define computer speak?

[Leslie]

How come could it be that this computer snaps sometimes? Or pops or clicks..or...something. I usually notice it at night, but that's probably cause I'm sitting alone and it's quieter in here.

Like as if I dropped a nickel on top of it. Just... SNAP and that's it.

Nothing happens, nothing's going on, it's idle or it's not... wtf?


And no, noone is throwing nickels at it.

 

[Professur]

Ghost in the machine.

 

[Leslie]

so...the ghost is playing murderball with nickels on the walls of the machine then.

ooooooooook

 

[Professur]

Shit, I shouldn't have said that. One of the ghosts here just started to prowl. Enough to give a guy the creeps, I tell ya.

 

[Inkara1]

Sounds like the dust bunnies have come alive and made a sport of riding the blades of the CPU fan... every now and then one will lose his grip and... *WHAM*

 

[Luis G]

clicks come through the speakers?

 

[A.B.Normal]

Is it the tower or the Monitor?

 

[catocom]

Just from the first sounds of the situation....
The first thing i'd check is the power management setting.
Make sure that the setting to shut-down the HD is set to never.

 

[Leslie]

It's definitely the tower.

It's already at never

 

[Luis G]

Lift the cover and try to isolate the source of the sound. If it is the PS i'd suggest to get a new one. HDD can also click and pop when they are about to fail, I recommend you to back up.

 

[chcr]

Kick it.

Edit: You know, I'd bet real money that she already has.

 

[HomeLAN]

Lift the cover and try to isolate the source of the sound. If it is the PS i'd suggest to get a new one. HDD can also click and pop when they are about to fail, I recommend you to back up.

If it's the PS, shut her down and replace it before you fire it back up. I'd hate for you to fry every single component inside your case, and if your PS is sounding like that, it's juicing up for a catastophic failure.

 

[Leslie]

It's just so random, I don't think I can do anything but kick it.

I've replaced a PS and survived to tell the tale. HDD would suck.

 

[HomeLAN]

Not so bad, If you ghost it to a new one BEFORE it takes a shit.

As for PS's, a limited PS loss is no biggie. It's when they explode, send a voltage spike through the system and fry the mobo, chip, RAM, and HDD that life begins to suck.

 

[Leslie]

I really have my doubts that I'll be able to isolate it. It's way too rare and random.

So...were I to guess, I'd guess PS first?

 

[HomeLAN]

Maybe. Need a better description of the sound. Does it have a metallic ring to it? Does it pop like an ember in a campfire?

That sort of thing.

 

[Leslie]

It's like something hard dropping onto plastic. There's no metally sound, or cling or ring. Just a short, snappy BAM.

I would imagine it as something like when you flip a breaker, like when you drop something on the counter or something. One snappy noise.

Volume is...not too loud, I guess, I don't tend to hear it during the day with the TV and people around, I can be awoken by it (sleeping light) on the couch in the next room.

 

[catocom]

I would imagine it as something like when you flip a breaker,

and I'm thinking that's exactly what it is .....maybe
There may be something grounding out periodically, causing the PSU.
kick in protection. (if you've got a good psu)

Have you pulled the cover yet? It could be something easily visible,
that's amiss.

 

[Leslie]

no...I guess I'd better. I'll do it after the kids go to bed and see what I see and post results.

I doubt it's a good PSU. It's a 'whatever came in the prebuilt IPC box' one as far as I know. The PSU is older than the HDD, which doesn't mean much I guess.

 

[Professur]

What's the CPU? Can you swap out the power supply from the machine I sent you?