Good morning all !! I've got a question regarding my 6 month old computer and wondered if there's anyone here that might know what's going on with it. Yesterday it started making this weird high-pitched buzzing/chirpping sound after it had been on for about an hour. Then later last night, the sound became constant the whole time my daughter was on it, which was a good 3-4 hours. Turned it back on this morning, and it's doing it again.
I thought maybe it was the hard drive firing, but it's not a whirring noise that we're noticing. Anyone have any idea what it might be??
No, nothing blocking the fan Sparky....that was one of the first things I checked. So far this morning, it seems to be happening intermittently.....last night it was constant. I run a program that supposedly checks the hard drive to warn me if it's about to fail....ran the program and nothing's showing up, but I don't know how reliable the program is that I'm running.
If it is a squealing from a moving part, it has to be one of the drives or a fan
I would still suspect a fan first. I have a fan in one of my desktop computers that automatically speeds up/slows down relative to temperature. When it slows down, it starts growling really loud. I gotta replace it.
You might have three or even more fans in the computer, especially if its only 6 months old. There would be a fan in the power supply, maybe a big fan in the case, one over the processor and maybe even a smaller one or two on other chips on the motherboard like for the graphics processor. Sometimes those little tiny fans can make the most noise because they have to turn so fast to move much air.
If it starts getting consistent enough to catch it, I would leave the case open so I could maybe then tell where it was coming from. If I still couldn't tell where it was coming from, I would take a wooden dowel, smooth the ends over, place one end on a fan or hard drive in question, and place my ear on the other end. It is amazing how much you can hear through a piece of wood. Wood is non conductive so you don't have to worry about it shorting anything out either.
My bet is still one of the fans but only careful listening will let you know for sure.
Good tip Web! You can also use a screwdriver that way to listen to which lifters are nocking in your car by puting the handle part to your ear and the metal part on the heads.
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WebGuy wrote: If it is a squealing from a moving part, it has to be one of the drives or a fan
I would still suspect a fan first. I have a fan in one of my desktop computers that automatically speeds up/slows down relative to temperature. When it slows down, it starts growling really loud. I gotta replace it.
You might have three or even more fans in the computer, especially if its only 6 months old. There would be a fan in the power supply, maybe a big fan in the case, one over the processor and maybe even a smaller one or two on other chips on the motherboard like for the graphics processor. Sometimes those little tiny fans can make the most noise because they have to turn so fast to move much air.
If it starts getting consistent enough to catch it, I would leave the case open so I could maybe then tell where it was coming from. If I still couldn't tell where it was coming from, I would take a wooden dowel, smooth the ends over, place one end on a fan or hard drive in question, and place my ear on the other end. It is amazing how much you can hear through a piece of wood. Wood is non conductive so you don't have to worry about it shorting anything out either.
My bet is still one of the fans but only careful listening will let you know for sure.
Thanks WebGuy.....I didn't realize I might have more than one fan in this.....I'll check it out further when I get home later today. As far as I could tell, the squealing sound seems to get more consistent the longer the computer is on. Now that I know I have other fans, I'll have to look for them and check them out too. Good tip about using a wooden dowel....I'll remember that.
