So what happened when you started your computer?

My hardly more than 6 months old Acer began making a combined shuddering and growling noise, and had to be shut down for further investigation.

After the side panel was removed, and I could see and feel and pinpoint the unhappy parts inside, I started it up again for another listen. The fan on the CPU was the culprit, so I shut off the power again, and decided to try fixing it. Just by coincidence, I'd been surfing recently and found a how-to article about curing a noisy fan without replacing it. So it seemed like a good idea, because I had nothing to lose. If it didn't work, the fan would still need to be replaced, and if it did work, I would save taking it to the shop for a fan replacement.

The short version of this is that it's now running quietly again after a good cleaning and oiling. And I'm glad I'd found that article the other day about doing all this for yourself. These modern components in computers are marvelous little creations, and that fan had a notation on its label saying 'hydraulic bearing'. I have no idea what that means, but I do know enough about bearings to know that they usually need some kind of lubrication to avoid premature failure. If this is an indication of Acer quality, I'm definitely not impressed.

Update:
I've added a screen-shot showing the temperatures about 12 hours after fixing the noisy fan, and it seems that everything's running quite normally once again. It's amazing what a little oil can do. And changing the subject, I've again created a shortcut to 'Task Manager' and given it my home-made Dana Delany icon, from her movie 'Exit To Eden'. (I loved it!) This icon isn't so bad either. You can make your own icons too, with IcoFX - check the link on the right. ->