OT: Computer Question for all you smart people out there

[RainbowTigress]

This is not Sims-related, but I am asking here because I know a lot of people here know a lot about computers.  My mom's computer is having problems.  My ex built it, so I can't ask him about it now.  It is an older PC, a 500 mhz Pentium III on a Gigabyte GA-6CXC motherboard.  She is running 128 MB of RAM, and the power supply is a 250 watt AOpen. 

This morning when she turned it on, the alarm for the CPU fan went off.  It is making a moaning noise as well.  It seemed to lessen after several minutes, but it would get louder again.  The alarm would stop at times also, for a few seconds, when the noise got less, but it would start back again.  She has a heat sink for the CPU also, so I don't know if the fan is necessary, or if he just put it on there for extra cooling. 

So what are her options here?  Does she need to get just a new fan, or an entirely new CPU and fan?  Are they even available anymore?  If she upgrades, I'm sure she will need a new motherboard.  This was my old CPU and motherboard that he put together for her years ago when we upgraded our PCs.  I had talked to her about upgrading her PC since it is very slow, but she can't afford to spend much now, and she mainly does email, web, and some light games.

I appreciate any help you all can give.  Thanks in advance!

[Muisie]

Sounds like the CPU fan is dying, pc is overheating.  Replace fan and/or run a housefan pointed at the open pc.  And try to keep the hamsters out of the open pc.

[MissDoh]

Same here, I would replace the CPU fan.  To make sure she gets the right one, tell her to bring it the old one with her to the computer store.  Fan are really not expensive.

Also old memory are not expensive, she could get another 128mb or more for around 50$ (or even less at some places).

Since it will be open, I would do a little clean-up of the inside of the pc and take away all the dust in it, it will help too.

[RainbowTigress]

Yes, it is horribly dusty in there.  I think I found a replacement CPU fan and heatsink at Starmicro.com, with free UPS shipping.  Apparently the fan and heatsink are one unit.  What I am trying to decide is what kind of RAM she needs.  I know she can go up to 1 GB on the current board, and it can take up to a 512 MB chip.  What I am confused about is registered/nonregistered, ECC, and numbers some sites put after the RAM description, like this:  16X72-8, 32X72-8, 32X64-8, 128X72-8 etc.  Her motherboard manual says it uses 168-pin SDRAM DIMM Modules, single or double sided, but it's not as simple as just looking for that description.  I figure I'd better stay with PC100 also, although her system is capable of 133 MHz, I'm not sure if her CPU is capable of it and I'd have to mess around with jumpers.

Here are the ones I was looking at:

http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=276
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=275
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=279
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=280
http://www.starmicro.net/detail.aspx?ID=278

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  I can use all the information I can get!

[MissDoh]

As far as I know you can unscrew the fan on most of the heatsink so I think you get the fan alone but if it is really cheap you could of course buy it as a kit.  As for memory I think she should be able to use SDRAm PC133 in her system but I am no computer whizz.

If you are really unsure and don't mind going to the store simply take the memory in the actual computer to the store, they should be able to match it pretty easily and if they do a mistake you can easily exchange it for another one.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Might also be worth keeping your eyes open for a second-hand PC, especially if you know anyone whose firm upgrades fairly regularly to new machines.