How to quickly repair a bent CPU pin
I recently picked up the October 2008 issue of Computer Shopper for some plane ride reading. It included a “Special PC-Builder’s Handbook” section. This section had 75 quick tips for building computers. One of the tips that I really found interesting was that of fixing a bent CPU pin with a mechanical pencil tip.
Instead, obtain a mechanical (or drafter’s) pencil. It should have a tiny metal tube for a tip, through which it admits the pencil lead. Remove the lead and, in most cases, the empty tube tip will be the perfect size to fit over a bent pin, allowing you to straighten it with precision. This trick also works for bent pins on motherboard headers, or hard-drive or optical-drive edge connectors.
Strange computer noise
Let me start off with a little background information…
On 5/21, I installed two new 500Gb SATA hard drives in my machine. I reinstalled Windows XP and everything was going smooth. The drives were not only bigger than my old drives, but they were faster too. Once I got all my programs reinstalled, all was good and I was back to normal operations.
Around 6/17 (Firefox 3 download day), I started noticing a strange buzz/squeal/whine noise every once in a while. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but after some time, it started to get on my nerves. My first thought was that my primary hard drive had something wrong with it. I thought I had the issue figured out.
About a week ago, I realized that it was making the noise only when there was increased CPU activity. When my computer is idle, there’s no noise at all except for the fans. When the processor activity goes up, I hear the squealing noise (ie: screensaver starts, open program, move scrollbar in web browser). I know that CPU has no moving parts so this didn’t make any sense.
This past weekend, I took the side of the case off in hopes of determining where this annoying sound was coming from. When I put my ear near the side, I could only narrow it down to the area indicated below:
Yesterday, upon further investigation, I determined that the noise was coming from the bottom of the power supply. Then, when I pulled the computer away from the wall and put my ear to the rear power supply fan, it was very apparent that the power supply was the cause.
This morning, I sent an email to tech support at Ultra and their response was: “If the power supply is doing this, it needs to be replaced.”
So, it looks like I’m going to be ordering a new power supply today. That sucks!
X-Connect® 500W ATX PSU - Titanium
Purchased on 10/28/2006
Useful Link: Power Supply Calculator
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