Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional (3rd Edition)

Hard drives vary in the noise output they produce. Sometimes the stepper motors are annoyingly loud. Other drives have loud spindle motors. When a drive is coupled to the body of the computer housing, motor noises can be effectively amplified, increasing the aggravation you experience using a system. If your computer sounds like a garbage disposal from time to time, chances are good that the stepper is not a quiet one, and as the head dances around on the platters, the drive shakes just enough to get the computer chassis rattling a bit, too. It's a bit like the relationship between the strings and the body of a violin.

Spindle motors (the motor that turns the platters at high speed) often start out life quietly, only to get noisy over time as the bearings wear in (or out). This noise is particularly annoying in laptop computers if you happen to use them in a quiet place, such as a library or in a home office. I actually replaced my 8GB IBM 3.5-inch drive once this year (Dell laptop, free of charge thanks to Dell), only to find that within a few months it developed the same annoying whine again, so I gave up and accepted it.

Some environments, such as recording studios, require that a computer be seen and not heard. For desktop systems, there are a couple solutions. One is to get some long wires for the keyboard monitor, pointing device, and so on, and relegate the computer to a closet. A more practical approach is to buy an after-market kit that quiets your PC's power supply and hard disk. Check the Web for information about such kits, such as at www.quietpc.com.

The bottom line here is to check out the specs on drive noise, if you care about that. Or you can listen for a quiet computer, find out what kind of drive it has, and then order that brand and model the next time you're shopping.

In the case of serious noise (you turn on the computer, and it really does sound like a garbage disposal), well, you're in trouble. This noise is a sign of your hard disk after crashing (the heads are actually rubbing on the surface of the platters) or in the process of crashing. Get out while the getting is good. Back up your data and/or whole drive, and replace it as soon as possible. Then restore the data.

In some cases, the noise you hear is not from your hard drive, but from the fans on the case or the power supply. These plastic fan blades collect dust. The dustier your environment and the higher your average humidity, the faster these fans become caked with crud. In many cases you can use a can of compressed air to clean off the fans. But when that doesn't work, you can attempt to remove the fan's protective screen and wipe the blades clean with a slightly moist paper towel. DON'T spray or drip any liquids into the system.

If you find that you are cleaning off your fan every month or so, you should consider getting a room filter to clean your air or attach part of an A/C filter over the air intake holes on your system. Just be sure that the airflow is not restricted or you'll end up overheating the system. Keep in mind your CPU and hard drives are air cooled; that's why there are fans in the case. If you restrict the airflow too much, the heat will build up and cause problems. If you hear a beeping sound much like that of European police cars, that's the warning sign that the CPU is too hot.