Whistling PC

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Ok, I've never seen or heard this before, but my PC seems to have started making a faint but very annoying whistling sound which varies with CPU usage (when the CPU is intensively used the pitch of the whistling changes).

What in the world could be causing this? Can the CPU itself emit a whistling sound? It's an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ or 3300+ or something like that.

Anyone have any idea where this sound can be comming from? It's really starting to drive me insane.

Thanks

[street1]

Cpu fan would be the first thing to check.

May just need cleaning.May be going bad.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

I thought so at first, but as I said the sound changes immediately with CPU usage (even if a minimize a window, during the half second of the minimization animation the sound changes instantly at the start and end of the animation), so it almost would be impossible for the fan to be doing that, it certainyl couldnt change speeds that abruptly and spontaneously.

[street1]

Vibrations from failing Mosfets just don't seem likely but,who knows.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

Does this help: I turned off the PC, all fans stopped, the noise continued, I unplugged the PC, the noise continued, I pressed the power button with the PC still unplugged to drain all remaining power and the noise stopped.

[Gabriel]

Does this help: I turned off the PC, all fans stopped, the noise continued, I unplugged the PC, the noise continued...

This might be something you overlooked - Have you tried Disconnecting the Display? - I have quite few Screens in my lab that do High pitch (The pitch varies on what is displayed on the screen).


Cheer,
Gabriel

[Platypus]

Some people's hearing is unusually extended at the high frequency end (women usually have the best high frequency hearing), and they can find the whistle from switching power supplies very irritating. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact source of high frequency sounds.

I had a Gigabyte motherboard with "twitters" in the CPU regulators that were dependent on CPU activity. If the source can be positively identified as the PSU itself, then there have been some known whistling or squealing problems from active PFC (power factor correction) units, even in quality brands.

I turned off the PC, all fans stopped, the noise continued, I unplugged the PC, the noise continued, I pressed the power button with the PC still unplugged to drain all remaining power and the noise stopped.

That suggests the whistle may be from the PSU's standby 5V supply, rather than active PFC, which will not be operating when the mains is unplugged.

The standby supply will be operating while the PSU is in "soft-off" mode, and will continue to run for a while after the power is disconnected, while the reservoir capacitors hold charge. If you press the power button to give the PSU a start signal, the capacitors will be discharged immediately and the whistle will therefore stop.

If it is the standby, there may be a minor fault, such as an improperly potted coil or component off value, or the standby supply may simply be designed to run at a frequency you can hear eg 18KHz, in which case a different PSU would be the only solution.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

I also wanted to add that it's a very high pitch and faint sound, many people cannot hear it at all, but I hear it enough for it to be really annoying, but then again, I can also hear when someone closes their car door from quite a few houses away and even through the sound of a fan, PC and movie playing which also no one else hears. Often we're watching a movie on my projector and I say "the delivery is here" and my friends say like "the doorbell didn't ring" but I had just heard the car stop in front through the sound of a movie, fan, and inkjet printer printing, one was like "how the hell did you hear that?" and my other friend said "oh he has super hearing" or something like that lol.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

OMG please help! It sounds like a god damn siren to me! Is it the mosfets? Are those in the psu or on the mobo?

[gemstone]

Have you looked into the possibility of EMI being picked up by either the onboard speaker\beeper or your sound system, it's a problem I have come across from time to time and find rerouting of soundcard in\out wires and the addition of a ferrite core around the motherboard to case connections can make it go away, I'm thinking interferance since it is still there when eveything is turned off, which eliminates a lot of potential causes.

[street1]

This super sensitive hearing issue needs attention.Read all of the below site.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-mode_power_supply

In thinking back you could have a loose mounting screw anywhere in the mounting

of your hard drive any optical drives like CD or DVD etc.....

Many times a hard drive with loose mounting screws can cause a whine of a sort from the vibration.

You could get the similar noise from a fan mounting bracket or screw.

[street1]

I posted too close to (gemstone)the speaker/beeper is a solid issue I didn't think about.

[ClickHere2Surf.com]

street1: What do you mean by this super sensitive hearing issue needs attention?

[slgrieb]

I think what Street means is that if you insert a pair of knitting needles into your auditory canals until you encounter painful resistance, and then push them in another quarter inch more you'll have resolved lots of annoying noise issues. But, I could be wrong.

Another possible solution is to check your BIOS and see if you have any utilities like Asus Q-Fan enabled. These settings will adjust fan speed based on CPU load, and will cause the kind of symptoms you describe.

[xpuser357]

[QUOTE=slgrieb]I think what Street means is that if you insert a pair of knitting needles into your auditory canals until you encounter painful resistance, and then push them in another quarter inch more you'll have resolved lots of annoying noise issues. But, I could be wrong.

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