Comp making a lot of noise. dust around fans or CPU?

Post Reply New Topic

I have a Dell Studio XPS 435 & I leave it on all the time. There was a power outage for a couple hours yesterday morning & my UPS shut my computer off correctly. I turned my computer on after the power was back on for a bit & my computer was making a loud noise; I also think my computer may be running slower than it was before but I'm not sure. I was thinking some dust might of settled in one of the components(my room gets a lot of dust especially around electronic stuff). I opened my computer & there was a lot of dust in it. I sprayed what I could with canned air & closed it & turned it back on; it was still making the noise but the noise wasn't quite as loud as before. I tried spraying what I could with canned air a few more times & it still has the noise. I tried to figure out what component was causing it & I eliminated the drives(hard-disk & DVD), sound-card & video-card because it still made that noise when i turned it on with them unhooked or taken out. I'm thinking the problem is with one of the fans or dust inside one of the fans or dust around the CPU. I'm not sure how to take those things out so I can clean them better. I tried doing some Google searches for how to guides but I couldn't find what I wanted(maybe I didn't word things rite or use quotes where I should of) I would 1st like a guide on taking out the CPU so I could do a better cleaning around with that fan, that long round thing the fan is inside, & the CPU & that area; there was a lot of dust there & there might still be but I'm open to other suggestions & ideas too

If you're trying to work out which if any of the fans is making a loud noise, carefully put your finger on each one to stop it. If the noise goes away, that's the one.

I don't particularly know about the Dell model you specify, but in general motherboard BIOS settings allow an intelligent fan control option, that is the speed of the CPU fan increases as the CPU gets hotter. If this gets set to off, then the fan will run at maximum RPM which will make it VERY NOISY INDEED!! !

This may be the problem, or it may not. If so, you might want to look at replacing the battery (normally a CR2032 lithium coin cell) on the the motherboard. This acts to preserve the settings in CMOS RAM and keep the clock running while the power is off.

It's quite normal for a computer to gather dust, particularly if it's been left on for a long time. It's not a bad idea to clear the dust out, particularly on any filters and between the vanes of the heat sink (these can become clogged).

If a modern processor is overheating, parts of it may get shut down and/or the clock rate may be reduced to limit the overheating. This could exhibit as a drop in performance.

A processor can also overheat if the thermal interface material (grease) is missing or insufficient or isn't doing its job.

If the processor is overheating then this could explain all the symptoms.

Have a look at the BIOS settings, and also at the CPU temperatures and the characteristics of CPU temperature and fan speed for the first few minutes of the power on. This is normally available under PC Health Status in the BIOS menus. Your mileage may vary with Dell bespoke hardware.

Maybe the bearing of one of the fans is broken/damaged. I have some fans with such a damage: The fan still spins, but makes relatively loud scratching noises.
Spraying some oil (WD-40 is good) into the fan's "motor" helps sometimes, but not always; and im most cases the noise comes back after some weeks. It would be best to replace the damaged fan. The new fan must have the same size and voltage (usually 12V). And the new fan should have a similar current draw as the old fan:
A fan with less current is "weaker" and might not provide enough cooling. A fan with more current moves more air, but is louder and might overload the motherboard's fan driver (but this is unlikely).

Thanx for the replies guys. I don't think I have any settings for the fan in bios. I think the issue could be dust inside the CPU fan or the processors heat-sink: I did notice a lot of dust when I sprayed that with canned-air. I would like to try taking the fan off & maybe the heat-sink too so I could do a better cleaning before I try other steps but I'm not sure how to take that fan out. I tried looking for guides on how to change out the processor for this dell(I'd like to upgrade to the maximum down the road anyway: I got the slowest one & new it would be cheaper to upgrade latter) but I couldn't find it by searching. The noise isn't there rite now but it's kind of sporadic

Last edited by nick007 on 29 Nov 2011, 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

WD-40 will speed the deterioration of the bearing by collecting contaminants and washing away any preexisting lubricant. If you really want to try to get more life out of a fan by re-lubricating it then you would do much better to use graphite or dry silicone spray.


Indeed.

Does this help replacing the processor fan and heat sink assembly?

If the noise is sporadic, this could be indicative of a bearing problem as the bearing shifts from one vibrational mode to another.

