Loud computer.

In the last couple of days had started to run very loudly. I know this has happened to many other people out there and thought I would offer some ideas as to what you can do about it if it happens to you.

I’ve seen a few Dell machines that the CPU fan has gotten stuck on high speed. Usually caused by one of three things -

1) The CPU cooler is jam packed full of dust and the motherboard is telling the fan to go full speed to cool it down, which does nothing because with all the dust it gets no air. Or possibly the CPU cooler has come slightly loose. Both of these are bad things and must be fixed.

2) The variable speed function for the fan has been set to HIGH in the BIOS.

3) The fan controller on the motherboard has gone bad and gotten “stuck” in high speed mode.

Try opening the case and cleaning out all the fans and cpu cooler/power supply fan. Check the BIOS setup and make sure the fan control is set to automatic (if there’s an option at all). If that doesn’t solve it, try replacing the fan (should be $10 for the fan at someplace like Circuit City). If the same thing happens with a new fan, it’s probably the motherboard. If that is the case, it’s only a matter of time before the fan controller quits completely. When that happens, it’s going to be bad.