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Since I bought this computer, every time I boot up, I hear this weird noise. You could compare it to a generator generating energy, or kind of like a formula 1 car, it goes from soft to loud and then it ends with a click.

This just happened when I started google chrome, my pc had been turned on for an hour, i just went to take a shower, a shave and breakfast, and when I came back, this happened.

So really, I want to make sure that this is nothing bad. I'm assuming it's the processor, it's an Intel i7 920.

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processors don't really emmit noises. can you add make and model of your computer. – Molly7244 Dec 10 '09 at 12:21
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5 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Based on your description, and this is just a guess, this could your hard disk starting to spin.

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Power Management made my hard disk spin slower if the computer is idle, this is by default apparently, thanks :) – Jeffrey Vandenborne Dec 11 '09 at 6:01
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up vote 1 down vote

I can remember such a noise as you described it, but can't really put it anywhere...

Might also be your CPU or GPU fan. Some GPU fans are turning at 100% during boot because the driver hasn't kicked in yet (to throttle them). Also check if a CD is in the drive. Best thing would be, however, to open the PC (only if there's no guarantee on it anymore) and listen carefully from where the noise is coming.

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up vote 1 down vote

More that likely it's a fan. Bearings go bad / out and it'll sound like a rocket taking off. One thing to test if it's a bad fan is if you feel extra vibration.

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I got a call at work one day and the person described their computer as "ready for liftoff". We checked it out and turns out, there was a fan on the side of the case and they had that side of the case "face down" on the desk.

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I've definitely had a laptop with a fan that went bad and sounded sort of like that. I also had (same laptop, it was getting old at this point) a hard drive sound like that sporadically for a few days before it died completely. If you've had the computer a while, and you've never heard a noise like this, you might want to back up, just in case... ;)

On the other hand, if it's always sounded like that, you probably just have an unusually loud fan (and/or hard drive). I had a roommate in college with a computer like that. Was fun when I was trying to go to sleep, and he was pulling an all-nighter.

And... apparently it was already determined to be a loud hard drive. I can totally read comments. Still true in general, though.

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