How Do I Tell What's Rattling?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken Hall
  • Start date Start date
K

Ken Hall

In my year old home built something has begun rattling. It not a loud
rattle, but still quite annoying.

I assume it is either a fan or a hard drive. Which one is the most
common source of rattles?

How do you isolate what's making the noise?

I've had a hard time isolating this kind of noise in the past.

Ken
 
Ken Hall said:
In my year old home built something has begun rattling. It not a loud
rattle, but still quite annoying.

I assume it is either a fan or a hard drive. Which one is the most
common source of rattles?
Fans.

How do you isolate what's making the noise?
Click to expand...
Disconnect it or stick something in it to stop it spinning for a couple
of seconds.
 
In my year old home built something has begun rattling. It not a loud
rattle, but still quite annoying.

I assume it is either a fan or a hard drive. Which one is the most common
source of rattles?

How do you isolate what's making the noise?

I've had a hard time isolating this kind of noise in the past.

Ken
Click to expand...

If the rattle gets louder when you approach it's a rattlesnake.
If the rattle gets louder when accessing the hd it's the hd.
If the rattle is constant it's a fan, which is most likely.

If you open the box and disconnect case fans you'd be able to better
isolate the rattle.
 
Conor said:
Disconnect it or stick something in it to stop it spinning for a couple
of seconds.
Click to expand...

A. some fans, you can use your finger to prevent them from spinning. some
fans are behind grills or just inaccessable with a finger,, so use something
NONCONDUCTIVE such as a q-tip stick to prevent the fan from spinning.

B. use something to stop the fan from spinning WITH THE POWER OFF. Then turn
the system on and see if the noise went away.
DAMHIKT
 
Best tool for stopping a spinning fan .. esp the psupply
fan is a small rolled piece of paper. It will give enough
to protect the bearing. Also, a MAJOR source of rattle
in newer computers is the plastic fan cover that kind
of sits over the mobo, and is generally in the way.
It is a rattle-trap bigtime. Just touch it with your
finger. It that is it, toss it. You don't need it.

johns
 
Ken Hall said:
In my year old home built something has begun rattling. It not a loud
rattle, but still quite annoying.

I assume it is either a fan or a hard drive. Which one is the most
common source of rattles?

How do you isolate what's making the noise?

I've had a hard time isolating this kind of noise in the past.
Click to expand...

use a stethoscope ...or even a rubber hose will work
one end in your ear, the other to 'snoop' (really)
 
philo said:
use a stethoscope ...or even a rubber hose will work
one end in your ear, the other to 'snoop' (really)
Click to expand...

Or the old automotive trick, place a screwdriver or anything really, put the
point on a suspect and your ear to the other end.
 
Thanks for the replies.

It's a fan.

It turns out I have a mechanics stethoscope. I hadn't found it of
much use doing this in the past, but this time it pointed me to a
removable drive housing.

The housing has 3 small (1" ?) fans. The fans were a little dusty so
I blew them off with an air bottle and the noise is much reduced.
However it is not eliminated and the noise is intermittently louder.
Sometimes the rattling gets louder for a few seconds then decays.

It looks like to me replacing those fans is going to be a bitch. It's
not hard to remove them mechanically but the power leads are only
about a quarter inch. It looks like the fans were put in place, then
the wires cut to a nub, and soldered in place. Then a plastic housing
glued over the solder terminals. There's about a quarter to a half
inch of wire accessible.

Ken
 
You can simply remove the fan.

If you have enough air being sucked out of your case, the air flow through
the removable drive "channel" will be sufficient to keep it cool.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, and I think you're right. Especially since
it will leave two of the little fans still working in the drive
housing.

However, the noise came back in full force, so I peeled back the
sticker over the bearing and used a toothpick to touch it with a
little oil. It has become completely quiet. I've had moderately
good experience with this fix in the past. It usually isn't permanent
but it often lasts a year and by that time I may decide to replace
this housing with a less clumsy method.

Thanks again
Ken
 
You can lift off the paper cover on the fans and put a tiny drop of oil in
there. I've done it and it works just fine. Or,you can just get rid of the
drive cooler altogether. Never had much use for them. I've go a couple that
I used for a month or two but they really did nothing to cool my HD,s.
 
Back
Top