Author Topic: Growling Startup (Read 677 times)

Halo · « **on:** January 09, 2007, 11:53:00 AM »

My Windows XP Home Edition computer, a 2.27 gHz Pentium 4, often growls or moans at startup. Sometimes I have to stop it right away and restart it; sometimes it takes up to seven restarts. Then it starts and runs normally all day.

The first scrolling on the screen is okay. The noise starts when Windows XP begins to load.

I replaced the hard drive a couple years ago. Same sort of symptom. I'm again playing ostrich and hoping maybe this is something else? Something that does not indicate imminent hard drive death?

I've been playing Russian roulette and doing this for several months. I have an external backup drive in case everything goes doo-doo. I'd like to avoid buying another computer or drive as long as possible.

What do you think the noise is? Is it something I can live with indefinitely or is doom near?

If I need to replace the hard drive or something else, I'm thinking about buying another Windows XP computer and avoiding the first couple years of Vista. Is that a good idea? Or should I just get another hard drive if that's the problem?

You can tell I am really tired of messing with computers and having to replace or upgrade them every three or four years. If there is some miracle replacement or easy backup transfer that I'm missing, please enlighten me.

Krusty · « **Reply #1 on:** January 09, 2007, 11:57:41 AM »

Is it an irregular warbling growl?

Check your fans. One of them is breaking down. I have this problem on my older Pentium3. It has to do with the lubrication breaking down on a fan inside the case, and the ball bearings scrape and growl.

It could be that when XP loads it kicks in the cooling code to run the fans higher (which were at idle when you started up)? Just a wild guess.

If it's NOT the fans, it could be HD or anything else. Open the case and boot it up. See if you can pinpoint a fan that's making the noise. Tap the frame of the fan (not the spinning blades) and see if you can change the tone/pitch of the growl, going from fan to fan (don't forget PSU fan!). If you find one that is growling, problem solved. If not try same with HDs or other units, not forgetting vid card fans. Feel around for vibrations in frame to see if HD is making the noise or whatever.

DREDIOCK · « **Reply #2 on:** January 09, 2007, 10:37:12 PM »

I'd place my money on one of the fans going
orrr
Possibly one of the wires is against a fan

I had a situation a while back where afterr I did some internal cleaning I neglected to tuck one of the wires back and out of the way. when I started the maching up it made a gawdawful noise that about scared the hell out of me.
Opening the case I found when restarting it a wire slipped in just far enough to make contact with the fan blades

eagl · « **Reply #3 on:** January 10, 2007, 02:19:52 AM »

If you don't reboot the computer but instead just let it run while making the noise, does it go away eventually?

It sounds like a fan problem, and it's an issue I run into myself every couple of years. I've found that no matter what brand I buy, my case fans wear out after 2-3 years and will start to growl after bootup. Typically they quiet down after 10-15 minutes of uptime so I don't replace them until they stay noisy for more than about 15 min of uptime after cold bootups.

Of course, I usually run my computer 24/7 so any moving parts are going to wear out eventually.

Ghosth · « **Reply #4 on:** January 10, 2007, 07:52:51 AM »

Unplug your case fans one at a time, till you either isolate the problem, or rule out the case fans. It could also be the CPU fan, or power supply fan, both of those are harder to isolate. There is software however that will tell you if your cpu cooling fan is dropping rpms.

I recently had a fan go on a 4 year old machine, made a weird pulseing woo woo woo noice, and it caused the drive lights to blink. All kinds of strangeness was happening. Once I unpluged it, all went back to normal.

Halo · « **Reply #5 on:** January 10, 2007, 03:45:00 PM »

Thanks for your inputs. I opened up the case, blew out the dust, and did the startup with the case open. Startup noise problem doesn't seem to be any of the three fans. Worst of all, I can't even tell where the noise comes from. I guess I need a stethoscope or something.

I also thought maybe some of the ungodly nest of wires was getting pushed into a fan, but doesn't seem to be happening.

The moaning/groaning noise is urgent enough that I don't let it run long. Sounds like end of the world is coming. But then everything quiets down and it funs fine all day once it likes what's happening at startup.

I'd be tempted to just let the computer run 24/7, but I did that with the previous hard drive and thought that was one of the reasons it failed after about the same length of time.

This last happened about 18 months ago. Same symptoms; eventually wouldn't run and so I replaced the hard drive. Can't believe this is happening again with a different hard drive from a different vendor.

