Very, very annoying crackling noise (vostro 1400)

So I've had this laptop since last October. It's worked without much concern until these last 2-3 days where I've become really annoyed by this loud noise (although I'm not sure what exactly inside is causing the noise). It's the same kind of noise you would hear from a loud hard drive that is running/copying a lot of files... but I'm barely running anything. The CPU has been going at about 2-6%, which is what it's been going at since as long as I can remember. And this sound is really beginning to irritate me to the point where I want to bash this laptop...

This noise tends to start off fairly quietly when booting up and then gets louder until it peaks (takes about 15 minutes). The noise continues all the way until the laptop is completely shut off.


Is it absolutely necessary that I send this in to Dell? If so, how long will I likely be without a laptop and will all the files on my hard drive remain there when I get it back (even if they have to replace it)?

 

probably have some application that is drawing information from the hard drive if u can't find out what it is try reinstalling windows

 

definitely isn't any software. I booted it up and loaded bios and just left it for a while... still came up.
the noise is more of a repetitive noise (more like a miniature motor type of thing) and when I run software i can also hear the hard drive loading at the same time.
any ideas?

 

It could be your fan, that would match how you say it gets louder over time as the inside gets warmer while turned on.

 

it most definitely is the fan. it's a lot louder now that it was before. do you think it will die on me within 3-4 days because i really need it right now.