High pitched sound coming from PC

RMFRMF
edited April 2008 in Hardware
Hi folks,

I have a problem that I'm hoping someone may be able to help me with. For the last couple of months, a high pitched whine has been coming from my PC. The sound seems to be affected by whats on-screen at the time.

For example, when I'm in my bios on the main tab it's there, but if i flick to any of the other tabs it stops immediately. At first I thought that it was coming from my CPU cooler but unplugging it makes no difference. I've unplugged all of the other fans in the case to be sure so it seems that it's coming from my 8800GTS. I've made sure that it's all cleaned out and I tried powering it with a different connecter from the PSU but the problem remains. It's like having a bad case of tinitus.

What's more annoying is that my girlfriend cannot hear it. It seems to be outside of her hearing range. Lucky her.

Anyway, what could be causing this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. It is extremely distracting.

TIA.

Comments

  • RMFRMF
    edited March 2008
    Just a qick note...it's not the sound that you get when you don't plug the power into the card.

    It's all connected up properly and has been working fine for months. It's a totally different sound.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited March 2008
    It is probably your motherboard itself, hard to know exactly which component. I had an ASRock board that would make a variety of high pitch whines depending on which USB devices were plugged in. I have also had a Gigabyte board do the same sort of thing although the noise changed with CPU load as opposed to USB devices. I've also noticed that when doing volt-mods to video cards they will start to squeal when the voltage gets too high or too low, so I wouldn't be surprised if your video card or some other component would do the same thing.

    Or it could be a totally different noise than my experiences, it's hard to describe an exact sound in words. I assume you have checked to make sure it is not electrical noise coming through your speakers.
  • RMFRMF
    edited March 2008
    mas0n wrote:
    It is probably your motherboard itself, hard to know exactly which component. I had an ASRock board that would make a variety of high pitch whines depending on which USB devices were plugged in. I have also had a Gigabyte board do the same sort of thing although the noise changed with CPU load as opposed to USB devices. I've also noticed that when doing volt-mods to video cards they will start to squeal when the voltage gets too high or too low, so I wouldn't be surprised if your video card or some other component would do the same thing.

    Or it could be a totally different noise than my experiences, it's hard to describe an exact sound in words. I assume you have checked to make sure it is not electrical noise coming through your speakers.

    I think that you are dead on. To be honest, it sounds like it's coming from the northbridge area of the board but being such a high pitched noise it is hard to pinpoint exactly where it's coming from. I unplugged all f my USB devices for the hell of it but it made no difference.

    Would this be caused by the PSU or a fault with the board itself?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited March 2008
    Are you by chance using a CRT monitor? I once had that had that problem. I was electronic emissions from one of the external cables bleeding over to the CRT monitor cable.
  • RMFRMF
    edited March 2008
    Leonardo wrote:
    Are you by chance using a CRT monitor? I once had that had that problem. I was electronic emissions from one of the external cables bleeding over to the CRT monitor cable.

    Nope. LCD. As I said, this problem is new. It was all working fine up until a few months ago. No hardware changes at all.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited March 2008
    Is it possible to get a recording of this sound, and where abouts the tower where it's coming from?
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited March 2008
    My son had the same problem, I couldn't hear it but it drove him daft. Then the PSU packed in. Luckily it didn't do any damage. A new PSU and all was well again.
  • RMFRMF
    edited March 2008
    Unfortunately, I do not have the means to record the sound. I tried to capture it with my phone but it didn't pick anything up at all.

    The sound is definetely not coming from my power supply. My power supply is located at the bottom of the case, wheras the sound seems to come from the top area. It's definetely not coming from any of the case fans or CPU cooler either. I'm really baffled and frustrated by it. It is actually giving me headaches.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2008
    Anything with a capacitor can exhibit an effect called "Capacitor whine," where cheap and/or failing capacitors produce a high-pitched squeal just within the hearing range of a majority of humans. It's persistent and obnoxious.
  • RMFRMF
    edited March 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    Anything with a capacitor can exhibit an effect called "Capacitor whine," where cheap and/or failing capacitors produce a high-pitched squeal just within the hearing range of a majority of humans. It's persistent and obnoxious.

    :bigggrin: You're not wrong there. Why would it be affected by what's displayed on screen though which seems to be the case?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2008
    It's hard to say. It's possible that whatever is happening on the tabs or screens you're referencing operates in a different area of the motherboard or the video card, and is producing the hum. Not all the capacitors in electronics are at full capacity all the time, and some may even be entirely discharged.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited March 2008
    RMF wrote:
    :bigggrin: You're not wrong there. Why would it be affected by what's displayed on screen though which seems to be the case?

    Is it such that even just moving the mouse around changes the frequency or volume of the whine?
  • RMFRMF
    edited March 2008
    CB Droege wrote:
    Is it such that even just moving the mouse around changes the frequency or volume of the whine?

    It doesn't seem to be affected by the mouse at all.

    The sound kicks in when on the main tb in my bios, or when the loading bar in Vista appears. The frequency seems to then only change which whatever is on the screen.
  • contradelcontradel
    edited March 2008
    This is exactly the same problem as mine. While in the main tab of BIOS it says the sound, tabbing around makes it stop.
    Also when under heavy load of games (doesn't stop immiediatly with games though) or just software like bencmark, or rendering a movie, makes it stop.

    It's a high pitch, which is very annoying. I just changed motherboard, and the high pitch started. But it seems like the CPU has something to do with is aswell. My temperatures are fine: 30-33 degrees
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited April 2008
    This sounds similar to an issue I had with whine from coils in the VRM area of the motherboard. Some DFI boards suffer from this, including my DFI Infinity. It was odd.. whenever I used the 'select' tool in paint shop pro, I'd get a high pitch squealing noise coming from the motherboard. I also notice it at 100% CPU load with Prime95. Certain things set it off.

    I would try to install a PCI or spare PCI-E graphics card to ensure it is definitely your 8800GTS. If it is, it may be time for an RMA. It may work just fine for years with the noise, but I really don't think that it should be doing that.
  • RMFRMF
    edited April 2008
    Thanks for the reply. I've already tried changing the card and the noise was still there so it's definetly not the 8800GTS. I'm pretty certain that it's the board. I've actually almost learned to live with it now. I'll get round to changing the motherboard sometime soon though.

    Thanks for the replies.
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