Personally for me, when a client of mine is trying to tell me about strange computer sounds, either over text, e-mail or phone, sometimes without being there to witness it myself, diagnosing the sound can be rough.
So as I ask my clients sometimes, what type of sound are we dealing with? Is it a "high reeving" sound like high RPM's of a car, when it's engine is engaged? Is it small clicking sounds, similar to when being a kid and putting poker cards on the forks of a bike and having the card going across the spokes of the tire? Or is the strange sound grinding, crunching or heavy plastic against plastic sounds?
I always try to check out the power supply cooling fan first, see if it's little motor is going out. Sometimes I implement a quick fix for power supply fans that are on their way out. I sometimes will take out the power supply out from the case, get my little can of (3 in 1 oil), tilt the power supply up, so that the fan is pointing right at me, rest it on top of my work bench and dab only 2-3 small drops of the oil just behind the fan, where the plastic blades meet the small metal shaft, there is where I eye dropper the oil. I will let the power supply rest with it's cooling fan pointing upwards for about 2-5 minutes. Then let the power supply sit for about 30 minutes, resting (right side up). After I plug it in and what do you know, all the strange and funny sounds are gone.
Again this is just a quick fix and if your cooling fan motor is going out, my technique here is just a (mask), it will just provide enough lubrication to hide the true problem for an unknown period of time, or until the fan motor decides, regardless of the amount of lubrication, to give up the ghost and die.
If you go with my little quick fix, take care and take caution not to drop the oil to far deep into the power supply, electricity doesn't play to nice with liquids, even if that liquid is an oil based product, it will still go (sizzle sizzle and pop)!
Good luck..................
