Electrical noise/squeal, is this normal?

J

jmartis

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Aug 9, 2008
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When playing 3D games (especially when "calculating shadows" in Trackmania) or even minimizing/maximizing windows, I can hear a noise/squeal coming from the PC.
On closer inspection it seems to come from both the graphics card and the PSU.

It's not very loud (as in quiet) but noticable.
So the question, is this normal?
 
I doubt it will be coming from 2 components at the same time as it isnt something you should expect (ie isnt normal).
The chance of 2 items developing a fault that sounds the same at the same time is very low.

Squeal is most often associated with a transformers metals plates vibrating against each other.
The cause for this is a badly made transformer but it may run fine forever, just annoyingly so.
Alternatively it could be the sign of another fault.

If the noise is coming from the PSU I would get it exchanged to be safe
If its the gfx card, change it if the noise is too annoying.
Anything "making the noise" that is under warranty should be exchanged.
 
My rig has made that noise since it was new..I have not been able to determine where it comes from. My old Shuttle system did the same thing - it came from the PSU but the system worked fine for the nearly 4 years I used it.
 
It's not really annoying - only hisses silently and is just audible most of the time, only when performing specific graphics tasks it tends to whine/squeal a bit more loud.

I'm 90% sure it comes from both the PSU (muffled sound) and the GPU (sharper buzzing sound), both emit the same pattern of the noise.

May winding the power cable once around a ferrite ring help to reduce the noise, or can some bad things happen?
 
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