Does a real loud boot-up signal trouble?

[Evil]

Booted up my computer this morning and it sounded real loud. Almost like a shhhhhh noise. It is usually quite quiet. It didn't take any longer to boot up. I rebooted and it sounded normal. I am currently backing up all important data.
Could this be the sign of trouble?
I have a 2 month old Aptiva E-Series 550.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks to everybody who has helped me before with all my crazy questions.

Matt


[This message has been edited by Evil (edited 04-10-2000).]

[Apostle 83]

I'm racking my brain here... I can think of one thing that might indicate NO trouble.

If you had a cd in a drive (I say a as I have a cdrw and dvd, both LOUD on boot up) then it will be no prob.

If no cd, might be a sign of your hdd spin being messed up.... dont' know the techincal term though

[Dominus]

Check all the fans in your system to make sure they areall working properly. If you find one that has seized up, or is just running noisily, try some WD-40 (or any household lubricant). That usually takes care of the problem. Sometimes systems can make really strange noises if they are booted when the room they are in is really cold, like when you've left the window open overnight or something. All the parts creak as they expand in the heat the machine generates.

[sys-eng]

Disk drive bearings are noisy when they go out. My first suspect though is a cooling fan. Don't turn the system off until you have backed up everything important!

[Evil]

I was able to re-boot without the problem happening again. I backed everything important on a cd first. When it made the noise it stayed kinda loud afterwards. Hopefully it was just something stange with the fan.

I re-booted several times and I couldn't get the noise to happen again.

Should a hard drive be going after a couple of months?

Thanks,

Matt

[Apostle 83]

It shouldnt be going, but it is very possible! Electronics are affected by their environment, original quality, etc.


Some are of higher quality than others... I am able to leave mine running all the time, but some might not be able to...

[sys-eng]

Based on my data center experience, I would say that over the first four years of a system's life, 50%-70% of the disk drive problems (HW) will occur during the first six months. These are not wear problems but defects in manufacture and assembly.
If you look at the price of a PC cooling fan, you might be surprised that they last more than a month.

[dkozloski]

Something that will make hell of a noise out of the blue is a ribbon cable or connecting wire drifting into a cooling fan. Often jostling the machine will fix it temporarily.

[Evil]

Thanks for all the responses.

I have re-booted several times and I don't hear the noise anymore.

If this was the hard drive, would this be happening everytime I booted up?

Thanks for all the help,

Matt

[Evil]

Thanks to everybody who responded. This morning I booted the computer up but this time I took the case off. The noise happened again and I am pretty sure its the fan just being loud. Better that than a hard drive.
I live in New Jersey were the wether has been crazy lately. The temperatures have been changing rapidly. Maybe that has something to do with it.

Thanks again,

Matt