crackling sounds from cpu

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Lonewolf5460

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My mom has a hpa450n that I maintain from we got I noticed the sound it is like crackling I have read that it may be a improperly mounted heatsink. My mom is paranoid and does not want me opening it up without a good reason since it is mainly for work.
Is it normal to hear that sound i do not hear it as loud or at all on other computers I use.
 
I would back up everything you want to keep, as your pc is probally not going to last long. If it is more of a clicking, it is probally your harddrive.

Is it possible for you to record the sound? It would give us a better idea of what it is. Also, find where the sound's source is coming from, as said before, put your ear on the case, and move your head to find where it is the loudest.
 
it coming from the cpu the noise occurs when I am doing something intensive and I slid the cover off the side it is coming from there.
 
Could be the thermal paste crackling

When I overheated my CPU past 100 celcius, it seemed to be burning and crackling the paste
 
thats what i was thinking, the cpu is not overheating it is a p4 3.0Ghz, should I buy some thermal paste take the heatsink off and reapply.What type should I get I heard artic silver is good.
 
If it's an HP, then it most likely wouldnt be the paste. The machine prolly dosent even use past, but a pad. If it's a 3ghz, is it still under warranty? Try to make it somones elses problem.

Since it is a crackling noise, there is a better than average chance it is your hdd. There is nothign moving in a cpu, so crackling dosent sound right. Chris, you said yours crackled when you overheated it to past 100 degrees celsius. Thats hot man, 200+F. I dont think that is going to happen on a factory machine, I bet the shutdown threshold is nice and low. Somewhere around 120 or 130 F. Since your hdd moves more when you do stuff, that may be it. A little bit of 'crckling' noise is fine. That is just the sounds of the heads moving back and forth in rapid succession. But loud abnormal crackling is bad. Compared to the crackling I am talking about (go next to another machine when it is booting, put your hear right up to the case and you will know what I am talking about) how much louder is it? How much different is it?
 
it is loud kind of sounds like popcorn poping when it is at full load.
Also if it is the hard drive could it be how it is placed because it is not put in a bay, it is vertical on a plastic thing.
 
no, the placement dosent matter. As long as it is either completely vertical or completely horizontal, and fastened securley. Is it the same sound that comes out of other computer?

What kind of HDD is it? Western Digital? I had a problem with a WD drive that it made a loud clunking noise, at a steady interval. i wasnt sure what it was, but whatever it was, I hated it. It sounded really bad, like things were breaking. I FREAKED the first time I heard it. So i sent it back and had it refurbished. Know what? Same sound when I got it back. I didnt know what to make of it. But, akin to the idea of ignorance is bliss, I ignored it and it went aweay. My dad is currently using that hdd, and it has been almost three years since the 'incident'. Drive working fine, I dont think it has ever crashed either. Come to think of it, about a month ago I installed XP (from 2000). Clean install, no problems.

It may not be bad, just an annoyance that sounds really bad. Like was said earlier, see if you can record it and post it. If you do that though, dont use a crappy microphone. Use something good.
 
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