Egon, sounds as if you're almost, but probably not entirely, as computer challenged as I am. One of the cooling fans in my computer recently, and suddenly, got noisy. I unplugged all the cables, hoping I could remember where to plug them back in later, and took the computer to the biggest electronics store in the area. The technician plugged it in, ran fine, with no noise. So back to the house and plug everything together and just marveled at the fact that it worked. But I soon learned that the fan ran quietly when I first turned on the computer, then after 3 to 5 minutes, it got noisy. So, unplug everything again and back to the big electronics store. This time I got a different "technician", probably older than me, and probably knows less about computers than I do, and that's unbelievable for someone working in such a position! He couldn't figure out how to open the case, so I showed him. I'd also told him which fan was noisy. He couldn't figure out how to get to it, so I finally figured it out and showed him how to get it out. Then he took the old fan and went looking for a new one; came back with one similar but with a different kind of plug on the end of the wires for $10.99 plus tax. Then he tells me there's too much dust around the shroud for them to work on it, but that they have an air compressor out back if I want to take it back there and blow it out for $20. I told him I had a compressor at home, and I brought it home disassembled, cleaned it up, put it back together (with the old fan of course; didn't buy the new one because it would not plug into power where the old one did), and got it working again. So now I get smart, right? I'll call my computer manufacturer and order an OEM fan from them and put it in myself. Naturally, I got a lady whose accent I could barely understand, and she couldn't understand my Texan. But she finally decided that they had that fan in stock for $40 plus $8 shipping and handling. I told her to forget it, I'd buy another brand of computer first. So she put me on hold, came back to say I could have it for $33.50, including shipping and handling. Still too high, I thought, but I told her I would take it. Then she starts trying to sell me memory upgrades and everything else she could think of, while I'm trying to give her my name and address to ship the fan. She finally gives up on selling me anything else, but there was no way she could ever understand my name and address, even with me speaking slowly, one letter at a time. Eventually, I told her to just forget the whole thing unless she had someone there who spoke and understood English. So she put another lady on the phone and I gave her my name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and credit card information. That was on 3/9/05 and she told me the fan would arrive on 3/16/05, gave me an order number and told me I could check status on their website. Problem solved . . . I thought. On 3/16/05, I checked the status and it showed the order was cancelled on 3/15/05; no explanation at all. So . . ., I took the old fan out again and went to another electronics store and lo and behold, they had a fan exactly like the old one, except for the brand name, right plug and all for $9.99 plus tax. It's silent, works great, moves more air than the old one, and all's well with my computer once again. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Needless to say, there is one computer manufacturer, and one local electronics store that are highly unlikely to ever do business with me again. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif