FUNNY NOISE FROM COMPUTER

Machine gunning isn’t normally a sound a computer generates.

There are really only three things inside a computer that could make
sound:

1) The hard drive
2) The cooling fan(s)
3) The speakers

It’s not likely to be #2 because fans never make any noise like that.
They might make a whirrring noise or even more likely no noise at all
(as when the bearings die & they don’t spin any more).

It’s not likely #3 because while speakers can go defective & generate
all sorts of crazy noises, they tend not to affect system functionality.

Which leaves #1. The most complicated & tiresome of all. If it is in
fact a hard drive issue, plan for the worst. Cross your fingers that
your backup program has been working. Rarely can hard drives be
‘repaired’ – they need to be replaced. This requires disassembling
the machine, removing the existing hard drive and installing a new
one. Sometimes the data can be copied directly from the old one to
the new. Other times only fragments of data can be copied & the data
must be restored from backup. It’s hard to say. At any rate, it can
be a time consuming process.

On very rare occasion hard drive issues can be caused by bad sectors
(portions of the hard drive which are damaged & cannot be used), and
there are hard drive repair utilities that can fix these sectors – or
at least mark them as unusable so the hard drive doesn’t attempt to
use them any more. This can sometimes be a short-term fix, but almost
always drive noises indicate a failing drive.

Given the age of your machine, I would be somewhat reluctant to
encourage you to repair the machine. You’d be better off grabbing a
20″ Core 2 Duo iMac Refurb for $600 & upgrading. The Intel machines
are so much more powerful than the G5s.

Consult with Jim, too – he might have some insight.

Best,

hunter greene
Brainspiral Technologies, Inc.
hunter@brainspiral.com

http://brainspiral.com

w: 413-458-5755
c: 413-281-4918

On Mar 16, 2009, at 6:25 PM, Sam wrote:

> Hunter, I’m getting a funny, repetitive noise from the computer. It
> sounds like a machine gun and temporarily disables the computer. It
> goes away as soon as I quit the function such as “Foxfire.” I can
> then go back to the foxfire and things are OK.
>
> Any suggestions/comments.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sam