Is my dell whistling?

[windie]

Hi, I have a 6400 dell inspiron. Its been some time now, and I have noticed that it makes a very low sound whistling sound of some sort. Its not constant, but it like starts then dies down. And when it gets a bit high, it kinda irritates my ears, the sound of it. It isnt loud, but it ,, hmm hard to explain, its like a high frequency whistling (like dogs whistles or something). Any ideas? thanks

 

[theworminator]

Based on the amount of moving parts in your computer, it's either your fan or your hard drive. Is there a noticeable pattern on when it start up and stops? Like, only when the computer starts up or when the fans kick in?

 

[windie]

hi thanks for replying. Well im sure its not the fan or HD, because both were replaced 2 days ago. The sound i described was even before the replacement.
There is no distinct pattern to it. The noise is the same wether the fan is on or off. The high pitched sound always seems to be there but not noticible. It kinda like fluctuates, higher and then lower, etc etc. Man, its really giving me a ringing in my head, or maybe im just going paranoid lol.

 

[windie]

Well I seem to have found 1 possible reason for it, the power state that is set. I used keep power plan to balanced. I put it on 'power saver' plan and the high pitched sound reduced. I put it to 'high power' and the sound increased. Separately, I reduced and then increased the 'maximum processor state' and this did effect with the sound. I have no idea why this is so. any clues?