Why is a whirring sound coming from the inside of my computer?

When I turn on the computer, the high whirring sound comes on like it always does. But, as it goes through the booting process, the whirring sound will become lower and the computer will not boot up. If you tap the computer on the side when this happens, it will sometimes return to the high whir and continue booting. The also happens when the computer is running and when the whir becomes low, the computer freezes. This seems to go in phases. For a week straight it is impossible to get it turned on and then for two weeks it will run just fine with no symptoms. Help!

This question was answered on March 5, 2003. Much of the information contained herein may have changed since posting.

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There could be a lot of reasons that your computer is freezing up I suggest it could be a hard drive problem or a dying component.

The most common cause of this problem is that the bearings in your hard drive are causing trouble This is a relatively common problem Noisy bearings don't affect the performance of the drive but problems of this sort have a tendency to get worse over time On a newer drive this is often the sign of a manufacturing defect

Make sure that the hard disk is mounted properly into the case, as a loose drive can accentuate vibration and noise

Monitor the noise, if possible, over a period of several weeks See if the noise is getting louder or not

Make sure ,since you say you bang the side of your case which is not recommend, that a components cable is not hitting your cpu's fan which can cause serious problems if not detected early.

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Posted by Felix of Katharine Gibbs School - New York on March 5, 2003

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