Thanx for that link barnabear I didn't think to check dell's site for a manual/hardware guide because I know they don't want customers messing with their hardware due to warranties. I noticed a very small clob of dust in the the heat-sink fins when I took the Processor Fan & Heat Sink Assembly out. I noticed the noise when I turned it on after so I turned it off & I held that fan when I turned it back on for a few seconds & the noise wasn't there when I let go. I haven't heard that noise sense. It wouldn't surprise me if I suddenly start hearing it again now thou & I'll look into replacing the fan & heat-sink assembly when I do. I looked into replacing it a little & a lot of what I've found was from people who ran into problems when they tried upgrading their fans. I haven't had any problem with noise or anything with it till dust had apparently got in there so I think I'll like to go with the exact kind of fan I took out. Does anyone know a site that would have that exact kind or the part number for it I think that timing might be rite to upgrade the processor too; I have the iCore920 & I was wondering what the maximum I can get is

Did you get the impression that the fan was running much faster when it was noisier, or was it running at the same rate?

If it was running much faster, then I'd suggest a BIOS problem, and there are reports of such BIOS problems for this machine particularly from one power on to the next.

If the fan is running at the same rate, but the noise level is variable, then that will probably be a fan bearing problem.

If the fan is running way too fast the problem is probably one of these...

1.) A BIOS setting got messed up at some point.

2.) Malicious or malfunctioning background software hogging the CPU and making it overheat.

3.) The temperature sensor on the CPU isn't reading right.

I don't think normal fabric dust is harmful to a computer if it's not completely clogging up the ventilation. Stuff that comes in from outside can be bad.

Last edited by marshall on 01 Dec 2011, 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If option 2, then the fan will start slow at power on and get faster as the CPU heats up.

You may be able to check the temperature sensor on the CPU by using the PC Health Status section in the BIOS menu (if it's a standard BIOS menu layout). You may be able to play with the fan settings there too.

I think it was running at about the same speed or possibly slower. I noticed my computer was slower when it was making that noise & I checked the task manager & running processes on Ashampoo WinOptimizer & everything checked out. I run virus scans regally & haven't had any problems with viruses on here, I haven't made any setting changes or updated the bios or anything in a while.. There was a lot of dust in the comp & around the fan & heat-sink so I think that was clogging the fan some. I need to dust my room & clean it out of my computer more often. It seems to be working fine now but it's possible that the dust might of caused some more permanent problems with the fan & the fan my start having problems again so I would like to know where I can get that exact kind of fan assembly to replace it if/when that happens. I would upgrade the processor then too so I would also like to know what's the fastest processor I can get for this comp. I really appreciate all the replies guys

If there's a performance difference with the sound that indicates something more serious. I'd back up all your data ASAP.

Also, are you 100% sure the sound is coming from the CPU fan? There's no change in the hard drive light behavior when the sound changes right? Or any of the other drives, like CD/DVD or anything else you have?

If the processor begins to overheat, its clock rate will be effectively reduced by the internal thermal control mechanism(s).

You might want to look at Dell Computer Parts & Upgrades probably searching using the service tag which should be on your machine.

Don't know about processor upgrades, it's difficult because the motherboard/BIOS is a proprietary DELL part and they don't have to publish this information. You could ask them, I guess.

Have you considered home build for future machines? It makes it much easier to upgrade.

I looked at that Dell Parts & Upgrades thing a day or so ago & it's all ram except for one hardrive & a graphics card.
I frond some forums with people talking about processor upgrades for this system & iCore980 fits but lots have problems getting it to work because supposedly dell's bios won't support it but some have got it to work by getting a different bios. The max most installed without problems was the iCore975. I looked at the prices on that & the cheapest I saw was over $600. I got this system & decked out with everything on it except I got the slowest processor & minimum amount of ram(I got it with 3 1g sticks & I added 2 4g 1s which is a lot more than I need) I plan on using this system for a long time. I don't need to upgrade the processor anytime soon so I'm gonna wait to upgrade that a while so prices will go down more & maybe there will be an easier way to upgrade it to the i980 or something better.

Hello Nick007, I hope you are well.

My brother has the Dell XPS 435 MT. It was extremely noisy, the cpu fan constantly thrashing, updating the BIOS made no measurable difference, so I bought him a Mugens 2 heat sink, and a replacement case.

The heatsink would not fit the motherboard without modifications that my brother was afraid to make, so we put the board in the new case, with the original intel heatsink, and it now runs markedly more quiet. I think the airflow within the small 'studio' case is very poor, most likely linked to the relatively small form-factor.

It is noteworthy, in my opinion, that the backplate on the 435 MT was integrated to the Dell case. Although everything is running fine, and with less noise pollution, in the new case without a backplate, this is sub-optimal, and an annoying feature of this system.