Tech Table Monday, July 14, 2014
July 14, 2014
Justin: Welcome to MPA’s Tech Table. I’m Justin.
Diana: And I’m Diana.
Justin: And we’re your hosts. We’ll be serving up a heaping spoonful of all things tech.
Diana: We promise it’ll be easy to digest.
Diana: Well it’s Monday, Justin.
Justin: It is, we made it through another weekend.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: Joyously.
Diana: Made it through [LAUGHS].
Justin: And so, Monday is when we read something from our inbox. And that email address is…
Diana: questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: That’s right. So we have a question today from Rebecca.
Diana: Yes, Rebecca asks, my computer seems to be making some funny noises. What could be the issue?
Justin: Mmm, well, funny noises are not so funny, that’s for sure.
Diana: No.
Justin: The thing with computers is that some fan noises and beeping sounds are completely normal. However, a, quote unquote, funny noise could be something scratching. You know, or a light noise that might sound like two forks being rubbed together…that’s considered a funny noise, and that’s probably not a good thing.
Diana: Yeah, we don’t like those sounds.
Justin: Exactly. Another strange noise could be our computers sounding like an airplane.
Diana: [LAUGHS] Like it’s just gonna take off on its own.
Justin: Yeah, and that’s likely your fan working so hard to try to cool the computer. And I’ve had several fans and computers that, yeah, it sounds like a jet is landing. Strange noises, you know, normally mean that something physically is going wrong with the computer. But there are many different things that it could be. Anything from a hard drive to a fan, disk drive, processor, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of times it’s hard drive or fan. That’s really what I’ve run into personally, even.
Diana: Yes, now we would recommend having someone look at it soon if you are hearing these types of noises. You might be in danger of losing valuable data on your hard drive, should that prove to be the case.
Justin: Exactly. You know, and oh, that brings up a point. Always back up your information to another source. I mean back it up to…
Diana: Yeah, don’t just save it to your hard drive.
Justin: Yeah, to an external hard drive, to a flash drive, to the cloud…
[LAUGHTER]
Justin: Anything that is off-site, not actually, physically on your computer hard drive. Because something could go wrong, and you literally could lose everything on that hard drive.
Diana: True, true.
Justin: And the more space you have on your hard drive, the better your computer runs.
Diana: Yeah.
Justin: So you don’t want to bog it down with a bunch of heavy stuff. So, if your computer is making a funny noise, you know, which we say sounds like an airplane, or maybe two forks being rubbed together, something scratching, you know? I mean, unless you think a mouse has built a nest in your computer…
Diana: Which you still might need to get checked out.
Justin: You should. Scratching noises, you know, are not a good thing. So have someone look at it. And, you know, many, many different things can cause these noises, but if you’ve never heard it before, it’s an indication that your issue might be a cause for concern.
Diana: Right.
Justin: And that’s…it’s one of those things…this reminds me of 20 years ago, like Seinfeld episodes.
Diana: [LAUGHS]
Justin: When I was a kid watching Seinfeld, Seinfeld was always having car problems.
Diana: Yes.
Justin: It was like the center of a lot of his shows, oddly, were car problems. And I mean, like, you know, he’d be driving, or Cosmo, Kramer would be driving down the road, and like, the car would just start making this horrible noise. And it was always back then, you know, what do you do when your car makes funny noises? And you know, as you own a car, the sounds that it makes that are normal, and the sounds that it should not be making when it starts making them.
Diana: Yes. You start to recognize that.
Justin: Same thing with your computer. You know how it sounds when it normally runs, which, usually they’re pretty quiet. So if it starts making funny noises, you probably know that, so take that as a warning sign and call someone…get some help.
Diana: Mm-hm.
Justin: So yeah, there you go Rebecca, I hope that helps you out. And if you have questions, send them to…
Diana: questions@askmpa.com.
Justin: That’s right. Until next time…
Diana: Take care.
Justin: Tech Table was brought to you by MPA of Bloomfield, Iowa, and God’s Country Radio. You can visit us online at askmpa.com.
Diana: If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions@askmpa.com. That’s questions@askmpa.com
Justin: And thanks for listening!
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