The trouble started a few months ago, but it didn't get severe until just this past week. My computer runs fine except that it seems to be overheating. That's not necessarily a problem I'd come to SEN about - what has me concerned is that whenever the computer crashes from overheat, it's accompanied by an ominous clicking from my hard drive. So far I don't think it's caused any permanent damage but I took a backup just in case. I need to know if there's anything I can do to better diagnose the problem, any information I can provide that would help (and how to acquire said info), and any steps I can take right away to help fix this (besides the room fan I keep running beside my desktop now, which only postpones crashes).

Already thought of blasting out dust but I don't have a compressed air can right with me. Both internal fans are working fine. The hard drive has been removed and reinstalled several times in the past few months.

Edit1: In response to some things Roy mentioned in the shoutbox, the following information may be of use:

1. The overheating symptoms show up regardless of what I'm doing (if the computer has been running long enough without proper cooling), but actual crashes rarely occur except when I'm playing games such as LoL and SC2.
2. The fans definitely appear to be working correctly. I have the case open in front of me and both of them are running smoothly. I'm worried that they're simply inefficient. They have been vacuumed thoroughly but there's still a lot of dust in the case.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Mar 17 2012, 8:21 pm by ImagoDeo.

I've had heat kill hard drives in an improperly ventilated case, so this is definitely something you should be wary of.

If you aren't already, I'd just pop the case side off and run it like that. No need to have a fan blowing directly on it. Then get compressed air and clean out all of your fans and heat sinks.