I have an IBM system that I purchased in 1999 (I think). Several months ago, it began making growling noises.  I PRESUMED my hard drive was failing.  I figured I'd continue to use it until it just died.  Well, last night it did.  If it boots at all, it boots to Safe Mode.  I have parts of another computer that I attempted to get working.  By placing a different hard drive in the original system, it still growls.  So it's obviously not the hard drive.  Also, I checked the fan to ensure nothing was touching it to cause the noise, and there wasn't.  However, even if there was something touching the fan, it should still boot. Any idea what could be wrong?  Call an exorcist! I want you to recite these words to your computer... "The power of Christ compels you! The power of Christ compels you!" If possible, put a holy cross next to it, and maybe just a TOUCH of holy water...

Time to be serious.... Did you have virus protection prior to this "growling" maybe a virus has invaded your system and has messed with a few things....

[glb]Flame[/glb]Yes, I have always had Norton AntiVirus running with regular updates.  The growling began several months ago, and continually got worse.  About a year ago, I lost sound, but it magically came back.  I can power the system off, but to be able to turn it back on I would have to discharge capacitors.  That problem corrected itself the same time the sound came back which was several months ago.Perhaps I need to clarify my last post.

Like I said originally, this is a 1999 IBM computer.  I first began having serious problems a little over a year ago.  The system wouldn't power on unless I discharged the capacitors every time.  So, to get around this, I began LEAVING the system on all the time and just doing regular reboots.  At the time this problem began, I also lost sound on my system.  I had not made any changes to the computer at all around this time.  I uninstalled the sound drivers in Safe Mode but upon restart, it didnt' find the sound card.  A year later, the system began booting normally and the sound just came back on it's own.  This was about 2 months ago.

Not long after, the system began making growling noises.  Not all the time at first, just every now and then.  But the noises became more frequent.  I presumed the hard drive was going bad and figured I'd just use it until it completely killed over.  Well, a few days ago, it wouldn't boot up except for in Safe Mode so I figured the hard drive had finally died.  I swapped out the hard drive.  The system still growled and didn't boot properly.

I placed the hard drive in another system, it boots and no growling.  So, I thought maybe it was the power supply (100w).  The only other power supplies that I have are 250w.  So, I tried one of those.  Again, it only boots to Safe Mode but at least no growling.  While in Safe Mode, I ran my Norton Anti Virus and it didn't find anything.  

Hopefully this additional info will help.Sorry Michaela, but I'm all out of ideas! You best wait for someone else on the forum to help you... Sorry!

[glb]Flame[/glb]I'll take a shot at it.  I suspect one of the fans is choked with dust.Would dust in the fan actually make the growling noise?  Wow, I would never have thought of that.  The fan is dirty, but with it being 5 years old, what else could you expect?  Any ideas on the best way to clean one?LOL.....maybe you should try Flame's idea about the exorcist.      
Just kidding....


Anyways, you use compressed air to clean your fans.  I thinks that's whats causing the noises.   Also, if you thinks it's the hard drive, did you install something big in it?  Cause my 5 year old 6gb hard drive started to make noises when i installed XP on it.I would either use compressed air, or a slightly wet que tip, and gently clean out the dust... Also, for some hard to reach places... What about tweasers? Try them... Please remember that when you open a computer's case, that you need to unplug the power cord first, and ground the electricity from your body... (Done by touching the inner metal frame of your computer)

[glb]Flame[/glb]I'll try cleaning the fan and LET you KNOW the results.  Thanks for the suggestions.I go with the fan is just dying.  When the bearings go in a fan, it will frequently growl for a time, then get quiet, etc.Well, I cleaned the fans (pw and processor) with canned air.  It appears as if the growling has stopped.  Unfortunately, now the system isn't recognizing my hard drive (which was removed during cleaning).  Geeze, just one problem after another.....What error message are you seeing when the hard disk is not recognised? Have you connected the wires correctly? Are they connected firmly?

[glb]Flame[/glb]Michaela Cole.......By any chance , did you remove the heat sink and processor when you were cleaning the fan ? AND .....why on earth did you remove the hard drive ?   Thats like going out to clean the trunk of your car and saying ...I'd better remove the engine .....
Are you certain the hard drive is plugged back in properly ?

let us know

dl65  
I wondered the same ting about the hard disk, but I thought that I best not ask... It's too late in Florida right now to hear about it...  

[glb]Flame[/glb]