Weird Sound While playing BF3

[orkie]

Hey everyone, I build my pc for the first time last year January and I have a bit of a weird problem.
Sometimes while playing Battlefield 3, I get this weird sound which feels like a fan is hitting onto something and something rattling. It doesn't always happen and has only happaned while playing Battlefield 3. I always switch off the case fans to see if it's some random cable touching them but the sound is still there all the same. My cable management is a bit of a mess as I didn't do it properly the first time and then never bothered to improve it.
So I'm slightly confused at whats causing it, but given that it only happens during BF3 which is quiet an intensive game I guess, I suppose it's the proccesor cooler/ graphics card? If I stop playing BF3, after a short delay of about 30 secconds, the sound goes away.

I recently did a dust clean off which might have something to do with it I guess but I can't seem to understand why it only happens during BF3.

Any help/suggestions?

My build

i5 2500k processor
Asus P8P67 Motherboard ( I still haven't exchanged it for new one, it's the "faulty" sandy bridge ones)
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS3 DDR3
1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3
650W Antec TruePower New, Modular
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±R
2GB XFX HD 6950, PCI-E 2.1

Thanks

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hello,

To me it just sounds like your power supply fan is kicking in. I had a seasonic modular PSU once and the fan would only kick in when I started gaming out (drawing a lot more power).

If I stop playing BF3, after a short delay of about 30 secconds, the sound goes away.

This seems to confirm it.

 

[orkie]

Sounds reasonable. I just hope the ratling noice doesn't mean there is something inside the fan.

Also does that mean that the Power supply fan only starts working when a certain temparature is reached, or When a certain wattage use is reached?

 

[Chainzsaw]

AFAIK the power supply fan will kick in once it starts getting a certain temperature/ wattage to keep the PSU cool.

Did you ever notice the PSU making the sound when you first put together your computer? If not I wonder if your PSU fan is on its way out. It's highly possible with even brand new equipment.

 

[orkie]

Nope, no unusual sounds until these came along.

Are PSU fans replaceable if that is to be the problem?

 

[Chainzsaw]

No. PSU fans are not replaceable. You might be able to replace it, however you will void your warranty.

I don't reccomend doing it just for that fact.

 

[Ohmybad]

run a cpu/gpu stress test and see if you get the same sound, just make make you can recreate the issue other then playing BF3... Heaven DX11, 3Dmark11 and prime95 should be able to stress / pull enough juice.

I had 1 wire come out of the modular cables for my PSU and i RMA'd it... I could have super glued it back in or something, but it's better to be safe then sorry!

 

[orkie]

I did some testing today and I think it might be the graphics card's fan or w/e cools it.

First I did the 3Dmark11 basic test and the sound started during the 2nd graphics test, the sound stopped shortly after the test was over.

Then i did the prime95 test and also downloaded HWmonitor to check temperatures.
At idle cpu cores temperatures seem to be around 36-40 degrees
The graphics card temps when not used sometimes stay at around 43, sometimes at around 53, slightly confusing ( Is the graphics card ever fully idle?)

During the prime95 test (which i left running for about 25 minutes), the sound didn't come so I guess that rules out the CPU and heatsink. I use the stock heatsink and CPU temperatures were at around 70-75 during the test though.

Then I did the Heaven dx11 test and the sound came at around stage 9/26, I tabbed out to see graphics card temps and they were at around 70 degrees at that time, the sound got slightly stronger during the test and when the test finished, this time it toke longer for the sound to fully go away, it slowed down and stopped when the graphics card temps were at around 52 degrees.
The max temperatures recorded was 77 degrees for the Graphics card during the test.

I'm not sure how reliable HWmonitor is or if it's not just coincidance with the graphics card temperatures and such.

What do you guys suggest I do now?

 

[orkie]

Bump - Any further advice? I don't really wanna cause damage to anything if this could lead to something more serious than just a annoying sound. I've even stopped playing BF3 just in case

 

[Chainzsaw]

Hmm not sure what else to say? Can you give an audio recording of the sound?

I know my GPU's fan gets somewhat loudish once I start gaming out, however it's quite normal.

 

[orkie]

Hey, I did an audio recording and uploading it as I type this. However i recorded with camera on HD and my slow upload speeds is going to take around 30 mins to upload to youtube.

Anyway I'm even more sure it is from the graphics card as to get the sound to occur I ran Heaven dx11. The first time I ran it today, the sound hardly came up, however graphics card max temp reached 70 degrees, lower than last time's.
So I put AA 8x on settings and ran it again, this time the sound came to it's full power and when I checked, GPU temperature was at 79 degrees max.

It's 1 minute and 5 secconds long but the worse sound is at the last 10 secconds of the video, the rattling noise starts then.
The quality of the sound was pretty good on my computer, hopefully youtube won't mess it up.

When the video uploads ( In about 30 minutes after the time on this post) Here is what the link would be:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmYd6AP-e4Y

 

[orkie]

Uploaded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmYd6AP-e4Y

 

[Chainzsaw]

Ok finally listened to it. That does sound kind of bad. It almost sounds like static to me.
But I definitely hear the fan hitting something.

You might want to RMA it just in case. Maybe send XFX the link and let them hear the sound as well.

 

[orkie]

I think I solved my problem.
The cause could be 2,3 things I stupidly did/ didn't do.

1) My case side panel has a fan with a really annoying wire that I guess I could have accidently positioned to exactly where the graphics card fan is.

2) I found a random small plastic cover thingy stuck inbetween graphics card and motheboard. Have no idea where it is from or how it got there

3) I toke the graphics card and gave it a full dust off, when i saw a camouflaged,"peal plastic cover before use". Anyway I did it to find it was a cover of the whole bottom of the graphics card except the fan itself. I'm not sure if it was causing any problems though as there didn't seem any way for the plastic cover to intefere with fan.

Anyway ran Heaven Dx11 twice with high settings and did not get the sound so hopefully it was one of those 3 and it is now alright. I'll do some more tests while playing/bencharmarking just to be sure.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Chainzsaw]

Nice. Glad you got it going. Yeah you have to be careful with some GPU's - they come with those annoying camo clear plastic sticker things.