Community Newsletter: Q&A: 7/21/06 Strange noises coming from my PC
- 7/20/06 5:37 PM
7/21/06 Strange noises coming from my PC
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 7/20/06 5:37 PM
Question:
Hi, I wonder if someone can suggest a solution. My computer (CPU P4, 2.39GHz speed, OS Win XP Home + Service Pack 2, system RAM 1GB) makes a, relatively speaking, loud noise, which can only be compared to the muffled noise one hears sitting in an aeroplane getting ready to take off. It goes on for a good 15 minutes' duration though not at a consistent pitch. Then it dies down and eventually becomes normal. I only noticed it recently since I installed a home network with a router connected to it by Ethernet connection. Although it will be a rash judgment to consider it the proven reason for the trouble. My network works great. I have two computers connected to this computer wirelessly (i.e., three computers on the network, only this one hardwire connected). Any suggestions and help will be appreciated.
Submitted by: Shafiq K. of the United Kingdom
See below or, for Barry’s answer, click here , and for and Dana’s answer, click here.
Barry's winning answer
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 7/20/06 5:38 PM
In reply to: 7/21/06 Strange noises coming from my PC by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Answer:
Shafiq, I think that you are probably correct that the noise is unrelated to the network addition of a router.
The first step is to find the source of the noise. The most likely culprit, by far, is a fan in the system. The second most likely culprit is a hard drive. I have to tell you, I service PCs, and I have seen a very large number of PCs in which the bearings in genuine Intel factory coolers (for example, heat sink and fan) have gone bad, and these fans make terrible noises when cold (especially in the winter in northern climates) but become silent after warming up, and my first suspicion would be the CPU cooling fan. But just about all PCs have at least two fans, one in the power supply and one on the CPU, and they may have as many as seven or so (potentially add two case fans, a chipset fan, a video card fan, and in some cases a second power supply fan).
The way to test a fan to see if it is the noise source is to stop it. While you could unplug one fan at a time, what I usually do is just stop the fan blades while the noise is occurring. If the fan hub is exposed, you can do this by putting your thumb (or a pencil eraser) on the smooth flat hub. Otherwise, I stop the fans by poking a “stick” into them. A screwdriver works if you are careful, but a non-conducting stick is better (a plastic stick, a pencil with an eraser at the end (but be careful of those with a metal band to retain the eraser) or even a “soft stick” like a soda straw can all be used. To stop the fan, poke your “stick” into the fan blades (it’s better to do this near the center of fan’s blades). For the fans inside the power supply, you have to poke the stick in through the air holes, and for this it is mandatory that the stick be plastic and not metal. You only want to test each fan to see if it is the noise source, so stop each fan in turn, see if the noise stops, and move on. Don’t keep any one fan stopped for more than 5 seconds, which won’t cause a problem for the fan or the item that it cools. If you stop the fan that is producing the noise, you will know it immediately.
If it’s not the fan, the next most likely cause is the hard drive. This is harder to test, but if the system makes the noise immediately at cold power-on, you should be able to tell if you disconnect the hard drive prior to power-on (obviously the system won’t boot windows that way, but it will still power up, and that should be all that you need). Pull both the power and signal (IDE or SATA) cables off the drive with the power off, then start the computer.
In both of the above cases (fans and hard drives), the problem, if that is the cause of your noise, is bad bearings, and normally the solution is to replace the device. Usually this is straightforward, but you can run into problems, for example, if you have a bad fan on a video card (I’ve had to RMA an ATI video card because of bad fan bearings, when it would have been better for everyone if they had just been willing to just send me .... even SELL me .... a new fan, which in this case was easily replaceable and a $3 item). If it’s a hard drive, the drive maker will RMA the drive if it’s under warranty, otherwise you are out of luck. Sometimes you simply make a decision to “live with it”, and sometimes a tiny (TINY) drop of oil in the right place can fix the problem, but the first step is finding the source of the noise.
It’s also occasionally the case that the noise is not coming from any mechanical source. If this is the case (e.g. none of the fans or drives are causing the noise), see if it’s coming from the PC “beep speaker”, which connects to the motherboard. Here, the test is to disconnect this prior to startup. This is usually easy on retail motherboards, but some OEM motherboards will combine the speaker connection in the same connector as other motherboard connections that are necessary to power up the system, which makes testing more difficult. You may also be able to test the speaker by using your ears to see if that is where the sound is coming from.
Very rarely I’ve heard reports of pure electronic components making noises, things like memory modules. This is fairly rare, and I don’t have any suggestions for you in terms of either locating it or resolving it. However, I have run into power supplies that make continuous audible noises from the power supply itself (e.g. not the fan, but, actually, the high frequency switching transformers in the power supply). In this case, all you can really do is replace the power supply.
Another possibility is that, in addition to computers, monitors have definitely been known to make audible high-frequency noises. These almost invariably come from the “flyback” (horizontal output) transformer, and if that’s the source, there’s not a lot that you can do, but changing the refresh rate or resolution might help.
