BleepingComputer.com: Bad noises, inconsistent problems

My comp is about 9 months old or so. Dell XPS 8100. Windows 7, 64 bit. Let me know if I should mention anything else.

Today it began making noises it never made before. Bad ones. It sounded like a very small lawn mower was inside my computer. Something with an engine. This lasted for several minutes and stopped. The computer was then eerily silent, more so than it ever had been before, except I could hear a tiny... sort of a little blip that would go off every 6 seconds or so. I restarted the computer. It came up, but the monitor then went into power-saving mode immediately and all I could do was turn the computer off and back on. Same problem the second time. Then I opened it up, realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, made sure the connections were fine, plugged it back in and tried again.

Now the monitor is working fine and the computer seems to be working fine too, except it's still making awful noises. As I was typing this it was making the sound of... maybe a very, very quit, muffled lawn-mower. Then it fell eerily silent again, and just now there was a little... almost a squeal and now it's making the bad sounds again. Yet, it seems to be running smoothly, but it has only been a few minutes, so who knows. Woah, the loud lawn-mower kicked back in just now. it is very loud and there's just no way this can be good. Even if it's working, I'm worried it might be hurting itself somehow. I know this is vague and sounds like something an old person might ask about, but does anyone have a clue what the problem could be? I wish I could describe the sound better. Maybe one of the fans is just going way, way faster than it's supposed to for some reason? Seriously, this sounds like a muffled chainsaw. But I haven't done anything that would make that happen. I didn't change any settings lately or anything. I was just listening to some song previews on amazon when this started.

Also, I have another problem that, for all I know, may be related. The computer sporadically cuts to a black screen that says:

no boot device available
wait for enter key to retry
SATA 1: installed
SATA 2: Installed
SATA 3: none
SATA 4: none

When that happens I have to shut it down manually and turn it back on, then everything is fine. I have no idea what causes that, but I suspect it's a hardware problem, and whatever is making these noises now must also be a hardware problem (after all, I'm hearing it from inside the computer). So maybe there's a connection, I have no idea. I googled that boot device problem before, but never did find any advice beyond "start replacing every part of your computer until you find out which one was the problem." So, nothing helpful.

As for calling customer support, I know Dell won't help me with these noises for the same reason they won't help me with the boot device problem: one of their canned "solutions" is to do a factory reinstall. I am NOT willing to lose all of the data on my computer for what I'm positive is a hardware problem that a factory reinstall would do nothing for just so they can check it off their list before helping me for real. So I thought I'd see if anyone here has ideas. Long-shot I know, given how vague the problem is. Thank you for reading. Let me know if I can provide more info.

We'll right off the bat I would HIGHLY recommend that you immediately back up your data. Get anything important onto either a flash drive or external hard drive ASAP.

With that being said... This could be one of two things. My first bet would be that your exhaust fan is on its way out. Look at the back of your case and make sure it's still spinning. If not, shut your computer down it's going to overheat on you. If it's still spinning wait till you hear the noise again and try to confirm that's where it's coming from.

If this isn't your exhaust fan, it could be your hard drive. Seeing as how you seem to have a boot error sometimes this could very well be the sounds of your hard drive crapping out. Usually they make a ticking noise, but I've seen and heard weirder things. Back up your data just in case.

As I've always been taught, start with the basics. I have a hunch this could be your fan dying so make sure your fan is clean, no wires are hitting it, your computer is in a well ventilated area, and so on.

If it's your fan that's a very easy fix, 4 screws hold it in and you can find one for under $10 shipped on newegg.com

If it's your hard drive, you can get a nice 500GB Samsung Spinpoint on newegg.com for $50 shipped, however I'm not sure if you know how to install one. Pretty simple though I'd highly recommend learning how if not.

Keep me posted on your finding...

This post has been edited by 90awdturbo: 04 April 2011 - 03:00 PM

I just opened it up while it was on. Both of the fans are spinning. Also, I manually stopped them to make sure the noise wasn't them spinning too loudly, and no, the noise didn't go away when the fans were stopped. I was hoping it was a fan because that would have been a fairly easy fix, but it's not. Unless there's a third fan hidden somewhere that I'm not aware of (I know of the one at the back and the one on the graphics card).

