Freezing w/ High Pitch Hum

--I have recently built a new comp with the following specs:

-Core i7 920
- Radeon 5850
-650w corsair psu
- corsair 6gb tri channel XMS
-Gigabyte X58A-UD3R mobo
-Win 7 pro 64
------------------

--For the past few weeks the computer
has been running fine. Its important to keep in mind that after a good solid 1.5 weeks of running this new comp, everthing has been running great and no additional software / hardware has been added. Just this morning I turned on my computer, and within 15 seconds of reaching the desktop, my computer froze. No blue screen of death, just a frozen desktop. The mouse cursor was unmovable , no keys functional... it pretty much just looked like a took a screen shot of my desktop.

--A few hours later I decided to play some Bad Company 2, and within 5 minutes of game play, my comp froze in the same fashion except this time there was a high pitched humming noise coming from some component inside the case I couldn't identify. The symptoms were the same this time, a frozen (almost screen shot like) screen with a still image, no functional keys or mouse cursor. The whole computer froze, not just the program. None of the sounds in the game were repeating/looping as happens in other type freezes, the only thing that could be heard was a high pitched hum from inside the case.

I ran windows diagnostic memory test to find nothing. I was going to run memtest86 but on their homepage it says that the most recent version 3.5 has issues with 4+ gb of ram... so i scratched that plan...

So whats the faulty component(s)? The problem sounds sort of similar to a bad Nvidia 8800 GTX I had a while back on a completely different mobo / build, only in the respect of the freezing.. when my old 8800 went bad, the whole screen would freeze, mouse cursor not working and all, but the whole screen would turn purple, and its not doing that in this case. I would only have the issue of the freezing when the GPU was being used extensively, but I know that this isn't the case here b/c the problem happened this morning after the computer off all night.

Now I know that this is slightly off topic but I might as well put it in here.... my sata WD 250gig HD recently has started making loud clicking noises randomly, much louder than the normal clicks it makes when its in use. Could this be a HD related issue? Bad HD? Could this be the source? Sorry for so much info its just that there's so many components that could be the source of the issue I'm freaking out trying to narrow the selection down. Im not about to reboot windows b/c ive read that so many people have had low sucess levels with fixing problems by rebooting windows... 90% its a hardware issue. In addition like i said... no additional software has been added and the comp has been running fine up until today.. If the problem happened once.. fine... but twice in 4 hours? DoubleyouTeeEff?

Thanks to all who read this. Any help / imput would be GREATLY appreciated Thanks.

The high pitched sound could be the fan on the video card if it's overheating. Can you remove the side panel and listen to narrow down the sound? Do you have the Catalyst Control Center installed to monitor the GPU temp?
You could also try removing some RAM (maybe run one stick at a time; if all is well, add another stick, and so on until you're fully loaded).

the video card was not overheating. This happened from windows desktop when i turned the computer on after it sitting all night. And usually my GPU temps dont reach over 57C. I don't have state of the art cooling, but i do have an antec 900 case with some good ventilation

Also, i don't have supplementary ram to test out like that. Is there another program like memtest86 that is known to test 4+ GB of ram successfully?

There is a 4.o version but I don't know if it addresses the 4+ GB issue:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Syste [...] st86.shtml

Sorry....thought your RAM might be three 2GB sticks.

In general though, has anyone ever heard of anything similar happening? Whats your best guess as to what this could be? I'm about to do the tests you recommend and well find out soon, but I'm curious as to which of the choices, Mem, Video, HD etc. you most lean towards.

If you have another SATA cable, try that and also try moving to another SATA port on your MB.

A write sector error basically means your HDD is craping out on you. I can certainly understand your confusion in regards to the error message. At this point there are just two things to consider:

1. If error message is correct, you do have a bad sector. This basically means reading and writing to the/those sectors is either impossible or not always availble.

2. If the error message is a false positive, then RAM and/or PSU are the next suspects.

I'm not dismissing your statement about the people having problems with the software being dysfunctional, rather I'm trying to help you see that there is a possibilty of a failing hard drive. A failing hard drive may work at times and seem flawless, but then it could also cause the symptoms you're experiencing.

Regardless of what the test results were, a ticking/clicking noise coming from the hard drive is always bad. The only sound you should hear are the discs in the HDD spinning.

Moving on...

Have you had a chance to test your RAM? Keep in mind that just because you see all physical RAM in BIOS and that you load Windows succesfully, that doesn't always mean your RAM isn't faulty. Running MemTest to rule out failure here is equally important in the troubleshooting process.

NOTE: Memtest must run for at least 10-12 passes through to be effective. It would be best if you just let it run overnight or all day when you leave for the day.

As for the GPU observation, good call. A GPU also has RAM, and should the RAM on the GPU itself be bad, that could also explain your situation. Furthermore, a GPU isn't an uncommon hardware to fault for freezes. Since your mobo doesn't have an on-board video chipset, do you have another GPU you could try? or perhaps, although less effective, could you try your GPU in another computer?

Lastly, you PSU. We haven't explored the possibility of an underpowered PSU. 650W only tells us the maximum output of the unit. It is important to know the difference in the types of power supplies; basically the amount of +12V rails and their max amperage load.

For example: Your 650W PSU MAY only have one +12V rail and that rail may have max amp. rating of 20A. If you exceed the 20A, you would be overburdening your PSU. That being said, take a closer look at your PSU just to know what it can handle, better yet, post what the PSU sticker shows.