Agh...Capacitor Squeal

Phelptwan

Phelptwan

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 20, 2002
Messages
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So I've got some nasty capacitor squeal coming from my computer. It's intermittent and only happens in one game so far (disciples II, hurrah for ancient games). I haven't been able to get it to happen in other games yet. And it only does it in a few screens of Disciples...
So the question is how do i start looking for the source of the noise? Any good way to narrow it down to a certain component (as everything is currently under warranty and could be rma'd)?

Specs:
AMD Opty 165 (@2.8ghz...tried removing overclock...didn't fix it)
DFI Lanparty Ultra-D
2x512mb pc3200 (@435mhz)
7900gto (no oc)
7900gs (no oc)
400gb 7200.10
160gb 7200.x
120gb ... good question
DVD-RW
Antec NeoHE-550 (I think this is the culprit)
 
torroidal assfger

does it happen with orthos? is it unstable?
 
ziddey said:
torroidal assfger
Click to expand...

What the hell does that mean??

I would guess one of your video cards, can you remove one at a time and see if it goes away?
Maybe try another psu, if you have one.
 
thats a ear fungus, it means that you're hearing things.

In all seriousness. It might be the refresh rate of your monitor, it must be a CRT though. Open your computer case and move ur ear around and try to locate which area is emitting the sound the most.
 
hardc0re said:
thats a ear fungus, it means that you're hearing things.

In all seriousness. It might be the refresh rate of your monitor, it must be a CRT though. Open your computer case and move ur ear around and try to locate which area is emitting the sound the most.
Click to expand...

So...what i've done thusfar:
removed both video cards...played game...still did it...(swapped them...switched them...blah)
also tried unplugging a few hard drives...and the rom drive
I guess i'll have to throw my backup psu in there next...agh...there goes 4 hours of careful painful wire hiding.
 
filthysanchez said:
or just leave the PSU out of case, and plug it into everything....
Click to expand...
You're one smart cookie there...glad i didn't tear into the damn thing...god i need sleep.
 
Well after a lot of serious testing and borrowing a friends system to throw stuff in and out of I have determined that it is indeed the 7900gto (must have been hearing things when i was swapping them around before). So i've sent in the RMA request to eVga and we'll see how things go. I wonder if they'll cross ship.
 
I'm just an EE freshmen, but AFAIK, lots of electronic devices squeal/buzz when it comes to resisiting/regularing current/voltage...the backlight in my LCD, my dimmer switch, my fan controller, all emit audible buzzes when they're doing a large amount of work (low brightness, low lighting level, low fan speeds.) Removing the "load" (turning up to max) gets rid of it.

*shrugs*
 
Caps don't usually squeal, it's remotely possible for a larger electrolytic cap to make a noise if it has a leak but that would only be very short lived.

What you are probably hearing is a poorly insulated inductor (coil) vibrating. These can be found on your motherboard, video card, or PSU and are usually part of the power regulation circuitry.

This is usually nothing to worry about as far as the functional status of your PC is concerned, although if you've got a sensitive ear it can drive you bonkers. :p
 
Blue Falcon said:
Caps don't usually squeal, it's remotely possible for a larger electrolytic cap to make a noise if it has a leak but that would only be very short lived.

What you are probably hearing is a poorly insulated inductor (coil) vibrating. These can be found on your motherboard, video card, or PSU and are usually part of the power regulation circuitry.

This is usually nothing to worry about as far as the functional status of your PC is concerned, although if you've got a sensitive ear it can drive you bonkers. :p
Click to expand...

Put it this way...I can here it with headphones on...it's goin back.
 
It could be the monitor dying, try a different one if you have one.

I have an old monitor my little brother uses, it squeals terribly and its hard for me to be in the same room when the monitor is on lol.
 
blu3_scr33n said:
It could be the monitor dying, try a different one if you have one.

I have an old monitor my little brother uses, it squeals terribly and its hard for me to be in the same room when the monitor is on lol.
Click to expand...

First...it's LCD's...second...dunno how the sound of the monitor dying could be coming out of the computer case...tricky one there.
 
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