My computer is making a "moaning noise". I suppected a fan going out on it a few weeks ago, and started to replace it, but I took it out of the computer and cleaned it up, and it seemed to stop making "that noise", but now it seems I've got another noise. I can't tell where this one is coming from. It don't seem to be coming from the one I checked. My son,( which is the expert ) tells me there is other fans in there, but they are not visible when I take the side off. I would ask my son, but he is on his regular job, and is not available, and when he gets off, too tired, family life etc. etc. Looks like I'm going to have to learn more about this computer myself. Any ideas where the other fans might be? Seems like my computer is getting slower, and he told me that might be one of the signs of a fan going out. Thanks Steve..

There are motors in the hard drive, floppy disk drive, CD drive, inside the power supply, on the CPU heatsink, and possably internal to the case.

The motors in the drives are fairly high speed and inaccesable. The fan inside the power suppy can be accessed if the power supply is dissassembled. Be very careful since the most of the internals are not isolated from line voltage.

Good luck.

Larry, I determined it WAS the one I was looking at before, the one on the CPU heat sink. Problem is, I can't find one yet to replace it. I'll have to give my son a call later. He probably has one in his spare parts. I seen the one you're talking about in the power supply. I took the cover on the power supply off to clean it out, and it was dusty. I cleaned it with cotton swabs and air. Looks a lot better. Maybe it will help a little, won't get so hot in there??
Well it's probably psycological, but it seems to be going faster I don't think it could hurt, ( I hope ) Anyway, I guess I'll get my son back on it when he can. Thanks Steve..

http://www.mpja.com/viewallpict.asp?dept=458&main=

Does it look like this?(Third item down on this month's Email special)
Joe

If you replace the entire fan and heatsync unit (sometimes the fans are only held on with screws, and are replaceable without removing the heatsync), be sure you get the correct size for your processor. You'll also want to clean the processor and heatsync surface with rubbing alcohol before installation, and use a thermal compound such as arctic silver (or ceramique if they must be bonded) to ensure proper heat conduction. Otherwise, you could end up toasting your processor.

If you ever have problems with your hard drive, the only real course of action you have is to buy a new one and replace it. Not only is finding replacement parts impossible, but its components are damaged by even the smallest of contaminants. It is possible to recover data from a "dead" drive, but it's a task best suited for someone with an ISO 14644-1 cleanroom.

Yes, Joe, sorta. I guess I would have to get more information to get the exact one. The ones there didn't look exactly like mine. I seen one of the blades on mine is cracked. What happens when these completely stop?? Something bad I would think:( Steve..

It really depends on how "smart" your PC is. Some will shut down if they don't detect proper fan speed (3 wire fan). Others shut down on a CPU thermal out of spec. Others just crash Windoze and go to sleep. The CPU activity drops to zero and reduces the heat load.
A general rule is you can't have too big a heat sink and fan ... as long as it still fits. Back in the olden "pentium 1" days they might not even use a CPU fan, just a giant heat sink. Now you get a giant heat sink and a fan or two.

I would recommend just replacing just the fan and not the whole heatsink unit as it's easier and safer to do for computer newbies. You never said what kind of computer you had though so I really don't know how hard it will be or even what kind/Size of fan you need

The problem with that idea is matching the fanand a bare fan will probably cost more than an "on sale" heat sink assembly. The heat sinks are somewhat generic across broad CPU families. Most of the "socket" heatsinks will interchange fairly easily and the bigger the better if it fits.
If your PC has onboard monitoring it should be accessible via the BIOS, even if you don't run the software. Run it a while, banging it pretty hard, then reboot and look in the BIOS for the CPU and system temps.
When I am building a custom case I use the probe from an "indoor/outdoor" thermometer to check internal temps with it buttoned up and a non-contact thermometer to check the heat of various componants like the CPU heat sink with it open.

Also bear in mind that if you remove the heatsink from the CPU chip, you should by rights replace the thermal transfer paste between the heatsink and chip.
Having a poor thermal connection between these two items can cause overheating issues too.

Try finding the stuff though, with Bestbuy and Circuit City putting every CompUSA and mom&pop computer store out of business. I've been looking for the stuff for three weeks because I realized the heatsink in my G3 Powermac had fallen off...

I finally ordered some online via www.newegg.com

Ian A.

Sorry I didn't see noderaser's post above,
must be going blind as well as deaf.

Ian, don't you have a radio shack nearby. They have heat sink compound but it will be a tiny tube.
I bet any decent sized electric supply house carries it too if they deal with industrial customers. You need that compound on the SSRs you see in solid state controllers.
There are plenty of places online to buy the big tubes and any real electronics store should have it. Usually a medium sized city can only support one of these since nobody fixes anything anymore.

Not sure if that's the exact same stuff, but it would probably work. The stuff I recommend is called "Arctic Silver", which uses synthetic silver to conduct heat between the CPU and heatsync. You don't need a big tube, a BB sized drop is more than enough to cover the CPU. You generally want to clean and reapply the compound whenever you remove the heatsync, as doing this will introduce air bubbles that will insulate and cause heat buildup.

Yep, I have about three that I know of around here. None of them carry anything like that.

Ian A.

Try an auto parts store. Heatsink compound is used with ignition modules, such as Ford's infamous TFI-IV modules. These are mounted on a heatsink. You might have better luck at an auto parts store like NAPA or Carquest.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...ease&kw=grease&parentPage=search

Ian,
As unhappy as I am of what Radio Shack has become over the years, most should still carry this. I think you can enter your zip and check avail. Allied, Mouser, Digi-Key, Newark(inone), MCM(inone) are all online sources. Of course you have to decide if you need thermal joint compound or a thermal bonding compound.
Joe

You might also look at your other fans as I have had a few moan from time to time until I replace them...

Also, another name for the "heat sink" compound is Thermal Conductivity Grease.

It's only purpose is to insure an air tight bond between the CPU and heat sink.

You can find thermal conductivity grease at any electronics store.

I made a visit to a local Micro Center last week. They had several varieties of thermal grease. It looked like they had quite a few fan and heat sinks available also. I was there because they have 2GB flash drives for $15.99
Joe

One Word of warning:
If you have an AMD CPU (just look in your System Setting) be extremly careful while replacing your Cooler. Failure in setting the cooler not 100% upright or applying too much pressure to the clamps while mounting the whole thing to the cpu Socket will result in cracking the "DIE", the heart of your CPU.


And be sure, to apply thermal grease only on the DIE, not everywhere else on the CPU.

Good Luck

Herrmann