[Jaclyn]

I recently bought and had my brother build a new computer for me in about October of 2006 with the following specs:
AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 Dual
2GB RAM
NIVDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 (1 GB VRAM)

It was running flawlessly until a few months ago when I started hearing a grinding noise every time I'd start up my computer, then it would go away after the computer was finished loading. I think it might be one of the fans making the noise. Ever since then my computer has gotten fussier and fussier. About 2 weeks ago my computer started randomly freezing, I'd get the "blue screen of death", and it takes FOREVER to load into my desktop (even though it's fast once loaded). It used to load in 2 seconds. Then today as I tried starting the computer up, it froze into a black screen before it got to the log-in screen. I restarted it about 4 times and tried different modes, but it continued to do the same thing. I left it alone for a few hours and when I started it up everything was going fine until my windows crashed on the desktop a few seconds after loading. I restarted once again and now it's fine.

I do a spyware and virus check every day, consistently clear through my cookies and internet files, etc. I have very few programs and files on my computer, and I've never downloaded any fishy programs. I'm not sure what could be making my computer act up. If it's the fan, I don't know why it would affect everything so much because I always make sure my computer doesn't heat up.

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With a home-built PC it could be a component that's not matched with everything else inside the PC. That's less likely to happen with a commercially built one.
For example, is the PSU powerful enough in wattage output and in voltage distribution to adequately supply all the stuff connected to it?
There's a calculator you can use online which measures the total wattage required by your particular PC. Just select the items your system has and press the 'Calculate' button: (ideally should be used before buying a PSU!)
http://www.extreme.o...n.com/index.jsp

Of course your problems may have nothing to do with the PSU, it may be perfectly adequate. Merely trying to help.

Regards

Pip

Edited by pip22, 18 January 2007 - 03:32 AM.

[pip22]

With a home-built PC it could be a component that's not matched with everything else inside the PC. That's less likely to happen with a commercially built one.
For example, is the PSU powerful enough in wattage output and in voltage distribution to adequately supply all the stuff connected to it?
There's a calculator you can use online which measures the total wattage required by your particular PC. Just select the items your system has and press the 'Calculate' button: (ideally should be used before buying a PSU!)
http://www.extreme.o...n.com/index.jsp

Of course your problems may have nothing to do with the PSU, it may be perfectly adequate. Merely trying to help.

Regards

Pip

Edited by pip22, 18 January 2007 - 03:32 AM.

[makai]

Grinding noises point to a bad fan.

Have you opened the case to see if all your fans are spinning?

Do you still hear the grinding noise or has it stopped? If it stopped, then it's possible one of your fans is no longer spinning. If the processor, northbridge, or video card fan stops, heat will build up very rapidly and cause the very symptoms you're seeing.

Open the case, and check the fans.

Edited by makai, 22 January 2007 - 03:39 PM.

[vally]

If it's not you'r fans. Is the noise maybe a ticking noise? If so it could b the HardDisk. The freezing happens when the HD is not responding and givs faulty data.When u open the case of the tower listen to were the noise is comming from.

[Jaclyn]

I did make sure that I had a powerful enough power supply to support everything, so I don't think that's the reason. Good suggestion though.
The fan grind only sounds while starting up the computer so I don't know if that helps figure out which fan it is. Anyway, I will take the cover off and listen as you said so thanks a bunch for the help.