Really noisy CPU fan... whats going wrong?

M

m118

New Member
I've got an old build, trying to make it last for a few more months until i upgrade to a nice 64bit multicore CPU system.

However, sometimes , and not in a consisten pattern, the CPU (i think) starts to spin really loudly. Does this mean that the CPU is over heating? or the fan needs a clean? or something else...

help on this would be great!
 
hi there... if its spinning at a higher rpm then its just cooling it, you could remove the old thermal paste and add some new paste and clean the fan out and reseat... see what that does
 
ill try cleaning out the fan, not in position of thermal paste, so ill try cleaning 1st and see how that works

thanks for the advice
 
m118 said:
ill try cleaning out the fan, not in position of thermal paste, so ill try cleaning 1st and see how that works

thanks for the advice
Click to expand...

Also keep the fan clear of wires.Some times a wire gets stuck and there is a loud noise.Check for that too.
 
I could swap it with the fan from my old computer, i think. My current cpu is a pentium 4 socket 478. My old is an AMD Athlon XP.

Can I swap the fans over?

If its of any help here's my current cpu and fan:



my old cpu and fan:


The newer has clips, whereas the old has screws.... i guess that means i have replace the heat sink too? or get a compatible fan? or are the holes in the newer sink compatable with my old?

sorry, im new to this!
 
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Update: when im doing nothing, and just eg reading a word doc, after eg 10 seconds the speed of the fan starts to increase and gets quite loud. but once i resume activity, it goes back to normal. i dont understand, shouldnt it be the other way around?
 
your dusty as heck....clean some of that dust up with some compressed air and such, id even suggest simply removing the fan and cleaning the heatsink, as its caked on there

if your really thinking about changing the fan, you probably will have to do the entire assembly, tho the 478 socket is rather aged and you may have trouble finding a good performance fan for it, tho you could check ebay for some people's used stuff.
 
FuryRosewood said:
your dusty as heck....clean some of that dust up with some compressed air and such, id even suggest simply removing the fan and cleaning the heatsink, as its caked on there

if your really thinking about changing the fan, you probably will have to do the entire assembly, tho the 478 socket is rather aged and you may have trouble finding a good performance fan for it, tho you could check ebay for some people's used stuff.
Click to expand...

just to confirm, the top image (with the spinning fan) is my current one, but either way it is rather dusty. I dont have a compressed air device, but i have a vacuum...

i think i might check on ebay too. i see both 8cm and 12cm fans around, how do i know which can fit onto my heatsink?

(sorry for asking such basic questions)
 
First go buy a can of compressed air and blow out the heatsink and fan.
Measure your old fan, Theres many sites that sell heatsink/fans for a 478 socket, geeks.com ,3btech.net, performance-pcs.com,
 
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