# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  My computer is growling at mee

## Queen Zukin

I have an 8.16 year old desktop, and for the first few minutes when I turn it on it sounds like its growling really loudly. It sounds like the noise is coming from the CD drive (which doesn't work) but when I open the CD case while it's making the noise it doesn't stop. 

 I think it might also be the fan. My friend is coming over this weekend to help me clean it out because I haven't cleaned out the fan in 8 years. 

 My mom thinks it might be the hard drive about to crash. I'm not sure...any suggestions or what not? 

 It's a compaq, 512mb RAM, no viruses.

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## Astral

The same thing happens to me if I have something in the CD drive. I think it's the fan that does that, hopefully cleaning it will do it for you.

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## ninja9578

Computers start growling at 8.15 years, so 8.16 is too old  :tongue2: .  I doubt the hard drive will crash, hard drives are quiet sturdy, but if the fan is problamatic, the motherboard will go soon.

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## slash112

Open it up. Look at the fan. Give the fan a good dusting, and stuff, it is probably jammed with dust, or something else.

If it is a desktop computer, it should be rather easy to open (This is usually the case)

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## Dogod

It's not the hard drive, but if you haven't already, back everything up. With a hard drive that old, it's going to die sooner rather than later, and if you aren't backed up, you've just lost your data. External hard drives are very cheap, is could be less than $50 for a 500 GB hard drive. DVDs are also cheap, but I recommend the hard drive over DVDs.
Most likely, it is the fan, considering it hasn't been dusted for 8 years. Dusting it might help the problem for some amount of time, but that is the age at which my old computer died, and you're going to have more problems as time goes on.
The best thing you can do is buy a new computer, or at least have a plan to buy a new computer as soon as that one breaks.

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## MementoMori

> Computers start growling at 8.15 years, so 8.16 is too old .  I doubt the hard drive will crash, hard drives are quiet sturdy, but if the fan is problamatic, the motherboard will go soon.



lol my friend once had a modded pc built by his dad (who works for IBM) and to turn it on there was an ignition switch where you inserted a honda key and turning it would turn it on. He had it rigged with a small sound device so that it would also play the sound of a powerful car starting up and revving, it was also inclosed in a custom honda case. Bad ass setup but the computer was shitty for todays standards.

on topic, is it a growl or a knock, or a screetch, listen really careful because each type of sound matters. Also, once you get it opened up you'll be able to figure out what the problem is in no time.

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## Kraftwerk

> Open it up. Look at the fan. Give the fan a good dusting, and stuff, it is probably jammed with dust, or something else.
> 
> If it is a desktop computer, it should be rather easy to open (This is usually the case)



No pun intended right?


Anyways, basically whats been said before... but it sounds like you may need a new computer  :wink2:

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## Queen Zukin

Thanks for the replies. It hasn't growled in a few days but I still plan to clean it this weekend if it's sunny outside. I have a newer computer but I can't get over my love for old CRT screens over LSD screens. I feel like LSD breaks too easy....Too fragile for a clumsy person. 





> Computers start growling at 8.15 years, so 8.16 is too old .  I doubt the hard drive will crash, hard drives are quiet sturdy, but if the fan is problamatic, the motherboard will go soon.



Oops yes I meant the motherboard. I'm not really good with computers unless it comes to eradicating viruses.  :tongue2:

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## Dogod

You can use a CRT with a new computer - you might need to buy a connector cable to do it, but it is doable.

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