Kurt said:
Whenever I turn my comp on, my video card fan makes this annoying noise where it sounds like its spinning at 20,000 rpm. I actually have to reach into the case and tap it a few times to get it to stop lol. Just another reason why I leave my computer on for weeks at a time. It's probably a bearing in the fan that is loose or something.
In any case, your problem sounds similar, and you probably shouldn't ignore it
my video card fan did the same thing,
when i took it to have it repaired, the guy initially thought it was the cpu fan so he jabbed a screwdriver in it to stop the fan to see if the noise stopped (thats how we discovered that it was the card's fan and not the cpu fan)
he broke 2 fan blades off the fan and gave me a free replacement and a 512 mb of ram for his screwup. It was a good day =P. i only had to pay the 8 bucks for the replacement video card fan
anywhoo, this is a method taught to me by the same computer guy who broke AND fixed my pc in the same day,
get some kinda tube or something. he suggested an old waterhose, cut about a 1 1/2 ft length from it and put one end up to your ear, and just aim the other end around at the areas inside your computer where you think the noise is coming from.
the end of the tube in the pc acts kinda like a microphone, it should tell you where specifically the noise is coming from. once you know for sure you'll know which area to clean/replace. without needlessly risking the rest of your computer in the process.
please note that i havent actualy tried this, so dont blame me if you ruin a perfectly good waterhose =P