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My equipment is as follows: I have a Prestige Ser. No. 301525-8 and I am using Smart Edit 6.1 and Arabesk 2.1. I have an 80GB hard drive and have upgraded to 256MB of RAM . Also, I have a Pioneer DVD DVR-104 with firmware 1.41. My problem is as follows: A few moments after starting my Prestige a new noise that sounds like a DVD spooling up occurs. However, there is no disk in the DVD drive. (At first I thought the noise was from the hard drive.) After a another few moments I can turn off the computer normally by using the track ball to click the "off" button on the monitor. After a few moments I can restart the computer and this noise does not occur. Am I in imminent danger of a hard drive crash, a cooling fan failure, a DVD drive failure, or what?

Tom
The noise and characteristic you describe, I have never had with my MS equipment, but I had the exact same on my PC. In my case it turned out to be one of the cooling fans. Intermittent faults, which yours sounds as though it could be, can be a bit of a pain to locate.

Since it was still relatively new, I took it back to my PC provider and they confirmed it was a fan, cleaned out the PC, applied a little lubricant and it has been OK ever since.

If it is a fan, it is very unlikely to have a catastrophic failure, they can operate in a noisy condition for a long time. If you take the cover off the unit, you might be able to tell where the noise is coming from.

However, in your case it might just be the HD, it is difficult to tell. If it is the HD, you need to back up all your data ASAP and change the HD.

Ian

It does sound like a fan problem.

I am unfamiliar with how many fans the Prestige uses.

Likely places are near the power supply and at the motherboard (for the processor chip).

If the fan cooling the motherboard goes you can quickly fry your motherboard, not good.

If you are knowledgeable with electronics you could open up the unit and investigate.

If not, you might consider having someone who does do this from a local electronic repairman or MSUS Boulder.

Cooling fan noise at start up is common on the Avio but despite the fan being the same type, is less common on the Prestige. Later Avio and Prestige (Plus) models have the main fan mounted on a bracket off the metal chassis, early ones are mounted directly onto the chassis at the rear right (looking from the rear). Some models have an additional processor fan and of course there is a fan in the power supply. However, the main fan is usually the culprit and more likely to cause problems on early models. I use a very light aerosol oil (WD40) with flexible tube to deliver a very brief squirt into the fan bearings. You will need to remove the cabinet top to access this. If you have not attempted to remove the cabinet before, take a look here
http://www.dalco.co.uk/prestigekronavio2upgrade.html

Martyn
Dalco uk