Here is my story:
This is a system I put together in 2009 and upgraded since, but the PSU is still the original. It's an Ultra LS 600W ATX PSU. It came with the case, also Ultra.
For the past week or so my PSU has been making a very high pitched whining noise. The noise only occurred when there was something on the display. There was a ticking noise that happened constantly that would turn into a loud high pitched whine over time. When I scrolled up and down a webpage, it would make a ticking sound like a loud mousewheel. When I opened a 3D application like a video game, the high pitched whine noise turned into a whirring fast ticking noise. I ignored it for the most part but it kept getting louder and started to hurt my ears.
Eventually I couldn't take it anymore.
I unplugged it and took the side off the case, removed everything, and started to power everything individually, listening for the sound. It didn't make the sound so I hooked everything back up outside the case. I listened for the sound and verified with 100% surety it was coming from the PSU. I took the PSU apart and looked for anything out of the ordinary but everything looked fine as far as I could tell. Anyway I put everything back in the case and powered it back on and it would still make the noise. I dealt with it all day Sunday and went to bed that night. Monday afternoon I got home and went to turn on the computer. I flipped the PSU switch in the back and it popped so I turned it back off and unplugged it. I hit the switch on the back a few times and hit the power button on the front of the computer to make sure any stored charge was gone and plugged it back in. I flipped the switch again and it threw a spark so I turned it back off and haven't touched it until tonight.
When I got done with some errands today I went to get on the computer. I flipped the switch in the back, turned on the computer, and it turned on just fine, but when it went to start up, it said that Windows could not start and recommended that I do startup repair. I start the repair and it says it's repairing errors in my hard drive and it could take an hour. I walk away for at least 30 minutes and come back and the computer is running but the display is off. I took the side back off the case and restarted the computer. When I restarted it, I noticed that the graphics card (Nvidia EVGA GeForce GTX 260) fan wasn't going and there was no display. It also wouldn't POST. I checked all the connections and everything was fine. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and noticed that the graphics card was heating up but the fan wasn't spinning and there was nothing on the display. I let the card cool off for about an hour and came back, started it back up again, and it worked! Only when I got to where it is supposed to boot up Windows it said Disk Read Error, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart.
Then I put in the Windows 7 startup CD and went to do the startup repair again. I left for 10 minutes, came back, and the same thing had happened. The display was off but everything was running. The graphics card was hot to the touch. I turned it off and let the graphics card cool off again. I tried to boot it back up again but now the fan on my GPU won't spin and it won't POST or display anything. I let it sit for about 5 minutes and noticed that the GPU is getting hot but the fan is not running and there's still no display.
Please help. I have no idea what to do at this point. I don't have any spare parts or any money to buy new hardware (thanks Obama).
This is a system I put together in 2009 and upgraded since, but the PSU is still the original. It's an Ultra LS 600W ATX PSU. It came with the case, also Ultra.
For the past week or so my PSU has been making a very high pitched whining noise. The noise only occurred when there was something on the display. There was a ticking noise that happened constantly that would turn into a loud high pitched whine over time. When I scrolled up and down a webpage, it would make a ticking sound like a loud mousewheel. When I opened a 3D application like a video game, the high pitched whine noise turned into a whirring fast ticking noise. I ignored it for the most part but it kept getting louder and started to hurt my ears.
Eventually I couldn't take it anymore.
I unplugged it and took the side off the case, removed everything, and started to power everything individually, listening for the sound. It didn't make the sound so I hooked everything back up outside the case. I listened for the sound and verified with 100% surety it was coming from the PSU. I took the PSU apart and looked for anything out of the ordinary but everything looked fine as far as I could tell. Anyway I put everything back in the case and powered it back on and it would still make the noise. I dealt with it all day Sunday and went to bed that night. Monday afternoon I got home and went to turn on the computer. I flipped the PSU switch in the back and it popped so I turned it back off and unplugged it. I hit the switch on the back a few times and hit the power button on the front of the computer to make sure any stored charge was gone and plugged it back in. I flipped the switch again and it threw a spark so I turned it back off and haven't touched it until tonight.
When I got done with some errands today I went to get on the computer. I flipped the switch in the back, turned on the computer, and it turned on just fine, but when it went to start up, it said that Windows could not start and recommended that I do startup repair. I start the repair and it says it's repairing errors in my hard drive and it could take an hour. I walk away for at least 30 minutes and come back and the computer is running but the display is off. I took the side back off the case and restarted the computer. When I restarted it, I noticed that the graphics card (Nvidia EVGA GeForce GTX 260) fan wasn't going and there was no display. It also wouldn't POST. I checked all the connections and everything was fine. I let it sit for about 10 minutes and noticed that the graphics card was heating up but the fan wasn't spinning and there was nothing on the display. I let the card cool off for about an hour and came back, started it back up again, and it worked! Only when I got to where it is supposed to boot up Windows it said Disk Read Error, press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart.
Then I put in the Windows 7 startup CD and went to do the startup repair again. I left for 10 minutes, came back, and the same thing had happened. The display was off but everything was running. The graphics card was hot to the touch. I turned it off and let the graphics card cool off again. I tried to boot it back up again but now the fan on my GPU won't spin and it won't POST or display anything. I let it sit for about 5 minutes and noticed that the GPU is getting hot but the fan is not running and there's still no display.
Please help. I have no idea what to do at this point. I don't have any spare parts or any money to buy new hardware (thanks Obama).
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram