I have a 9100 which has a similar if not identical case. I had problems with rattles, particularly the removable side panel. I basically used some soft spongy material (I cut up the Dell mouse pad into little strips) to fill in the gaps between the case and the panel. Vibrations are way down. I went inside and used the strips between any touching metal/plastic parts that were not fastened down tightly. I think the basic problem is the Dell snap together style. It makes it possible for many parts to vibrate.

In my wife's 3000, it was the HD cage that was the problem. The HD vibrations were causing the front panel to vibrate. The HD cage is fastened by one screw with one side of the cage just inserted in a slot. Some material inserted between the frame and the cage near the slot did the trick.

Peter

I have the same problem with my Dell Dimension 3000 amongst a slew of other issues that are causing me to contemplate throwing my hardrive out my window and watching it shatter on the ground below.:smileymad:

I just used scotch tape and taped the front panel tighter to the side panels, the rattles decreased by the fan sounds like an airplane engine. Anyone know how to fix that??

 

If the CPU fan sounds like an "airplane engine" I suspect your CPU is too hot or the temp sensor is bad. The CPU can be too hot if the heat sink is not mounted properly, no thermal compound on the CPU or possibly the fan is not pushing (pulling?) air over the heatsink.

The 3000 should be very quiet under light load. I'm not sure my wife's 3000 is ever under heavy load. Does it always sound like and "airplane" or just when working it hard?

Peter

That is not a heavy load. Heavy load is the CPU running at 100% for minutes or longer.

It should be quieter.

Peter

What exactly is a "heavy load"? I usually have Internet Explorer open and Aim, and sometimes Word all at once. I would say the machine has airplane-like qualities 97% of the time, it actually has woken me up on more than once occasion its so loud.