Computer making noise

My dad's computer was making a noise, and it did not stop, all the time, unless he turned it off. so he hired a computer guy to fix it, the guy came, and my dad told me he said that is was something about the power supply going bad. so my dad got a new computer and gave me to older one. it is a windows xp so i was happy, and i bought a new power supply, but i realized the noise did not go away, so i'm guessing there is still a problem and it was not the power supply before, it was something else.What could it be.I have a fealing it is the battery , because the time is always changing, even when i set it, but i don't thing the battery would make this noise(when i say battery i mean the little on that looks like the one that goes in the watches but a little bigger)
What do you all think.

O freakin great i just noticed that my computer colors are off after installing the service pack 2 for xp, Great!Freakin thing!Can anyone help me wiht this to!

Chris thanks in advance

 

clean it out make sure nothings in the way of the fan or such other than that idk

 

Chris,
tell us more about the computer and the noise.

What sort is it? Laptop, ? Tower, Desktop? Make?

Tell us also about the new power supply. Have you already been working inside the pc?
Describe the noise. Can you affect it by covering the vents(temporarily)?


If you have had to install SP2 for XP it is quite likely that the coin cell battery has died of old age.

 

The computer is a tower, it is made by dell and It is fairly old.When i cover the vent in the back with my hands it does not affect the noise.I have been working in the computer but it was after the noise came, all i did was install the battery.
The noise is fairly loud and has the same beat, like a mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm.Where can i get a new coin battery, could it be causing the noise?

the power is achiefmax ATX switching power supply, but this is the new one and the noise came before the new battery, i installed the new battery because of the noise.The computer had a lot of dust but i cleaned most of it but i am going to do a more detailed cleaning soon.It has 2 fans one for battery and one for the possessor, around 512mb of ram, 2 cd drives, 1 floppy, 1 HD.The noise could probably keep me up at night for a little while.

chris thanks

 

You seem to have a few terms mixed up so lets take thigs a bit at a time.

I'm not sure if you said you did or did not replace the battery. This is a good idea for an old pc and they are very cheap from local supermarkets or camera/ photgraphic stores. The battery cannot cause or affect your noise.

A new power supply is a different thing and again I'm not sure if you have actually installed a new one into the pc. If you haven't wait until we have ascertained the Dell model because Dell used non standard wiring a few years back. The result of connecting a standard power supply to these Dells is always a loud bang and lots of blue smoke.

To find out what is causing the noise
run the pc with one item disconnected in turn.
First disconnect the hard drive and start the pc. Does it still make the noise?
Shut the pc down
Then try each fan in turn.

It may be that the system is 'drumming' on a wooden floor, making it sound worse than it is.

It may be that something like a cable is catching in a fan.

Press each fan lightly in its centre. Does this affect the noise?

Don't forget there is also a fan inside the power supply. Dont play with this one.

 

I did not replace the battery(little coin thing)
I did replace the power supply(thing i connect the to all the components)
I installed the new power supply after the noise, thinking it would fix the problem, but it did not.the pc is on a carpet.I will check everything in a little while, and do the fan and cable thing and do a thorough inspection.lol i know not to play with the power supply fan because it is built in and if i took that apart i would never get that back together, i did that with a old computer once, before i knew how to put them together,lol.

chris thanks, i'll do it in a little while because i got it running really smooth after installing all the updates, and it is just like a new computer:drool

 

It was the freakin floppy drive.when i unplug it no noise, but when i plug it in the noise comes back.lol thanks for all your help!Does this mean it is broken, can i still use it, should i take it out?

chris thanks so much

 

There, a good experience of logical fault finding.
You can get replacement Dell floppy drives on Ebay at reasonable cost. Again the unit is likely to be non standard to accomodate the push button.