Hello!
I've been having problems with my computer recently. Automatic shut off while doing important things. Blue-screen keeps on showing while watching movies or playing games. I can hear a "scratchy" sound or like ticking inside my computer. Is my computer going bad? Do I need to replace it with a new one? What are the causes of my problem? Where does the scratchy sound coming from? Is there any way for me to fix this? Can you guide me in fixing this issue?
Noise coming from inside my old computer
Hello Rebecca!
There are certain reasons why your computer’s acting like this. Since it’s an old computer let’s make a different approach and try to clean everything up here first. Please before doing this unplug all power connectors of your computer and peripherals.
1. Clean your tower. Open the panel of your computer and clean up the fans for your processor and video card. If there’s any extra fan connected clean it also with a cleaning agent. Plug everything back make sure you didn’t forget to connect the proper connecters and devices. Check if you can still hear noise coming from your computer.
Since this is an old device, update your drivers and software.
1. Right-click on “My Computer/Computer,” select “Manage,” your “Computer Management” window will pop-up.
2. From the left pane select “Device Manager,” in the main pane select hardware that you need to upgrade like your Display Adapters and Sound Adapters.
3. For example, right-click Display Adapter and select “Update Driver Software.”
4. Follow the on-screen guide and do it also for the other hardware connected.
If the noise still coming from your computer, check if it is coming from your hard disk and processor or fans. From there you can see if you need to replace any part of your tower.
Noise coming from inside my old computer
If you hear a ticking or clicking sound then it is normal to see a blue screen error. That ticking sound is coming from the hard drive and is a sign of a physical problem. Along with the clicking sound, you might also experience sudden freezing of the system. You need to check your hard drive for bad sectors.
The only solution here is to check the hard drive for errors. The clicking sound is often the sign of bad sectors on the drive. Download PC Tools Performance Toolkit and install it. Once installed, start PC Tools then go to “Recovery” tab and click “Repair Drives”. On the next screen, select the drive you want to check.
From the options, select “Surface Scan” and check “Perform on reboot”. Click “Start” then “Continue”. Exit PC Tools then restart the computer to begin the check. The checking will be quite long depending on the size of the drive and the extent of the problem. If bad sectors were found, try repeating the scan a second time.
Bad sectors are normal for hard drives like IDE and SATA and usually appear as the drive gets old. If bad sectors appear everywhere on the drive and the drive is quite old, it means you need to replace the drive with a new one.
