- Dec 16, 2014
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starting from about 2 weeks ago, sometimes when I boot up the PC from shutdown state (power cable unplugged) or wake up from sleep after few hours long, my PC start up/wake up with a very loud noise of whirring/grinding/whining-like. zeeeee.... sounds like coil whine or refrigerator buzz but very loud, like small chainsaw
this happens most if I boot up/wake up the PC on night 11 PM and up. never happens on daylight time. I dunno if it's the cold? but I live in the tropical here, even if I use AC, the AC isn't that cold, my room temp is like 25 up with AC on (and it's summer right now here). I thought maybe it'll happen after I didn't turn on the PC after some time, maybe the PSU is weakening or something, can't suddenly supplying power after not being used a long time, but, no, I tested turning on the PC after several different hours of shutdown, it'll "grind" nevertheless, mostly after 11 PM. sometimes it doesn't always "grind" too. it's annoying to test coz sometimes it occurs sometimes doesn't. most of the time it'll "grind" if I turn the PC on after 11 PM
at 1st I thought it's the fans, did all "stop fan with pen" test on every fan inside the case, PSU included. nope. next I thought it's the HDD. after several tests (it's annoying, sometimes it "grinds" sometimes doesn't, so it took some nights to get result), it's not the HDD. I use a 500GB HDD (Hitachi, for OS, games, programs) and a 1TB HDD (Seagate Barracuda, data only, 4 partitions). in my test, I only plug in the 500GB, it grinds, only plug the 1TB it grinds too. I thought there's no way 2 different HDDs with different brand, age, time of usage break at the same time. HDD 500 GB is about 1.5yr, 1TB is 3yrs. then I test with a spare 250GB SATA2 HDD (age even older than 3 yrs, but never been used at all, just for file backup). plug in on the same power+SATA cable for the 500GB one to ensure best result. and yes, the PC grinds. now, with the spare HDD put outside of the case, on the table, I found out, it's NOT the HDD which "grinds"! the HDD is quiet
after further inspection, I found this "grind" noise comes from mobo south bridge area. I'm not sure if it's the mobo itself or the GPU emits the sound. if it's the mobo it's the chip or the area surround it (there are onboard soundcard chip, several USB pins here too). anyway I'm positive it's somewhere in the south bridge. north bridge is quiet, CPU, Cooler Master Hyper 212X Turbo, RAM all quiet. not the PSU neither, PSU is very quiet, not even hum, fan is spinning yet quiet, good fan
I'm more inclined to suspect mobo. at least from what I was trying to hear by moving my head up and down trying to pinpoint the noise with my ears, the VGA seems quiet while the grinding was occuring. GPU is idling anyway, I put the comp on BIOS screen. even the fans stop (coz it's TwinFrozr, don't spin until GPU temp is 60C up). at least I don't feel any heat from the GPU, and it seems the noise is not from there. though I can't say 100% for sure, since the GPU is so big it's almost covering half of the south bridge, it sure covers mobo chip. I gotta try remove the GPU and test the PC again to see, such hassle, and if it's actually weak PSU, then if I remove the GPU, there'll be no more big power load, right? then grind will not occur, right? then I can't determine whether it's GPU, mobo, nor PSU anymore. headache, hard to test. my gut feeling it's the mobo, noise sounds like loudest on the chip area. I tried to stick my ear to the reverse side of the case (where mobo is attached) sounds loud there too on the back, on the south bridge area
GPU is MSI Gaming 4G TwinFrozr GTX 970 (purchased on November 2014), mobo is Asus Z97-Pro (purchased on January 2015). PSU is Corsair CX600 builder series V2 600w 80 bronze (purchased 3 years ago, old I know)
so guys, I'm here to ask your expert opinion. what happens? why? is it dangerous if I just ignored it to be like that for the long run? what should I do? what's my best step to tackle this problem? got not much money here, and stuff price is been crazy for these couple of months in my country. gotta do the best to pinpoint which the correct part is causing the problem, if it PSU, then replace that. if it's GPU or mobo, they're still in warranty, though the service here is, I dunno, heard Asus sucks, MSI better
I'm thinking.. I dunno. PSU? does PSU can do that to mobo/GPU? I know about coil whine. even the GPU was having small coil whine, unnoticed if I close the case, but it's there if I play a game (100% workload), the GPU would emit a sizzling-like noise if I open the case and stick my head in, I can hear it. but that was only on the first few weeks, after I play games intensively, the coil whine gone completely now. mobo never had a coil whine
remember: the noise only happens (sometimes not always, but recently it gets more frequent) if I boot up/wake the PC on 11 PM and up WHEN at least one HDD is plug in, then the grinding begins. I also plug in a DVDRW, in fact, I never remove it all the time, grind or not, so I think this is unrelated. when I don't have any HDD plug in (DVDRW still plug in), it's quite! plug in any HDD, it'll grind. I think 500GB has the loudest grind, next is the 1TB (both are SATA3), the 250GB SATA2 has the least loud level (but still loud). so I think.. PSU maybe? weakening?