Lastly, the problem can be coming from the PC’s sound system and speakers (not the “beep speaker” connected to the motherboard, but the main speakers connected to the PC’s sound card or motherboard sound system). The test here is to disconnect the speakers, but if that is the source of the problem, then the culprit is more likely the sound card (or equivalent circuits on the motherboard) than the speakers themselves. But occasionally the speaker wiring will pickup electrical noise from another device, for example I ran into a situation where part of a speaker system was placed close to a UPS unit (uninterruptible power supply) and was picking up hum noise by magnetic induction from the large transformers in the UPS. Moving the speaker unit (or the UPS) six inches fixed the problem, but it drove everyone nuts until we found it (and once found, there was no doubt about the source).
These suggestions should help. Good luck in finding your problem
Submitted by: Barry W. of North Canton, Ohio
Long shot
by Eldarwyn - 7/21/06 3:03 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Could it be related to Skype, if you've it running at startup? Just a long shot, although I've had the same problem with someone on my forum.
Could also be malware related, so in order to know for sure you could post an hijackthis log at one of the dedicated forums, like CastleCops, Spyware Warrior, Tom Coyote & others.
Read the instructions on their forum prior to posting a log.
Good luck. 
faint ticking noise
by ddubay - 7/21/06 3:59 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I asked my daughter to record some statements for a video I was creating. She used her computer and voice recorder software. With every recording there is this background ticking sound that I recognized coming from my IBM laptop. The clicks seem to be exactly one second apart, and that makes me think it is coming from the "clock chip" in the computer. Is that a reasonable explanation?
---Denis.
Fan Bearings
by paulmaine - 7/21/06 4:29 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
HI, I had the same problem, Mine was the chipset fan on the motherboard I couldn't believe a little fan could make so much noise, Good luck in fixing your problem, Cheers Paul,
puter noise
by fredcorallo - 7/21/06 5:23 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
could be that he set it to hibernate
Noise from PC.
by superman1 - 7/21/06 6:27 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
One thing to check is your wiresthat power the fans, Sometimes these will come in contact with the fan and you'll here the rumble noise like a prop. plane flying by, So pull the pwr. wires away from your fans.
Noise from PC on startup
by Scott.Kreisler - 7/21/06 6:54 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Two additional thought to Barry's excellent response. One is to check for noise from the CD/DVD drive. I have seen machines where these devices make considerable noise on machine power-up, which eventually goes away. The second point is to check for any foreign material, like dust or a bit of paper, that may have gotten caught in one of the fans (especially the power supply). A good rule is that you should clean (i.e., vaccuum) the vents, the system board, any expansion boards and all of the fans whenever you have taken the time to open up the case of a PC.
I have similar problem with my laptop
by mbatkinson - 7/21/06 7:47 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi. I have similar problem. That noise in and out with my laptop and i can have comfort use for edit music.
I have an HP Pavillion dv1535LA, OS Win XP Professional, SP 2, Intel Centrino M 1.73 GHz, 1 GB memory and 100 G Hard Disk.
HP phone support said to me that is a problem with the options of energy menager and sugested to me use the Maximum Batery or minimum energy manager, but this not fix the problem.
Maybe the only option is back the equipment for warranty (i buy this in march of this year) but my problem is that i need my equipment for my job and i need backup all the information and reformat the Hard Disk before send to HP for waranty.
Do you have another solution?
Regards.
Juan Antonio
HP laptops have a loud fan
by PortVista - 7/21/06 10:52 AM In reply to: I have similar problem with my laptop by mbatkinsonMost laptops have a loud fan that turns on when the temp gets too hot. That's why support told you to run it in low battery mode -- this actually makes your laptop a little cooler BUT also slower.
HP support do not fix my problem
by mbatkinson - 7/21/06 7:47 PM In reply to: HP laptops have a loud fan by PortVistaHi, Thanks for the answer.
I´d call in april (28 days with my new laptop) to HP Support for the problem and they said to me that the problem fix change the Energy Manager options. The same option that you said.
I changed the options and the problem stay.
Maybe my only option is make a backup and return the equpment for service... and maybe HP do not fix it... Sad... 
noisy PC
by Yeoville - 7/21/06 7:51 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Yes, my PC also sounded like a plane taking off. As it was still new I brought it back to the shop. The boss told me it was the fan, and they had installed a quiet one! It was noisier when the PC had warmed up.
I also get a loud humming when I play CDs. I now resort to copy the songs to my hard drive and play them from there to enjoy the music.
Noise from computer
by usm1pa - 7/21/06 7:52 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I had a similar problem and it turn out that the fan in my video card when it was cold it made a loud noise. Henry NJ
This computer makes the same sounds when...
by Candya - 7/21/06 9:19 AM In reply to: Barry's winning answer by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This thing makes the same noises. It's quite quiet right now but if I interrupt a process by trying to close a program (that just doesnt want to stop) or trying to play around with to many, or happen to stick something in the bad cd rom drive (that dont wanna open 100% of the time). or better yet you have something between windows 2000, me or XP you might be running into the 100% cpu usage when this happens (or better yet the supposed 100% when none of the processes are anywhere close to 100%. Sorry but im trying to cover every area I have encountered with the cpu airplane. After a more recent virus removal I havent encountered the airplane since. It's like an airplane that is picking up speed and going higher and higher into the sky. It takes several minutes for this one to smarten up. I think it's a toss between the fan and the harddrive. When it starts grinding then you have a bad problem snickers. If the problem gets much like my ex old refurbished dropped many times laptop that turns into a bad grinding when it starts up then start to worry *smiles, snickers and laughs.
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