Computer electronic component problem?

[paulmars]

I got my current used computer in June 2016. I installed win7 and the dell drivers, and updated the bios. There were issues with this computer and dell had replaced many. After much research and trying different ram, video and wifi cards I got a stable working system in Dec 2016. At this time I wiped HDD, reinstalled win7 and kept it updated with all the required patches. About a month ago I wiped the HDD and reinstalled everything again. I did this because it was getting slow and kwurky. This is the same as with xp. Before win7 I used xp for over 10 years and about once a year I would wipe and reinstall everything. When I reinstall, I always get the latest apps of everything that I use. Currently: TB, firefox, VideoLAN, Utorrent, AV, Easy Thumbnails, Libreoffice.

Sometime ago I started hearing 'pops'. I did not think this was caused by my computer. I have some wood furniture in my room and I rarely use AC, keep my windows open, and this is central humid florida. My room has wood walls and wood ceiling. It is not uncommon to hear noises like this. This pop sounds like wood cracking. I heard it maybe about once a month. When I am home, I do often leave my computer on all day to frequently check emails. So, im not in the room and it might be popping more frequently. In the last 6 months or so I think I have actually been hearing it less often. Im really not too sure, cuz I've gotten used to it and might not even noticing when it happens. Last night it happened again while I was using the computer and the screen went blank for a fraction of a second. I never noticed this before. This is making me think the noise might be from the computer.

Ideas?

thanks,
pa
Dell desktop optiplex 380 w/original Pentium Dual Core E5700/3.00GH z,2M,800FSB, Optiplex 380
PROCESSOR, E5700, 3.0, 2MB, WFD, 65W, R0.
It had no ram and I inastalled one four gig and one two gig DDR3
Integrated Video,GMA 4500,Dell OptiPlex 760/980
Integrated audio.
Using usb wifi. (using integrated or PCI wifi card caused occasional parity error. I've not had this error since I installed the usb wifi in Dec 2016.

 

[kellys_eye]

Poor soldered joints in the power supply could be a definite cause - the pops being caused by sparking across the joints under high load. Could also be a case of a loose power input lead (common).

Incorrectly seated multi-way power plug to main board?

Best check for loose connections and, if none found, do a simple swap out of the PSU module and power cable as a whole, just to be safe. It's not an expensive fix.

 

[dave9]

I would as soon assume the screen going blank was a problem with the monitor. PC instability tends to cause bluescreen crashes or reboots, not a state where it continues to run stable. Also it seems that the capacitor plague that used to effect PC motherboards, has caused quite a few monitors' internal PSUs to fail. In the last 5-8 years I've repaired a lot more monitors than motherboards, though cheap PSU are still a problem but generally those are low end aftermarket units, not OEM running a light load like a 65W CPU and integrated video.

Another potential source of popping could be your speaker amp, a power surge getting to it from an (electrically) nearby motor kicking off, if not A/C then refrigerator?