[CentOS] diagnosing noise

Thu Dec 3 22:49:09 UTC 2015
Fred Smith <fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us>

On Thu, Dec 03, 2015 at 03:44:41PM +0000, John Hodrien wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Dec 2015, Michael Hennebry wrote:
> 
> >Though quiet at the moment,
> >my desktop sometimes sometimes makes a noise that I attribute
> >to either a disk or a fan on its last legs.
> >I'm looking for suggestions for distinguishing.
> >
> >For the disk, I expect I should use either hdparm of fsck.
> >Even after reading the man page, I'm not sure how I would use hdparm.
> >If I use fsck, what should I take as evidence of a bad drive?
> >A good drive?
> >
> >Is there a way to tell whether the OS thinks a fan is on?
> >Is there a way to turn a fan on or off manually?
> 
> For a disk, smartctl is the way forward, and look at the attributes.
> T'interweb will advise on which three parameters are worth paying heed to.
> 
> smartctl -a /dev/sda
> 
> sensors (part of lmsensors) will report on some fans, maybe.

for fans, take the long paperboard tube from a roll of paper
towels, plug one end into one ear and wave the other around
near each of the fans.

the chancy part of having a fan go bad is tht after a while
it seizes up completely and is then silent, so you forget
about it til something in your system overheats.

Fred

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