Another computer question( Dumb, Dumb..)

[uhhuh]

Lately, I have noticed a sound coming from my computer that sounds kind of like a skipping cd, kind of a sch, sch, sch sound every once in a while. It doesn't seems to cause any problems with the performance of the machine, but it concerns me. Any ideas what it is?

And, yes, I am an idiot about these things.

[Jack_DeLeon]

1. probably hard drive/s

Mine do that sometimes, they are getting older and not moving and the ball bearings arent moving as smoothly as they used too.

Doesnt necessarily mean that the drive is going to crap out though, but its good to back data up anyways.

[uhhuh]

2. Arrghh

I just got this computer a year ago! Maybe I could just get it serviced. I thought it might be some sort of slippage in the hard drive. (Grumble, Grumble.)

[RC]

3. Run the error check/scandisk.

Back up what you want to keep and price replacement hard drives. It will only get worse.

It's not a Gateway, is it?

[uhhuh]

4. nope

Not gateway. I got it from a dealer that I had purchased from before. The first one lasted for 4 years, so I felt that they could be relied upon. They basically put them together themselves at the store.

[RC]

5. Gateway's seem to be very hard on their HD's

At one time we had lots of compaq's and gateway's. Both used the same hard drives. Lost very few in the compaq's. Different story with the Gateway. Now we are getting nothing but Gateway. I had at least a half dozen bad out of the box. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether it is a laptop, mid-range of a high end machine.

[LuLu550]

6. DANGER, DANGER, Will Robinson!

Back up all you date NOW...mine started doing that and before I knew it, it crashed and I lost everything...and I'm a reporter and lost years of stories...

[ET Awful]

7. Don't Panic!

Check the simple things first. . . get a can of compressed air, open the side of the computer and blow all of the dust out every crevice, I've heard that sound from messed up cooling fans inside the case before. Clean it FIRST.

Then, if the sound continues, back up the data. And start budgeting for a new hard drive :).

[NMDemDist2]

8. correct, and if it is a hot part of your house, you may want to add

an additional cooling fan in the case (it's easy to do)

[uhhuh]

9. Thanks

I will do that first. My fan does look a little dirty.