Weird noise coming from Laptop.

[dazzy1984]

Hi everyone, at Christmas I bought a Cosmos Series: 17.3 with a GTX 950M. Recently I have been hearing a slight grinding noise coming from the Laptop which sounds like it might be from the GFX as it gets louder as a game is being played. I have never noticed it apart from the last couple of days, what could this be? Is the Laptop already on its way out?

I have the 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) what is Pcspecialist like with their returns and fixing? Time wise etc.

Also is this model upgradable at the same time? I know I can upgrade the HDD but what about the GFX, CPU and ram?

Cheers.

 

[mantadog]

PCS are normally pretty swift with the turnaround times on warranty work unless a part needs ordering. Should be back with your in just about a week or so from waht i understand.

The noise could be a fan bearing, i cant think of much else. What you could do is have a look and see if anything is catching in it. PCS wont void your warranty of you open the bottom of the machine, so if you feel up to it carefully open up the bottom of the machine and see if you can remove any dust etc as that sometimes fixes it.

You will be able to upgrade the RAM but the CPU/GPU tend to be hard to upgrade on laptops because they are soldered directly onto the board, so if you need more ram im sure you can have that done - the rest i would leave alone.

 

[dazzy1984]

PCS are normally pretty swift with the turnaround times on warranty work unless a part needs ordering. Should be back with your in just about a week or so from waht i understand.

The noise could be a fan bearing, i cant think of much else. What you could do is have a look and see if anything is catching in it. PCS wont void your warranty of you open the bottom of the machine, so if you feel up to it carefully open up the bottom of the machine and see if you can remove any dust etc as that sometimes fixes it.

You will be able to upgrade the RAM but the CPU/GPU tend to be hard to upgrade on laptops because they are soldered directly onto the board, so if you need more ram im sure you can have that done - the rest i would leave alone.

Cheers mate, I have done what you said and it looks clean under the hood. I ran GTA5 with the cover off while holding it up to check the fan and it did not seem to make the grinding noise, the fan sounded normal hot and loud (which is why I would like to upgrade) but when I quit the game and just let it idle on the desktop you can hear it, it is not so much as grinding but clicks in a fast continuous sound (if you get what I am saying?)

I will run a few tests in the coming days and decide what to do, I can not send it away at the moment even if I wanted to as I am going away for a while soon, thanks for the reply though.

 

[ubuysa]

That sounds like the HDD to me. Over time the files on any HDD get fragmented and scattered all over the disk surface. This means that a lot of seeks to and from the MFT and the file fragments are required. Not only does this mean that you hear the disk working more than you used to but it also kills your performance.

If you haven't done so already, I would suggest you do the following:

1. Backup all your user data (backup the entire HDD if you can).

2. Run a junk files cleaner (Ccleaner is a good one) to get rid of all the junk and temp files you no longer need.

3. If the disk is more than about 70% full consider copying those files and folders you almost never use off to an external disk.

4. Run the Windows defrag tool to ensure that all files occupy contiguous space on the disk.

See whether that helps with the noise?

 

[mantadog]

The use of the word grinding in the OP made me think fan, but now the use of the word click makes me think HDD too. Though i'd be more worried that the HDD is on its way out than it needs defragmented (latest versions of windows are pretty much ontop of that i believe). if the noise is perfectly rythmic then it be even more worried that the read/write head is touching the spinning platter which will eventually kill it, rather than being random as it looks for data on the disk.

Regardless it is best to get the data backed up (right now) if you dont have anything backed up already.

 

[dazzy1984]

Thanks for the replys everyone. It is sorted now, I rang PCS who informed me they have an open warranty which means you are allowed to open the laptop without voiding it. After hearing this I removed the fan and gave everything a good clean. Their was a build up of dust in the fan outlet and after cleaning everything seems as good as new.

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks for the replys everyone. It is sorted now, I rang PCS who informed me they have an open warranty which means you are allowed to open the laptop without voiding it. After hearing this I removed the fan and gave everything a good clean. Their was a build up of dust in the fan outlet and after cleaning everything seems as good as new.

Well done.

Indeed the PC terms and conditions allow you to open all PCS computers up. Dust on the fan often builds up differently on one or two blades causing an out-of-balance issue and that can cause all sorts of noises. Cleaning it will have done a lot of goo too.