High-pitched whine from PC?

F

Flapjack

2[H]4U
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Apr 29, 2000
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I really have no idea where to put this, since I don't know which component it's coming from.

Basically, my PC just started to emit a very high-pitched "whine". It's not the typical fan whine you may be thinking of... it's more like the test sound from the old TV stations. In fact, I've heard older tube TVs make the same sound. It's also very similar to the ringing you get in your ears. I really have no other way to describe it.

Here are my system specs, maybe that will help:

- Athlon X2 3800+ @ 2.4ghz (cooled by Zalman CNPS7700)
- EPoX EP-9NDA3J motherboard
- 1GB PC3200 RAM
- ATI Radeon x850 Pro @ x850 PE (Zalman cooler as well)
- WD Raptor 74GB SATA
- Hitachi 80GB SATA
- 2x Maxtor 200GBs in RAID0 stripe (IDE)
- Seagate 250GB IDE
- Plextor 16x DVD-RW DL

I don't know if any of this is relevant, but I did stop all the fans in turn with my finger to see if they were making the noise. They weren't.

I'm worried that the electrical storm last night that shut my PC off did something to the electronics on the board.....
 
The whine you describe is often heard from dried up electrolytic capacitors. If, possibly, there was a surge of power into a filtering cap, and it shorted and blew... It might start to emit the sounds you're hearing.

This is the only REAL component that I know of that actually emits sound from an overload.

The same thing happened to me with my Asrock board, the reason I upgraded to the A8N-SLI (and got a good power surge bar)
 
Or could be the chipset. My chipset fan does a high pitched whine whenever it is stressed.
 
i'm seconding the psu, my antec is loud as hell when the room is silent. shut the computer down and see if you still hear it.
 
I've had powersupplies squeel, its a really high pitch squeel (I compare them to the old black and white tubes from T.V.'s, they used to make the same squeel before blowing).

Try a different powersupply, see what happens.
 
It's starting to warble now.... I'm gonna see if I can get a recording of it and post it here.
 
My little pocket recorder just can't seem to pick it up... maybe it's too high pitched.

I've had the computer off since last night. Before I shut if off, it was a steady whine. Since I've turned it on today, it was quiet for a minute or so, then started whining, then after 2-3 minutes it started warbling. It's pretty bad now.

I'm gonna shut it down and pick up a PSU tonight to see if that's it. Hopefully it's not something on the mobo......
 
let us know

My PC also has a high pitched sound when I stress test it, and it also has me worried. And I have no idea where it's coming from.

I also have to RMA my x1800xt since it's artifacting on 2D! It started working normally again, and now it's artifacting again. I might consider even sending the mobo back for a check as well.
 
It was in fact the PSU. Must've been that lightning strike I mentioned.

I can finally sleep at night again! :)
 
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