to be honest since I changed into this new mobo since the 1st time, there were already weird problems: at 1st the BIOS like to freeze, but after I do clear CMOS, it's good. some weird fan profile bug, but I think this is the BIOS or incompatibility with the cheap non-PWM fan. incompatibility with one of my LG DVDRW (now use different type LG DVDRW). 1st time use, got some weird occurrence in explorer, can't delete some files even after I hit the shift+del then enter 3 times, but then on the 4th try, it get deleted, after that been normal since. only once. freeze once on Windows, but maybe that's cause of that stupid USB modem (when the signal/ISP server get very slow/dead), conflict maybe. recently one of the USB2 slots on mobo often having "unrecognized device" every time I plug in my PS-to-PC converter gamepad, it wasn't like that before. weird thing is if I plug in other device like USB drive pen, it works. sometimes the gamepad works too if I keep trying plug in out in to that particular slot. I tried to plug the controller on the case USB slot (which is connected to mobo USB pins), it works immediately, no prob
seriously this Asus z97-pro giving me a lot of headaches. or is it coz the PSU? insufficient power? maybe 600w is like on the edge of acceptable, maybe the PSU components are weakening (3 yrs after all). or mobo just incompatible with PSU. or.. actually the mobo itself is the culprit, defect junk. so many problems, including this grinding noise now. or maybe it's the RAM (Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB 1600 Mhz)? incompatible with Asus Z97-Pro? really?
it was good the 1st time, of corz no grinding noise since January. it just started about 2 weeks ago, the 1st time happened, I woke up the PC from sleep on 11:30 PM (sleep from 4 PM if I'm not the mistaken), since then, the noise occurs from time to time. if I let it grind for 5 minutes and up (leave the PC on BIOS screen or Windows desktop), then shutdown, then turn on, no more grinding. everything is normal. performance is normal, all temp is good, not a drop at all. watching movies, internet, gaming for whole day etc.
if I let Windows (Seven Ultimate) start while grinding occurs, the Windows runs rather slow. start up programs on the system tray took some time to appear. try to open win explorer, also took some time, though once it's opened, if I accessed the 1TB HDD, it runs fine, access the 500 GB where Windows is, also runs fine, but slight slowing the 1st time if I collapse a folder tree for example. on shutdown, it'll stuck on shutdown screen pretty long time till the PC shut down
though, the 1st time this noise occurred, the Windows stuck on the welcome screen, I reset it a few times, still stuck. then after several shutdowns, I enter safe mode, it loads, enter Windows. then I reset, this time start Windows normally, everything run fine now, not stuck on the Welcome screen anymore. after this, if grinding occurs, Windows runs normally, albeit slower, and took time to shutdown as I described above
BIOS also reported overclock failure twice. it was the grind occurred the first time, see above. 2nd time was when I test with 500GB HDD only plugged in, the first time, not the recent one I did where I get all these results to report to you guys. 1st time usage after purchase, with the BIOS freeze up problem, this overclock failure message also sometimes appeared. so called overclock is actually only using the RAM XMP profile to activates it to 1600 Mhz. that's all. I don't do any OC at all, CPU nor GPU all runs on stock speed. that OC is only that XMP for RAM. so... problems lies with the RAM then? incompatibility? or again, PSU? insufficient power could lead to OC failure, right? this OC fail report seldom occurs, only when something major happens (freeze) or I (un)plug some hardware changing previous config
so what should I do, guys? gimme some idea. can't decide what to do. sorry for the long post. I'm trying to be as detailed as I could, leaving nothing behind, so you guys get better understanding of what I've been experiencing
thanks. hope I can solve this quickly, and other components don't follow suit and dying on me coz of that grinding
I'll add more details if I remember something important
