My computer was making this noise. Please advise.

Post date: 2025-04-23 15:18:20

I have a dell laptop with an SSD. It was making this noise earlier today. On and off over about 5-10 minutes. I booted up the computer and it immediately started making that noise. I freaked out and did not touch it. did not even enter my pin to log into windows. It stopped. Then it started again. It did this a few times over the course of 5-10 minutes. The last time it the noises lasted about 2 seconds and then there was a sound like a record scratching (like an old vinyl music record) and it just stopped. It has not made the noise since. I am backing up everything. Is it over? If so, in which sense?

By "Is it over?" I mean "did the noise go away and now I can never think about this again?" or alternatively "Is my computer about to die?".

What should I do?

I called a friend who answers my techy questions and he's guessing it's a fan. My computer has a second fan that I can actually turn on with a little button on the case. It's for gaming or something. When I turn it on windows says "High Performance Mode" is on. I am running that to try to keep the other terrifying-noise fan from running. Is it bad to keep that other fan on for hours? I actually never use it.

and uhh..yeah, as the video shows, I"m not really that careful about dust and crumbs.

Am I safe to use the computer before it finishes backing up or should I just leave it alone. Is it safe to use for running stats (i.e. possibly high processor usage..maybe that means heat? I don't know).

oh, and if you don't think it's the fan, what is it? It sounds mechanical and it FELT mechanical. Like holding the laptop I could feel that sound as a movement of something in the laptop.

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