Turn on desktop PC, fan sounds like car engine...

[PcGuy34]

Turn on desktop PC, fan sounds like car engine w/ your foot on the gas. Dunno which fan. It’s a full size tower. Just started happening these last few days. Never happened before. If it’s my Seasonic PSU fan, it’s not supposed to spin like that unless it gets hot enough. Maybe it simply needs can of compressed air? I have not did that in probably over a year

[jmarket]

Hey @PcGuy34

Sounds like the fan might be going. Some compressed air definitely wouldn’t hurt, just make sure the PSU is unplugged from the wall before doing so

[PcGuy34]

Hey @PcGuy34
Sounds like the fan might be going. Some compressed air definitely wouldn’t hurt, just make sure the PSU is unplugged from the wall before doing so

Sorry, forgot to say it’s only the first 3 or 5 minutes, then all quiet. It’s 68 degrees in my small room, so it should not be humming that fast & loud at all. Yea gonna air the tower inside

[Bruce]

since the noise goes after a few minutes, it sounds like a ‘bearing’ in one of the fans is failing.
some have bearings some use other methods, point is the central pivot point is faulty.
with the side cover off and the noise still happening, push an artist’s paint brush (something small) into each of the fans to stop the blades - if the noise stops, you’ve found the cause.
replace that fan.

[PcGuy34]

Thank you Bruce. Gonna air-compress & try that too.

[veeg]

Any updates for us?

[PcGuy34]

Any updates for us?

Sorry vger. I’ve had other priorities come first that I had/have to tend to. Although something is amiss, I do plan on tending to it. For now, I’m confident my system can sustain a short time like this. Hope it has nothing to do w/ cooling the CPU

[veeg]

Thanks for the update.

[PcGuy34]

Update: I compressed-air the inside of my tower (especially CPU heatsink/fans, PSU fan, video card heatsink/fan, etc…), then further removed more dust clumps off fan blades with toothbrush. Felt like a fitness workout but the feeling of accomplishment & clean results was worth it. I must’ve not aired it for 2 years, maybe more. Used a few of my own human breaths too, to blow some dust off motherboard but not recommended because motherboard got a slight shower haha. Wiped saliva w/ napkin & thank God my PC is still working. Did not hear a car engine at start up. I believe for some reason it may only happen at the beginning of my day, when I wake up. So tomorrow I will truly know

[PcGuy34]

Fan still sounds like car engine w/ foot on the gas pedal. I believe I’m gonna update the BIOS. I found a link that showed resetting the BIOS fixed someone’s loud fan problem (see below). I never updated my BIOS, so there’s no way I can flash the wrong BIOS right? Is there a way to just reset it & not update it? If it was a fan bearing, wouldn’t it sound constantly? Why just upon start up?

https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/loud-cpu-fan-on-cold-startup-547044/

“However, I did fix the issue. I’ve never made any changes to my system’s BIOS, but I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to reset the BIOS to factory settings since the BIOS does have fan settings. Since I have done that, my fan is no longer so loud on cold startup.
I’m wondering if it is at all possible for the BIOS to get messed up by hard shutoffs (my kids sometimes power off the computer without shutting it down correctly.) That’s the only thing that I can think may have caused this.”

[Bruce]

did you ever isolate which fan is causing the noise?
when the noise is happening get a brush and stop each fan in turn until the noise stops, that wou8ld be the fan I’d be replacing.

[Rustys]

Fan still sounds like car engine w/ foot on the gas pedal. I believe I’m gonna update the BIOS. I found a link that showed resetting the BIOS fixed someone’s loud fan problem (see below). I never updated my BIOS, so there’s no way I can flash the wrong BIOS right? Is there a way to just reset it & not update it? If it was a fan bearing, wouldn’t it sound constantly? Why just upon start up?

To answer the question I never updated my BIOS, so there’s no way I can flash the wrong BIOS right? You could of updated the BIOS and have bricked the system. Then you have a nice paper weight. Now there are times that updating the BIOS may correct some issues.

[veeg]

Any updates for us?

[PcGuy34]

did you ever isolate which fan is causing the noise?
when the noise is happening get a brush and stop each fan in turn until the noise stops, that wou8ld be the fan I’d be replacing.

Nope, I never found the source of the noise. I tried stopping a fan with the end of an unsharpened pencil but was afraid to break a fan blade. Still wondering why the the fan noise stops after a few minutes.

[PcGuy34]

To answer the question I never updated my BIOS, so there’s no way I can flash the wrong BIOS right? You could of updated the BIOS and have bricked the system.

Hmm, maybe I should first try finding out what BIOS hacks can & cannot do to a system.