I backed up my hard drive again today to an external drive. When drive failed last time, I restored most of system from the external hard drive. But it wasn't as easy as advertised, and wound up having most my stuff an extra layer deeper than optimum.

I guess I'll baby it through mid February until I get TurboTax done, then buy one of the last of the XP systems and hope that will last two years until bugs get worked out of Vista.

Really tired of computers taking so much time and money and requiring major upgrades or replacement every two to four years. But love what they do.

airspro · « **Reply #6 on:** January 10, 2007, 03:59:29 PM »

Quote

Really tired of computers taking so much time and money and requiring major upgrades or replacement every two to four years. But love what they do.

Me , ya ME TOO

Wes14 · « **Reply #7 on:** January 10, 2007, 05:06:21 PM »

yea my pc sometimes makes weird noises during sound up but it clears up
when it does act up it sound sliek a old desel truck:confused:

it one sounded like a jet engine trying to take off and i had to unplug it:O

Bad31st · « **Reply #8 on:** January 16, 2007, 01:44:25 AM »

if you have a problem with harddrives failing I'd check to make sure there is ample airflow around your drive(s)

Maybe I'm just lucky but I've got several drives that are 10+ years old and still running...

As far as your noise is concerned it may be a problem with an optical drive...lots of moving parts in there and they do like to spin up on boot...try yanking the power cord out of your CD drive and then boot up...

DREDIOCK · « **Reply #9 on:** January 16, 2007, 08:31:16 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Bad31st
if you have a problem with harddrives failing I'd check to make sure there is ample airflow around your drive(s)

Maybe I'm just lucky but I've got several drives that are 10+ years old and still running...

As far as your noise is concerned it may be a problem with an optical drive...lots of moving parts in there and they do like to spin up on boot...try yanking the power cord out of your CD drive and then boot up...

I have yet to have a HD outright fail on me (knock on wood)

I did have one on my old P100 when it was well past its prime where the HD would stick on startup and would have to smack the side of the case hard with my hand to get it spinning on bootup.
but once it did it ran fine LOL

Wes14 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 16, 2007, 08:34:23 AM »

Arent HD's basically Super Duper Cd and Cd reader

Halo · « **Reply #11 on:** January 16, 2007, 10:30:55 AM »

The noise can begin anywhere from right away to maybe 15 or 20 seconds later. The strangest thing is that after I get the black screen with white writing saying Windows didn't start because it had a problem, then the computer always starts and runs fine.

That screen offers several options for starting, but I do nothing and hence get the Start Windows Normally by default. That involves a 30-second countdown.

So what is Windows presumably doing that makes the computer start without the noise? What if anything magic does Windows do in that 30-second countdown to Start Windows Normally that it didn't do when I started the computer in the first place?

As previously mentioned, I've opened the computer, cleaned it out with aircan, replicated the startup problem, validated the fans, but could not tell where the noise was coming from. Duh.

38ruk · « **Reply #12 on:** January 16, 2007, 01:17:39 PM »

Did you check your video card fan, Motherboard chipset fan and psu fans? You might have a bios option called thermal protection or something like that ,and it might reboot or shutdown the pc if i doesnt get a fan rpm from the chipset , psu or cpu fans .

Krusty · « **Reply #13 on:** January 16, 2007, 01:21:33 PM »

Sometimes fans idle until windows loads. Windows has things like temperature control, CPU monitors, and the like. They help run your PC better, but they don't load til windows does.

It's not a Windows issue. Windows won't make your computer growl. That's a hardware failure, regardless of when it's triggered.

Have you tried tapping the power supply unit when it runs? Most have a fan inside them (some outside them) that can fail. I had a PSU fan fail on my sister's PSU a few months back, had to replace it.

Also I had an old PC with an old video card. The small fan blades on the video card fan were making the loudest racket you can imagine. Check your video card fan as well.

Usually when you get a growl it means something is moving around and scraping or failing as it moves. This means vibrations or that you can disrupt the sound slightly by tapping/shaking that part. The motion changes slightly with the tap as it rotates and changes the pitch of the growl enough to help you figure out what's broken. Try tapping (firmly but not enough to shake the case) the PSU, the heatsink next to the fan on the video card, and the hard drive(s).

Spatula · « **Reply #14 on:** January 16, 2007, 02:29:50 PM »

get a small length of narrow flexi plastic tube from your hardware store and put one end up against your ear, block the other ear (ear plug or something) and move the other end of tube around until you locate exactly where the noise is coming from.