HELP!!! ALL YOU C.O.M.P.U.T.E.R. WIZARDS. i have this windows 98 version comp, pentium 2 and...?

Question

lately, when its in use, it emits WHIRRING sounds sometimes. what to do? secondly,what can i do to update it/increase memory? i am nt computer savvy.plzzzzz help

i am more interested in the whirring sound rather than updating it right now, I am in India and updating isn't v.expensive either. The whirring sound comes when the laptop is on for a while. it goes on its own.is it DANGEROUS FOR MY COMP?????? is it okay to ignore it???? i dont know if the sound corresponds to the hard disk light or not, i have rcd many answers, THANX TO ALL YOU WONDERUFL PEOPLE FOR THE SAME, but being the novice that I am, most of the technical lingo is going whoosh!! way over my head...pls help sum1, if possible. someone gave me alot of websites for free downloads, but WHAT shud i download to upgrade????

Answer 1

As you describe it, it sounds like the mostly likely culprit for the occasional whirring sound is a fan bearing may be on its way out. It can go that way indefinitely, or it can fail suddenly. It's also possible if the tone has more of a steady, high ringing sort it can be the bearings of your hard drive spindle making that noise. If you open up the computer and look inside, you'll probably be able to hear which one it is simply by listening closely.

Replacing a fan on a CPU cooler is usually quite simple unless it's one of the more exotic or flashy models that look like small jet engines or whatnot. If you attempt this, replacing the fan itself rather than the entire cooler is probably easier since there's not much of a market for Pentium II coolers these days. Just make sure you replace your fan with a new one with the same number of wires as the old one. Three-wire fans include a sensor to tell the computer how fast the fan is spinning, and your computer usually gets very unhappy when it thinks a fan has failed. Two-wire fans will often use a three-pin connector and will simply not have a third sire. Safest thing to do is probably remove it, noting where it was connected to the computer, and take the old one to the store when looking for a replacement to make sure it matches for size and shape as well as connector type and wire count.

I would not recommend attempting to replace a fan on a power supply unit, as usually they're built permanently into the unit, so if it turns out a power supply fan is the culprit replacing the whole power supply is your best bet. It is actually quite straightforward to remove a power supply. Most normal desktop computers will take what's called an "ATX" power supply, which simply refers to the case type. Safest thing to do is simply disconnect and remove your old one, take it to the store for comparison when buying the new one. Normally there are just four screws holding it to your case, and you just have to undo all of the power connections. The power connections are all standardized and shaped so that they only fit one way so it's quite safe.

Answer 2

With the new vista coming out computer prices will come down. I suggest getting a new computer. If u are running Windows 98 u computer i pretty old finding the chips to increse the memory would be hard. When your computer buzzes it means you are overloading the RAM. To update the RAM or Memory for a old computer would be a lot of money. And the hardware you have cant support much more memory than you have. now. We had this problem and we bought a new computer. It has been nothin but great. I suggest buying a new computer because ya will be up to date with the operating system and you can run any programs u need to because it is new. now most programs dont run off Windows 98 my MP3 player wouldnt.

Answer 3

That whirring sound must be the cooling fan- they all do that after some time, especially that ur machine seems to be quite old. Mot much to worry, try clean the dust from the fans. As for the memory, it depends on the motherboard u have, if it supports additional memory chips- u can check it at www.crucial.com- that site will scan ur comp and tell u what memory u can add. But anyway, it seems ur comp is just not up to the time, not much will run on it, am afraid.. better think of buying something newer...

Answer 4

This could be a case of "This old dog is not going to hunt anymore".
The sound you hear could be a a number of things. Most likely it is some fan - inside - the cpu fan full of dust. Also, this could be the hard drive or power supply fan. With a machine of this age - really not worth it to upgrade or fix.
The price of computers has really come down - there are decent ones available at Walmart, etc.
My personal suggestion - you might want to wait on the new Vista operating system - what a jump that would be from 98 to Vista!!:)
Tigerdirect.com and various other vendors still have machines available with XP on them.
Good luck!

Answer 5

purchase a sparkling laptop!!!!! rather. in the experience that your laptop is basically waiting to run ninety 8, then there is not any possibility that it's going to accurately run Vista (that's the latest windiws, regardless of the certainty that i;m unsure if its out yet........). you would be greater advantageous off basically utilising ninety 8 until eventually you could;t use it anymore and getting a sparkling laptop. the reason which you will no longer run a sparkling OS on that's the quantity of supplies tha tit calls for to run that OS is a lot bigger than a prior version. as an occasion. while abode windows XP boots up, it always makes use of roughly 300MB of RAM. while vista boots up, it makes use of roughly 700MB of RAM (as of RC2, i'm unsure if microsoft has amnaged to optimize it in any respect.). yet once you insist on gettin a sparkling OS, then you definately will maximum unquestionably want greater RAM, probably a bigger problematical force (a minimum of 50GB minimum), a greater physically powerful photos card, a swifter CPU. in view that all the ordinary components have replaced in view that ninety 8 became ordinary (amd has replaced sockets for CPU's a minimum of as quickly as, probably two times reckoning on the time you acquire that) you will want a sparkling motherboard. that's truly a sparkling laptop. and you may want a greater effective potential grant to run all this new stuff. sooooo the unique components which you're left with are: the case, the video exhibit, the keyboard.mouse, and a few cables. regardless of the certainty that development your own computeris by utilising far the main no longer expensive thank you to enhance, as long as you know what you're doing. so it may desire to no longer be all undesirable information

Answer 6

The whirring could be either the cooling fan or the hard drive.

To be honest, it's probably going to cost more to upgrade than to buy a new computer.

Answer 7

Do the sounds correlate with the hard disk light? Can you pinpoint where they're coming from? It may just be too much dust in the vents or fans, or a dying fan, but if it's your hard drive, back up what you want to keep immediately.

Answer 8

You could try updating your operating system with one of the free open source distributions. Try XUBUNTU or PUPPY LINUX or DAMN SMALL Linux.

Answer 9

just buy a new computer(pentium 4) its more cheap than upgrading it

Answer 10

to be honest - dont even bother fixing it - just upgrade its better and probably cheaper