What is that sound coming from?

the only time I've experienced that sort of noise, it was actually the monitor. If you turn it off, does the noise go away?

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The end is nigh.. (For this post at least) :smile:

I have no idea. It never even crossed my mind to check the monitor. I'll try that when I get home (I am at work now)... any other suggestions?

'fraid not... I've never had that high-pitched thing... All the usual grinding/whirring noises, but never that. Even worse, I think it's usually only corrected by getting a new monitor.

I know there are options in BIOS do do with electrical interference, <b>AGP spread spectrum</b> or something, but I really have no idea whether they'll help at all, or even if I'm remotely close..

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The end is nigh.. (For this post at least) :smile:

you may have a short...

I have experienced this noise in the past...i was doing a volt mod which required grounding 1 of the processors pins...it created a high pitched noise...i had effectivly shorted 1 of the pins...after i put a resistor between the Vid pin and the ground the noise went away...


Proud owner of DOS 3.3 :smile:

Assuming I do have a short... where would I look to fix it? I haven't done any modifications. I just dropped the CPU in its place and lowered the locking arm. I guess it could be a mounting screw... but none of the screws extends past the metal ring in each hole. I could try finding some of those little red paper washers though. The thing is that everything works perfectly... at least everything that I have used. I haven't used the IEEE1394 ports yet. When you had a short, did things still work fine?

I guess I could test the short theory by taking everything out of the case and placing them on cardboard, plastic CD cases or antistatic bags and seeing if the sound is still present. Thanks for the option... any more ideas anyone?

I had a similar problem with my old monitor. When it is first turned on and the computer is booting up it will make that sound till windows loads up then it just stops. Was really weird :X

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bloops!

poor quality power supplies do that sometimes.

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ah! Very good recomendation...

I second that...

Yes removing the board from the case will rule out a short...

Another recomendation...unplug your hard drives (from ide and power) see if you still get this noise...


Proud owner of DOS 3.3 :smile:

I think it might be a 7,000 rpm cpu fan whining at him. I had one for 1 day. Sounded kind of like a jet engine. When it goes away it's spinning down to lower speed and then well you get the picture.

With the computer on and the case open <i>very gently</i> apply pressure to the center of the fan (if you can get at it) to slow it down a tad and see if the pitch of the whine drops a little. Actually you can test every fan in the computer like this as long as you can get at it.

If anything this little test will rule out a fan as the culprit.

EDIT: Oops I just reread the original post and the cpu was the same. Oh well, might be the northbrdge fan. Might not. :cool:
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by confoundicator on 08/29/03 05:27 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

What brand Psu are you using? Also how many watts?

I think you'll find it's the Hard Drive. When I first got that drive I noticed a very high pitch whining noise, probably due to the 7200RPM spindle speed. however I just learned to ignore it and now I can hardly hear it anymore.

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i agree, my WD raptor SATA 10000rmp also has that high pitch sound, but then on the other hand windows, progs and games loads faster then hell. I solved the problem by installing case fans that was even louder ^^

Only parts I have had that make noises are: fans, hard/cdrom/floppy drives, and PSUs (even while the fan isn't spinning).

Fans and drives are easy to check...stop the fan or unplug the drive.

But my guess is if it's an annoying high-pitched airy noise, that would be a bad PSU. I had a cheapo PSU that worked fine for a year then it started making a high pitched-airy noise...after about a month of the noise it blew out and took a few parts with it.

Well I am back from vacation. The Grand Canyon was a lot of fun. I still haven't had a chance to try anything out, but I'll do that when I get home tonight.

To answer questions, The power supply I have is 350 watts, and at the time I bought it (2 years ago) it was really good. I think that it is a Topower, or maybe high power... I can't remember the brand, but I guess after 2 years even a decent power supply could start having problems. As for things that take power in my system, I have the hard drive, a CDRW, motherboard with GF4Ti4200, and a modem. It has no floppy drive, zip drive, DVD drive, second hard drive, nor a big power hungry video card so I don't think that it is under powered.

I'll try turning off the monitor, unplugging the hard drive, then if that doesn't work, taking the motherboard out of the case. I guess if it still whines after that, it would be the power supply.

As for any recommendations about it possibly being a fan, I already stopped each fan by unplugging them and it didn't stop the noise. It doesn't sound real loud like a jet engine (I already had a CPU fan like that once and I replaced it) It is a soft high pitched sound that is very piercing. It borders on the human audible range. I am guessing that if it was pitched any higher, only a dog would be able to hear it. As for drowning out the noise, that is hard to do as I can hear the noise through almost anything. Only ear plugs really worked. And I do not want a noisy computer.

I sure hope that it isn't the hard drive. I don't care how fast it is, I am returning it or throwing it away if it is the culprit. Having a fast computer is only nice if you can stand to use it. I hope that it isn't a common problem with Western Digital drives. This is my first purchase of a WD drive because it was recommended so much. Before, I have always gone with Maxtor and have never had a problem. Anyway, before I speculate any more, I'll have to test things out.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll let you know what I find out after playing with it tonight.

from the description it doesn't sound like a noise caused by moving parts - more some dodgy component. Fans just start making grinding noises when they're having problems...

I'd be suprised if it's a fan or hard disk.

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The end is nigh.. (For this post at least) :smile:

Oh the hum of the monitor, how many fond memories it brings up. Way back in grade school I used to bum around in the computer lab after school and help shut down the Apples and Laser(sp?) clones when the lab closed. How did I easily know where to look for a computer that was still running? By the hum of the monitor my friend.   Those were the days.

That reminds me, I sure am glad that color printers still aren't based on ribons. **ROFL** What a bloody stupid idea <i>that</i> was.

Oh I'm such a nerd some times.  

<font color=blue>If you look <font color=purple>The Devil</font color=purple><font color=red>®</font color=red> straight in the eye and only see yourself then you must be standing in front of a mirror.</font color=blue>

Have you found the solution to your problem yet? I read many post and never found an answer to my issue that is similar to yours. I've read your post and even the most recent one when you returned from vacation....I tried the same things that were recommended and have found that the noise is definitely coming from this round black thing with a small hole on top. When I put my finger over it, it somewhat mutes the sound. You can't unplug the thing, it's soldered to the board.

Before I knew where the noise was coming from, I came across a post that mentioned this piece, but now, can not find it.
My computer will not get passed the "compaq" display screen, nor are the F keys working, so I can not adjust anything but what's inside the box.

Does anyone have any suggestion?

Thanks,
kkhickey@yahoo.com

Do you by any chance have another PSU to try? I don't think top-power is a very reliable brand of PSU.