this happens most if I boot up/wake up the PC on night 11 PM and up. never happens on daylight time. I dunno if it's the cold? but I live in the tropical here, even if I use AC, the AC isn't that cold, my room temp is like 25 up with AC on (and it's summer right now here). I thought maybe it'll happen after I didn't turn on the PC after some time, maybe the PSU is weakening or something, can't suddenly supplying power after not being used a long time, but, no, I tested turning on the PC after several different hours of shutdown, it'll "grind" nevertheless, mostly after 11 PM. sometimes it doesn't always "grind" too. it's annoying to test coz sometimes it occurs sometimes doesn't. most of the time it'll "grind" if I turn the PC on after 11 PM
at 1st I thought it's the fans, did all "stop fan with pen" test on every fan inside the case, PSU included. nope. next I thought it's the HDD. after several tests (it's annoying, sometimes it "grinds" sometimes doesn't, so it took some nights to get result), it's not the HDD. I use a 500GB HDD (Hitachi, for OS, games, programs) and a 1TB HDD (Seagate Barracuda, data only, 4 partitions). in my test, I only plug in the 500GB, it grinds, only plug the 1TB it grinds too. I thought there's no way 2 different HDDs with different brand, age, time of usage break at the same time. HDD 500 GB is about 1.5yr, 1TB is 3yrs. then I test with a spare 250GB SATA2 HDD (age even older than 3 yrs, but never been used at all, just for file backup). plug in on the same power+SATA cable for the 500GB one to ensure best result. and yes, the PC grinds. now, with the spare HDD put outside of the case, on the table, I found out, it's NOT the HDD which "grinds"! the HDD is quiet
after further inspection, I found this "grind" noise comes from mobo south bridge area. I'm not sure if it's the mobo itself or the GPU emits the sound. if it's the mobo it's the chip or the area surround it (there are onboard soundcard chip, several USB pins here too). anyway I'm positive it's somewhere in the south bridge. north bridge is quiet, CPU, Cooler Master Hyper 212X Turbo, RAM all quiet. not the PSU neither, PSU is very quiet, not even hum, fan is spinning yet quiet, good fan
I'm more inclined to suspect mobo. at least from what I was trying to hear by moving my head up and down trying to pinpoint the noise with my ears, the VGA seems quiet while the grinding was occuring. GPU is idling anyway, I put the comp on BIOS screen. even the fans stop (coz it's TwinFrozr, don't spin until GPU temp is 60C up). at least I don't feel any heat from the GPU, and it seems the noise is not from there. though I can't say 100% for sure, since the GPU is so big it's almost covering half of the south bridge, it sure covers mobo chip. I gotta try remove the GPU and test the PC again to see, such hassle, and if it's actually weak PSU, then if I remove the GPU, there'll be no more big power load, right? then grind will not occur, right? then I can't determine whether it's GPU, mobo, nor PSU anymore. headache, hard to test. my gut feeling it's the mobo, noise sounds like loudest on the chip area. I tried to stick my ear to the reverse side of the case (where mobo is attached) sounds loud there too on the back, on the south bridge area
GPU is MSI Gaming 4G TwinFrozr GTX 970 (purchased on November 2014), mobo is Asus Z97-Pro (purchased on January 2015). PSU is Corsair CX600 builder series V2 600w 80 bronze (purchased 3 years ago, old I know)
so guys, I'm here to ask your expert opinion. what happens? why? is it dangerous if I just ignored it to be like that for the long run? what should I do? what's my best step to tackle this problem? got not much money here, and stuff price is been crazy for these couple of months in my country. gotta do the best to pinpoint which the correct part is causing the problem, if it PSU, then replace that. if it's GPU or mobo, they're still in warranty, though the service here is, I dunno, heard Asus sucks, MSI better
I'm thinking.. I dunno. PSU? does PSU can do that to mobo/GPU? I know about coil whine. even the GPU was having small coil whine, unnoticed if I close the case, but it's there if I play a game (100% workload), the GPU would emit a sizzling-like noise if I open the case and stick my head in, I can hear it. but that was only on the first few weeks, after I play games intensively, the coil whine gone completely now. mobo never had a coil whine
remember: the noise only happens (sometimes not always, but recently it gets more frequent) if I boot up/wake the PC on 11 PM and up WHEN at least one HDD is plug in, then the grinding begins. I also plug in a DVDRW, in fact, I never remove it all the time, grind or not, so I think this is unrelated. when I don't have any HDD plug in (DVDRW still plug in), it's quite! plug in any HDD, it'll grind. I think 500GB has the loudest grind, next is the 1TB (both are SATA3), the 250GB SATA2 has the least loud level (but still loud). so I think.. PSU maybe? weakening?
