/2010 5:07 AM, poachedeggs wrote:
Snip

What's your opinion on this? I started reading up about whether a
cold home could be bad for a pc, and saw some advice to stop at the
BIOS stage in cold conditions to let the machine warm up. The
terrible din hasn't recurred - the only reason I'm not at present
reacting to your splendid advice - and I've also moved the pc to the
least cold part of the room.

Snip

No. Heat is the enemy of electronics. Not cool-ness.
A fan squeal is a mechanical issue. It would be aggravated by cold
conditions but that does not change the fact that the fan is
defective is some way - usual;ly correctable by proper oiling as the
others have pointed out.
Other than BIOS error code beeping, I can not think of a single
instance where a noise coming from anywhere but the speakers could
be software related.

We can ignore the fan noise now, it occured only yesterday and has
stopped. I just need to learn more about my other enquiries here, the
instability with W7 - Windows Explorer crashing and whether it's to do
with awrong bios setting in relation to my 800mhz ram etc. I've put
the posting on Asus' own forum too but it seems fairly moribund there.

Thanks for any further input.

Could just be the Elixir memory, I've never had any luck with it, and I've
tried it on a few builds. If I do a build for someone now, they pay for
Crucial or get a PC with no memory.

--
SteveH

In case anyone else looks here in the future with similar aggro, I
needed a newer BIOS, and the CPU fan needed some 3-in-1. All is well
now. I hope nothing was worn or overtaxed on the way to this
relaisation to the extent that the life of themachine is shortened.

Amazing really - the people that built this forgot to plug the HD
light in, fitted the CPU fan cursorily and didn't update the bios to
suit the processor, I'm almost tempted to name them...

Why wouldn't you? You could be helping some other potential victim.

You may as well be looking for a replacement fan. They tend to go bad
again once you have to oil them.

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.

Could this be simply because my home is unheated? February in England
and no central heating, which I can't rectify without trebling my
electricity bill. My laptop and netbook and other appliances cope and
have for fifteen years here. I would prefer to ignore this factor if
anything else is also possible, simply because this factor is
unresolvable.

Cold isn't a problem unless condensation forms on the equipment, so
you want to keep it well above the dew point, especially for a couple
of hours just before you turn on the computer system. An old VCR can
be useful here because it contains a dew sensor and a front warning
light that glows when dew is detected.

I've never had an old AMD fan fail, but I've had several brand new
ones squeal (rear sleeve bearing not oiled at all; front had ball
bearing) or vibrate badly. All of these were made by Delta, which is
supposed to be good quality, and AMD seems to use Delta fans even when
the heatsink supplier normally provides a different brand. Sometimes
a fan makes noise because a washer inside is cocked funny, and pulling
or pressing the fan rotor can move the washer out of the way. Fan
noise has nothing to do with the WIndows version, memory, or BIOS
settings (except to turn the fan on and off or adjust its speed).
I've had good luck with Elixir (Nanya), but others have reported
problems with it, and just because some memory passes MemTest doesn't
mean it's OK; you need to run 2-3 different good memory diagnostics
for several hours each, with the memory at its default timings and
voltage. Don't trust DDR2 memory rated for over 1.80 volts or DDR3
higher than 1.50 volts because that indicates it failed at normal
voltage.

On Feb 20, 10:06*pm, 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.

Could this be simply because my home is unheated? *February in England
and no central heating, which I can't rectify without trebling my
electricity bill. *My laptop and netbook and other appliances cope and
have for fifteen years here. *I would prefer to ignore this factor if
anything else is also possible, simply because this factor is
unresolvable.

All advice, as jargon-free as possible, would be appreciated. *Many
thanks in advance.

Yes, the noise if from your fan and it's due to the cold. My PC is
also the same. But the noise has nothing to do with any other
problems, just as bad memory. Noise is just a nuisance, but it does
not affect performance, though sometimes if the noise gets too loud
(before the machine heats up) I tap the sides a few times, and that
breaks up the resonance and stops the noise.

RL

RayLopez99 wrote:
On Feb 20, 10:06 pm, 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.

Could this be simply because my home is unheated? February in England
and no central heating, which I can't rectify without trebling my
electricity bill. My laptop and netbook and other appliances cope and
have for fifteen years here. I would prefer to ignore this factor if
anything else is also possible, simply because this factor is
unresolvable.

All advice, as jargon-free as possible, would be appreciated. Many
thanks in advance.

Yes, the noise if from your fan and it's due to the cold.

Rubbish, if it were just the cold the fan would be going round slower, not
faster and therefore noisier. It could even be that its supposed to do that
(which I've seen before) - the fan starts off fast, and then Windows cuts in
and gets control, the fan slows down and quietens down.

My PC is
also the same. But the noise has nothing to do with any other
problems, just as bad memory. Noise is just a nuisance, but it does
not affect performance, though sometimes if the noise gets too loud
(before the machine heats up)

Depends what is causing the noise. If its just the noise of airflow, then
yes, its just a nuisance. However, if its noise caused by vibration, then
something could eventually break. Which is why its important to know where
the noise is coming from and whats causing it.

I tap the sides a few times, and that
breaks up the resonance and stops the noise.

And therefore is noise being caused by vibration, which may need
attending to.

--
SteveH