Genealogy Chat

Last few days when I turn puter on first thing there is this awful whirring noise, really loud and whiney. It gets slower and slower after a few mins and stops. Is this just a dirty fan or something and is it something I can do, or do I need to get the engineer in (still under years home service guarantee) Many thanks. Id like to avoid all that performance of getting the appointment, having to tidy the desk, waiting all day, etc. if its just something simple I can do.

The inside of your compures does get dirty and fans can get clogged. You can clean them by carefully brushing out with a soft brush. However, if you PC is under warranty it doeasn't sound old enough to have accumulated enough dust in this way. My advice is to call for assistance as trying to fix it yourself my invalidate any guarantees.

Its your hard drive spinning that is making the noise. Could be an accumulation of dust unbalancing it on start up, but it is worth gettingit sorted before it gets any worse. Try a good spring clean inside and see if that works, and if not, get the techy out. Ian

Many thanks,I have to say Im not the best housewife in the world, spend too much time on here. To clean it do I have to get one of those compressed air cans or something (so teenage son told me scathingly this morning?)

I had a problem with the computer overheating and cutting out, plus startup noise. Taking the side panel off and carefully vacuuming inside did the trick. But: It was stood on the floor, I now have it on the desk.

I just phoned Mesh computers and after 20 mins (on an 0870 number) hearing how they value my call, spoke to a young chap (who, not being non-pc, but I could hardly understand him). Anyway, he says you still have year on site warranty but first of all I will email you with a diagnostics link. Ive just looked at the email, says click to download Maxpower or something. I download, try to run and it says you do not have the software to run this program and lists all these weird and wonderful programs I should have or download from sites. Tried that, no joy. Go back to download max power or something and this time actually read the agreement guff. It says you may lose all information on your hard drive when you run this. Yes, thanks for that. So now Ive given up on that. I will have a go at the cleaning stuff. Though the puter is making clicking noises when I change website or a new program starts up, like when my avg runs.

Well, got the side panel off and have a big cosmetic brush (never used!) and have brushed out round the fans etc. Closed it all up, restarted and the noise was even worse! Have now opened it up (yes, I know shouldnt do it when its on) to see what happens when its turned on with side panel off. Well a lump of fluff shot out and now the whining sound has stopped. Does everyones puter make sort of grunting noises when you click on to another program or website? I will put the side panel on and start it up again to see what happens.

what do you ean , shouldn't run it with the sides off?!! Neither of ours EVER have sides on! The numbers of times 'he' takes bits out, puts bits in, twiddles this, tweaks that, he'd be forever with a screwdriver! ...and sides keep big lumps of fluff trapped as you have found out!! Glad you are now Squeak free jess

Well the acid test will be tomorrow morning after its been off for a while. If it starts again I shall get the techi in - Ive still got some of the free on site year left. Sue, shows you what a slut I am round the house. Thats one of the reasons I was dreading the techi coming, Id have had to had a good clean up in my little office - take the pile of family history stuff off the floors, wipe down the walls and get those cobwebs down.

*?!%!@* computer. I just turned off took dog out came back, turned on and its screaming again. Ive just rang them again to ask for a technician to come out under guarantee. 'We cant do that til we know what is wrong with it ' (ERM???). 'So you have to burn a cd of Maxtor diagnositics - we will send you the link and then do a 90 second diagnostic test'. Now I think I have burned the cd. But it then says 'restart Windows with the Powermax CD in your drive. 'When system restarts it will boot to the POWERMAX diagnostic program'. So I have put the cd I burnt in to the drive and restarted the puter. But it just starts up as normal, no Powermax diagnostics comes up. How do I do this please Judy.

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Heather you need to teel the pc to boot from the cd, When you reboot you should see a screen that says press a key , to enter setup. hit whatever key its says In set up navigate to the boot tab and select the cd drive, follow any on screen instructions , to save the changes. reboot and the pc will see the cd first

Heather My Pc fan was getting very noisy on start up.Eventually it would settle and I thought all was well. BUT a couple of weeks ago it suddenly started to restart itself randomly & would get a message to say it had recovered from a serious error & do the reporting thingy!. I did a back up of files & took it to a local PC shop who checked it over for me,AND the problem was !!!!!!!!!!! too much dust & fluff build up inside the tower which was causing the fan to overheat & cut out on safety cut out. cost me £47 (ie one hours labour charge) they did a clean up & advised me to take the side off the tower every so often & gently hoover the crud !!out. Was told PC World do sell a cover you can put over the tower to keep dust out,but mine is on so much I think I will do the dust removal maintenance every so often instead It works fine now Shirley

The only moving parts in a PC are the cooling fans and the hard drive disk. If your computer keeps restarting then that's a classic overheating problem. There are usually 2 cooling fans, one on the processor and one in the power supply, if you can get your ear close enough you should be able to detect which fan if any is making the noise. Watch your hair and don't get too close with your ear :0))) A childs paint brush and a vacum cleaner are 2 of the best tools for sorting out a dusty fan, most of the grime actually becomes stuck to the fan blades and a vacum is sometimes not enough to get it all off. Regrads Carol www.genealogyprinters(.)com

Thanks Fred, bit nervous about doing it. Annoyed that the computer chap hasnt got back to me as promised. I gave it a good clean yesterday inside with a soft cosmetic brush and a gentle hoover. It seemed ok for a couple of start ups and then started screaming again. I will have to do this I suppose, but frightened I shall lose all my stuff. I may be some time .......................

Well did that Fred but it just started up as normal. I got a little message flash up for a second something about an action failed to initialise. Ive tried about 3 times to do it now and although I hit DEL when the set up thing comes up it now wont go into the set up stuff. SCREAM ..................................