PC101-Personal
Computer 101
What
is that "grinding" noise and light 
on
my front panel?
Not to worry, you are probably just
hearing the hard disk drive moving its
head around the platters.
The flashing light 
you see is
probably just
the hard disk activity indicator LED light. It comes on
when there is activity on the hard disk, e.g. finding files or writing
files or maybe just doing maintenance.
There are probably several other lights on the front panel of
your
case, that indicate that the system has power, and most removal media
drives (floppy, CD, DVD) have activity lights
also.
Other noises your PC will make are the fans (power supply, CPU
and maybe a ventalation one also) as well as the removal media
opening/closing and spinning noises. When you start your system
you may hear one beep from your system speaker (inside the case)
-- FYI: there are a whole series of tones that indicate
specific problems with the boot, e.g. if your keyboard is unplugged.
If your disk drive starts to make significantly louder grinding type
noises, then it may well indicate that it is starting to have a HW
failure. Even though the drives are well sealed, if you live in a
high humidity area it will shorten the life of the hard disk
drive.
Also, lack of air flow and/or high heat will
shorten the life of many components in your
PC. Make sure you are not blocking the air vents; that they
are not plugged with dust (vacuum); that your fans are
working.
TIP: If air flow is a
problem, try putting some books under
the case feet to raise it up; move the case away from walls; consider
adding another internal fan (the motherboard
usually has an extra plug for a muffin fan).
Got questions
you would like answered? Yes
keoni@isp.com
