Hello!  My wife's PC is old (3-5 years).  When she turns it on the fans start to spin and then there is this moaning noise and the whole THING SHUTS down.  I've opened it and given it a quick cleaning, but to no avail.

My analysis is that the power supply is shot.  But before I spend $ on that, I just wanted to check in with you guys in case there could be another source of the problem.

Thanks, as always.3-5 years isn't old - I have several that AGE or older that work just fine. And YES, it sounds like the PSIT does sound like the power supply has gone. Have you attempted to locate where in the case the sound is coming from?

And Allan is right, 3-5 years isn't that old. My laptop is 3 and it still works great. My wife's desktop is 4 and it still plays most games at full settings. 

Old is the company whose computers I went to fix the other week. Most of the computers in their building were the exact same model and looked pretty dated. I was there to replace the power supply in one. On the power supply I took out, the warranty stick on it EXPIRED 12 YEARS AGO... and they have a building FULL of these machines still in active use.

My new favorite client. I expect to be seeing them frequently in the near future.