| UPDATE
Ok, so this morning the rattling sound is unbearable, so I start tearing the PC apart to check for anything loose that might be causing it, and decide to swap out the 80GB drive because all my tests thus far lead to that. Complete HDD backup, thank God for Ghost. I've got the swapped out HDD in, everything looks good, sealed back up and power up.
Guess what? Still f-in rattles!!!
<sam kinison>Ahhh!! Ahhhhhh!! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!</sam kinison>
So with the power on I gingerly start probing different spots, lightly touching spinning fans, etc. I touch the fan on my graphics card chipset...BINGO!! The damn graphics card fan has been rattling this whole time. Take that out and it's got the crappiest little fan on it you've ever seen. Three part fan held together with sheet metal type screws, no wonder it rattles. Tearing it down and tightening it all up again doesn't help.
Bottom line: anyone got some ideas for swapping out the fan on that nvidia chip? Or suggestions for a new graphics card? I'm kinda leaning towards a new ATI 9800...anyone?? |