I've been fretting - yes, fretting - about my computer for at least a week now. I suddenly noticed it has been making an awful lot of noise. Considerably more noise than it used to, at any rate. I have no idea when it started. For all I know, it could have been present for weeks, and I was just too far into my own world to hear it. Or care. Either way, I didn't know.
It sounds as if the hard drive was being accessed continuously, without end. In a fit of curiosity and concern for my poor computer, I took a peek at the Task Manager. (Yes, I have Windows. Yes, I have certain others trying to convince me to make a break and convert to Mac. Yes, it is slowly working.) The task manager and I... well, we're not friends. And since I so rarely engage in any activity with the task manager, the first thing I noticed were some numbers that looked wrong to me. Largely because I don't know what those numbers are supposed to be, so they looked large.
I noticed that, while my CPU usage was extremely low, my physical memory usage seemed awfully high. I have a pretty good rig, it was designed with high-spec gaming in mind. So, as people who don't know hardware very well tend to do, I got worried. I started ending every process that could be ended without crashing the computer. I uninstalled absolutely everything I don't actively use. I turned off Indexing. I increased the virtual RAM available. I reduced every possible program from starting up as soon as the computer switches on. I did a bunch of other things that online sources recommended I try, all to no avail. I can't even remember some of the things I did, or how I accomplished them. It was all for nothing. The computer is still making noise that it shouldn't.
Fast forward to the other day, when I was sitting on the floor doing something else entirely, and I glanced over at my computer tower. Now, I have the X-Blade gaming tower - some parts of the sides are transparent, and the fans attached to the side of the tower have blue LED lights on them. It looks cool (my opinion, don't judge me). As I was sitting there looking at it, I noticed one of the fan lights wasn't lit up.
Can you see where I'm going with this?
I came closer and, experimentally, pressed inward slightly on the fan. The LED light flickered. I pressed a little harder. The light came on, and the noise got quieter.
I am a hardware idiot. I've known that for a long time; it's the reason I never open my computer case. (Which, incidentally, explains why it gets so dusty in there.) But this has just truly hit it home for me. In all the time I was panicking about the hard drive getting worn down by being accessed too much, it never occurred to me to check the rest of the tower to see if it could be anything else. I am now thoroughly convinced that the noise is being caused by nothing more than a fan that is giving up the fight to keep my computer from overheating.
On the upside, I'll be much happier to replace a broken fan than a broken hard drive.
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