Help Please

[jay010981]

I have a major problem with my PC and will be eternally grateful to anyone who can shed some light on it.

I have a Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo T, 3.4Ghz, Intel Pentium 4, Radeon 9600 Series Graphics card.

Within about 4 months of having my computer it started making an unusual “hissing” sound when ever I played games. It is now just over a year and a half old and is getting worse.

What I have established is that when it starts “hissing” games lag severely. It does this every couple of minutes for 10 to 15 seconds. I have taken off the side panel but am struggling to pin point the origin of the sound. It’s not only when I play games, anything which uses up a lot of CPU, WINavi, Nero, etc.

Idle temp is high 50Â’s low 60Â’s. However when I play a game (Far Cry as an example) after a few minutes the temp goes up (83 degrees Celsius is the highest so far).

The dilemma I have so far is it’s still under warranty and they want me to send it away, but if the fault is found to be environmental (dust) then I will have to pay over £120. I’ve removed as much dust as I can with my hover attachment, being very careful not to touch anything inside.

Any guidance to a noob would be a lifesaver.

Thanks in advance.

 

[MrCoffee]

Using a standard hoover i.e. not a low static one is a very bad idea, vacuum cleaners can generate huge amounts of static.

You need to pinpont the location of that sound really, also track your gpu and cpu temp under load. A hiss is not a normal sound for a computer

 

[sPlAtOiD]

Get a can of AiR to clean it with. I would guess that you have a problem with a fan somewhere. Not that I've ever heard of hissing before. On second thought I have heard a bad leaky capacitor make a sound a little like that once.

 

[Nitestick]

the only thing other than a speaker in a pc that could make something that could be described as hissing are the caps in the psu. now if it is a whining or even a grinding sort of noise then it may be a fan

 

[Static_11]

...83 degrees celcious?????

arent MOST bios set to shut down at 75?

 

[MrCoffee]

its certainly warm but I wouldn't be too worried about it, a hot processor with stock cooling will run at about that.

 

[Static_11]

i've never heard of an amd running that hot... except the old socket a cores like barton running at ~60. glad i dont have an intel....

 

[MrCoffee]

he says his cpu idles at 50-60 which is ok and the fact that it goes upto a max of 80 under loadconfirms the cooling is crap i.e. stock.. exactly the same ranges as my Barton with the stock cooler

 

[silence782]

Are you sure it's not the monitor it'self?

 

[jay010981]

Many thanks for the responses guys. I shall answer in order.

MrCoffee:
I've realised that the Hoover was a bad idea, but it was one of those "good idea" at the time situations. As for pin pointing the sound, it is somewhere near the slightly dusty looking fan. I think it's coming from under it, but can't get me ear close enough.
In addition can you explain "testing under load"? I have been using Everest to monitor the temps.

sPlAtOiD:
I'm more than happy to try the "can of air"; my only concern is the warranty guy said there can be a build up of dust which won't be seen unless I remove parts. I'm hoping not to have to do that as I'm sure they'll void my warranty. He said if it is found to be "an environmental issue, then that is non warranty, and I will be billed. I'm very sceptical about sending it away as I'm sure they'll say this is what it is. As for the "hissing" sound, me neither, but if you read this post it appears it's not uncommon for FS computers.
http://support.fujitsu-siemens.de/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13039

nitestick:
Not the speakers as it does this when they're not plugged in. There is no whining or even a grinding noise.

Static_11:
I've been told that 83 is on the hot side. The warranty guy said it wasn't abnormal for this model!

silence782:
Positive it's not the monitor. In addition I am on my 3rd TFT from FS but that's a whole other story. I wouldn't recommend their products to anyone.

Again I really appreciate the responses so far. I must admit this is all new to me. I know a little about computers on the software side, but hardware is a completely different matter. I have posted a link to a picture of the inside of my computer. All I have done is slide of the side panel. Everything you see is exactly how I got it, bar the dust.

Look forward to your replies.

Many thanks



http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5233/tower9xw.jpg