Weird power supply noises

[Zogglet]

My family's main computer, a Dell Dimension 8200, is about four years old and works fine. It has also been extremely quiet. But just a few weeks ago it started making very strange sounds when I boot it up. It revs up, then down, then up, then down, and then it stays loud for as long as I have it on. I checked everything inside and cleaned out some dust, and it looked fine, but it still makes those weird noises. Any ideas about what it could be that's causing this all of a sudden?

 

[CrispyFried]

It sounds like the fan bearings are on their way out. If youre comfortable inside your computer, you can replace it for under 10 bucks. Otherwise, being a dell, a service center will probably want more than its worth to fix it.

 

[tracerbullet]

Agreed. Youd first unhook the power supply cables from the drives, motherboard, etc. Unplug it from the wall too! It's a few screws to get the power supply out of the case. A few more to get the cover off, and another couple to remove the fan once it's open. There will be two wires on the fan attached to the power supply. They may be hardwired or may have a little plug on the end. Find a replacement fan the same size, solder and shrinkwrap the wires, and put it all back together.

Or take it in...