to be honest since I changed into this new mobo since the 1st time, there were already weird problems: at 1st the BIOS like to freeze, but after I do clear CMOS, it's good. some weird fan profile bug, but I think this is the BIOS or incompatibility with the cheap non-PWM fan. incompatibility with one of my LG DVDRW (now use different type LG DVDRW). 1st time use, got some weird occurrence in explorer, can't delete some files even after I hit the shift+del then enter 3 times, but then on the 4th try, it get deleted, after that been normal since. only once. freeze once on Windows, but maybe that's cause of that stupid USB modem (when the signal/ISP server get very slow/dead), conflict maybe. recently one of the USB2 slots on mobo often having "unrecognized device" every time I plug in my PS-to-PC converter gamepad, it wasn't like that before. weird thing is if I plug in other device like USB drive pen, it works. sometimes the gamepad works too if I keep trying plug in out in to that particular slot. I tried to plug the controller on the case USB slot (which is connected to mobo USB pins), it works immediately, no prob
seriously this Asus z97-pro giving me a lot of headaches. or is it coz the PSU? insufficient power? maybe 600w is like on the edge of acceptable, maybe the PSU components are weakening (3 yrs after all). or mobo just incompatible with PSU. or.. actually the mobo itself is the culprit, defect junk. so many problems, including this grinding noise now. or maybe it's the RAM (Corsair Vengeance Pro 2x4GB 1600 Mhz)? incompatible with Asus Z97-Pro? really?
it was good the 1st time, of corz no grinding noise since January. it just started about 2 weeks ago, the 1st time happened, I woke up the PC from sleep on 11:30 PM (sleep from 4 PM if I'm not the mistaken), since then, the noise occurs from time to time. if I let it grind for 5 minutes and up (leave the PC on BIOS screen or Windows desktop), then shutdown, then turn on, no more grinding. everything is normal. performance is normal, all temp is good, not a drop at all. watching movies, internet, gaming for whole day etc.
if I let Windows (Seven Ultimate) start while grinding occurs, the Windows runs rather slow. start up programs on the system tray took some time to appear. try to open win explorer, also took some time, though once it's opened, if I accessed the 1TB HDD, it runs fine, access the 500 GB where Windows is, also runs fine, but slight slowing the 1st time if I collapse a folder tree for example. on shutdown, it'll stuck on shutdown screen pretty long time till the PC shut down
though, the 1st time this noise occurred, the Windows stuck on the welcome screen, I reset it a few times, still stuck. then after several shutdowns, I enter safe mode, it loads, enter Windows. then I reset, this time start Windows normally, everything run fine now, not stuck on the Welcome screen anymore. after this, if grinding occurs, Windows runs normally, albeit slower, and took time to shutdown as I described above
BIOS also reported overclock failure twice. it was the grind occurred the first time, see above. 2nd time was when I test with 500GB HDD only plugged in, the first time, not the recent one I did where I get all these results to report to you guys. 1st time usage after purchase, with the BIOS freeze up problem, this overclock failure message also sometimes appeared. so called overclock is actually only using the RAM XMP profile to activates it to 1600 Mhz. that's all. I don't do any OC at all, CPU nor GPU all runs on stock speed. that OC is only that XMP for RAM. so... problems lies with the RAM then? incompatibility? or again, PSU? insufficient power could lead to OC failure, right? this OC fail report seldom occurs, only when something major happens (freeze) or I (un)plug some hardware changing previous config
so what should I do, guys? gimme some idea. can't decide what to do. sorry for the long post. I'm trying to be as detailed as I could, leaving nothing behind, so you guys get better understanding of what I've been experiencing
thanks. hope I can solve this quickly, and other components don't follow suit and dying on me coz of that grinding
I'll add more details if I remember something important
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