High Fan Speed and Noise

That sounds pretty strange.  I don't see why a copy would be different than an original. 

 

Check you CPU temps when doing these tasks.  TAT from Intel or PC Wizard will show you temperatures. Both are free.

 

The fan on 9200 with Q6600 never speeds up even with 4 fully loaded cores.  Hence, I am surprised that your fan is so loud.

 

Peter 

 

 

You're absolutely right. What is the best way to download the PC wizard? Also, I was told that the commercially produced DVDs are stamped, not burned, and are easier to read for the DVD device. The burned DVD might be more difficult to read and therefore either the drive itsef is spinning faster, or it might be the fan. I can't really tell where the noise is comiing from. But it makes sense that it could be the drive spinning fast, because the noise starts immediatelly after the DVD insertion. The CPU would probably not heat up that fast.

Go ahead and download PC wizard.  It is a very nice and free tool.  It will tell you all sorts of stuff, like the temps in each processor.

 

You will get much better help from Dell tech support if you have some info.  For example, if the fan speeds up because the CPU is hot is very different from the fan speeding up when the CPU is not hot.

 

This kind of "troubleshooting" is not difficult and you can't hurt anything.  Most likely you will learn something. 

 

Peter 

Thanks for the reply, I'll try to talk to the Dell Techs with your info, there is not much I feel comfortable with doing troubleshooting around computers.

OK, I think this is beginning to make sense.  You are talking about the fan like noise of the DVD drive.  I was assuming you meant the fans inside the computer.  If you are talking about the DVD drive noise, then that can be a drive or a disc issue.  The differences you noted might be a factor.  Some drives tend to be very noisy and some are very quiet.

 

You can get PC Wizard here.  But I don't think it will help with this problem. 

 

Peter 

Thanks for your input Alexandra. I think Peter and you are right, that my noise problem is the high speed "leaf blower" like sound of the fast spinning drive. Are there certain types of DVDs that I should be using to minimize the problem?

 

I like your VW minibus.

Peter's almost certainly more knowledgeable than I am about it - I'm still mostly a CD/DVD newbie. I just remember wondering if my new PC was readying for takeoff every time I loaded a CD and figuring I'd better look it up. 

 

The bus is a metaphor - I'm a "keep it simple" person.  Which is why I'm still a CD/DVD newbie.

EDIT:  Geez, Peter, stop reading my mind :smileyvery-happy: . 

 

jsulc - are you sure it's the fan making the noise and not the DVD drive itself?

 

A high-speed drive can sound like a leaf-blower when it's spinning a disk at top speed - and some drives are quieter than others.    Mine's horribly loud when I'm loading a high-speed game CD but very quiet with a commercial music CD - and also very quiet with a low-speed DVD-RW disk (which I use for backups).  It's annoying, but otherwise it works fine.

 

My bet would be the drive on your old PC has a lower speed rating than your new one, which is why it's quieter. 

I'm certainly no expert (Alexandra is always very diplomatic), so you might ask in the CD/DVD forum.  

 

There are programs that can limit the top speed of the drive.  I had one CD drive that was particularly bad when reading at 52x.  If limited to 40x, it was quite reasonably.  The difference in speed between 52x and 40x was really not noticeable.

 

Peter 

Interesting, I'll look into that.

Thanks.