h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*simpost

After error checking, defrag, etc, the machine seems to be behaving. Not only have I not noticed any more grinding noises, but it's been left on overnight with no problems, and is quieter now than ever. Passes all of the S.M.A.R.T. tests, too.

Phew.

So now perhaps I can stick to my plan to have new media (CDs and DVDs, mainly) storage shelves brought in while I'm on vacation next month. And maybe replacing the laundry.

Woohoo!

Incidentally...

That old grinding noise pops up from time to time still, especially after using the DVD-R drive for a long period of time.

Given the position of the noise, and that it happens when the battery light is on, the best diagnoses I've been able to get out of sufficiently types is that it's likely either a fan or a heat sink on the motherboard.

If I run a fan in the room, pointing at the tower, it seems to eliminate or prevent it. We did notice a weird plastic-y sort of overheating smell a couple times during the last month or so.

Hopefully the motherboard won't fry while I'm waiting to get someone to come look at it. In the meantime, I'm going to look for a laptop to have to use if the Beast is offline a few days. Obviously I want one with a DVD burner, and it'd be nice if it could handle any of K's games. But I'll also have to look for refurbished, I guess, because I really don't want Vista.

DT has a problem with some of his computers over-heating too - the fan trick does work.

Apple laptop! They run windows! It's brilliant!

ooh, and get a little laptop riser to allow it to air out a bit like the kensington jobbie they have on amazon.com. Those things help, whichever laptop you get.

Yeah we have laptop risers at work, under the docking stations. I'd noticed them (I don't use a laptop at work because I don't actually travel for work) and made a mental note of that.

I'll take a look at what sort of laptop Apple might have that might suit our needs. I'm not averse to having a Mac OS, either, except that try as I might, I can't get our existing Mac (an oldie) to connect to the internet.