In the fall of 2004 we bought 20 Dell Optiplex GX280 PC's (Wow, has it really been almost 3 years now?). Other than an initial hard drive issue, they have worked relatively well. This morning, however, one of the PC's was running sluggish, and the processor fan was as loud as a 747 during take-off. This is actually the third computer in this batch which has had this problem. Since I've been through this process a couple times before, the solution was fairly simple. However, the first time this happened, it took several calls to Dell tech support, and a couple of different replacement parts sent before we actually pinned the problem down.
For some reason, don't ask me why, the cause of this problem is the processor heat sink. Luckily I now have one of these computers currently unused, so I can swap parts out to troubleshoot. I've also been lucky enough to find a support technician at Dell that agrees with this diagnosis without making me jump through too many hoops.
So, if you are having a similar problem, most likely the cause is not the processor, processor fan, motherboard, power supply, or even the fact that you use the computer as a foot rest. If you can convince Tech Support to start with the heat sink, you will probably save yourself a lot of time. Oh, and be sure to tell them you will need a few extra tubes of thermal grease... and don't forget to use it.
Remember... I'm the first to admit that I don't know much about anything. If you find something that I got wrong, or some different way of thinking of things, please let me know.
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