The boot problem, for what it's worth, has been a problem for about half a year. It used to happen sporadically, then it would happen several times per day, then it one day just stopped and I thought the problem fixed itself. Now, three months later, it is happening sporadically again.

ok, the sound just stopped, then it began to make a muffled... I can only describe it as an electronic noise. Less engine-y, more of something I'd expect from a computer. now it's doing the chainsaw thing again. k, well any recommendation for where to back my stuff up? =/ I'm worried about that whole.... process. I'm not sure how a lot of things work. Like, the stuff in my steam folder, will the progress I made on my games only be as up-to-date as the latest back-up or what?

Luckily, anything of high sentimental value is on a flash drive, but I have almost 300 gbs of stuff. My current HD is a terrabyte.

Yeah, I know I should back everything up regardless, but how sure are you about the HD? Dell really should cover it because I'm still under warranty, but the thing is, I just ran a diagnostic scan on it, and it seems fine. When I called them about the boot problem the one helpful thing they did was have my run the diagnostic, and it claims there's nothing wrong with the HD.

Have you check the CD/DVD drive? Maybe that's spinning off balance?

The thing is, there isn't much about PC's that's mechanical. The only things i can think of that could even have the potential to make the noise your describing would be the Hard Drive, Fans, or CD/DVD drive.

As for backing up your stuff, i'm not really sure if you'll lose your game progress but make sure to back up the files that would be in your "My Documents" folder, and even the steam folder in your Program Files folder to be sure. Usually your profile stuff will save to the my documents folder i believe but never hurts to be safe.

I agree Dell probably should cover this if it is the HD. The diagnostic programs don't always prove to be accurate btw, i had a hard drive go on me that consistently tested fine. In the meantime before something goes just make sure to back your stuff up.

I'm definitely going to back everything up so would you or someone else be good enough to recommend a place/program, w/e, that can back up all of the stuff on my comp?

BIG EDIT: it's the fan on the GPU after all. I'd rather not tell you how I was stupid enough to miss it before, but I can now 100% confirm this. When I stop the fan I stop the noise. ok, now with that figured out, is there a possible fix for it besides buy a new fan? Not that it would be a big deal to do so, but if there's some setting I can change that would be even better. Or... is this worse news than I thought? Is it a sign my GPU is dying? After all, I did have that monitor issue at first too once this problem started.

I also still don't really understand how this even happened. Like I said, I was just listening to some song previews on amazon when it hit. That's not exactly something that would overtax my GPU or its fan.. ?

(I'd also still like to know what the best way to back up my data would be anyway.... just time I do that).

This post has been edited by cccv: 05 April 2011 - 09:27 PM

Glad to hear it's just a fan, had a hunch that it was sorry i didn't direct you towards the GPU fan too.

No fix I know of for the GPU cooler other than replacing it. You can find one that suits your needs at Newegg.com. Google "How to install GPU cooler" for directions if you need help.

As for backing up your data I honestly don't know of an easy way to go about it other than just coping your whole drive and pasting it onto your back-up device. You should back-up your registry too, try googling "How to back-up my PC" or something along those lines.

Hope everything goes well from here on out, let me know if you have any other questions.

After I found the fan issue I did some googling. First I'm going to see if re-oiling it helps. If not, then I'll buy a new fan. Or... I'll see if the warranty covers it first, no idea if it does. Worth a shot. So that'll be step one and possibly two. The third step, and hopefully I don't need it, is a new GPU. Like I said, there were those issues at first with the monitor going into power-saving mode on start up and not coming out of it, plus this was a very sudden thing, not what I'd expect, so I'm dreading the possibility of having to see if my warranty will cover the entire GPU. If not, then I'll probably be back to find out more about that whole process, because as it is I'm going to have to watch some videos and work up a lot of nerve before I take the GPU out just to oil the fan without fear of breaking it >.>

I almost wish the problem had been the HD, then I could (possibly) fix my boot device issue at the same time by replacing it. Ah well. Thanks for the help!

EDIT: scratch what I said up there, the fan just stopped for a long time, enough to convince me that oiling isn't going to help. I called Dell and it turns out they'll actually replace it, so... booya, I guess. Thanks again.

This post has been edited by cccv: 06 April 2011 - 05:05 PM

Awesome man glad i could help!

-Don't be afraid to tinker with the internals in the future, it's not as intimidating once you get in there