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elbryan42

Attention Hardware gods! A question....

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First of all my specs:

Pentium 2 300
Abit BH6 MB

I came home today to find my computer making an annoying high pitched noise. You know, the kind your monitor or tv sometimes makes when you turn it on. Whenever ANY processing is going on, even scrolling this page, the pitch gets higher and then down when the processing is done.

So any ideas? Is my processor ready to go? Could it be my chipset fan? If there is a problem, how long does my computer have to live?

Thanks in advance.

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There might be better boards to ask this on, but what do I know?

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It's prolly something to do with a moving part in your machine (hard disk or fan). I've never heard of a cpu or motherboard chip itself making any kind of noise.

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already checked out the hard drives. i'm just assuming it's the chip since the sound changes whenever i do something.

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Originally posted by Shotgun Bill
on my old montior it would squeek when you scrolled down a web page

Dude, don't let your pet mice play around your copmuter.

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Whenever I start up this computer after it's been shut down overnight, the back part of the tower begins to enimate a low hum and grow higher with more intensity. I've been told it is dust collecting in the power supply fan. Now all I have to do is gain enough confidence to open up the tower and clean out the power supply box assuming I will even be able to put the cover back on properly.

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Originally posted by stphrz
It's prolly something to do with a moving part in your machine (hard disk or fan). I've never heard of a cpu or motherboard chip itself making any kind of noise.

That's probably the case. I know that whenever my HD does some processing it makes kind of a low clicking-type of noise while it turns. My CD-ROM drive does a "whirr" sound when the CD spins. Out of the back comes the faint but clearly audible hum whenever I start my computer up or when some programs are starting up; that's gotta be the fan.

At least that sounds like the case to me.

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I hate to agree with Maonth, but he's right. Even if you only bumped it up to 600MHz, some all-new hardware wouldn't cost you much at all.

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when zdoom tries to force 1024x on my monitor it makes a weird noise, like whining. Display's alright though...

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Originally posted by pritch
when zdoom tries to force 1024x on my monitor it makes a weird noise, like whining.

Yeah, well, displays usually make weird high-pitched noises. The actual computer doing it is another story entirely.

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Something similar randomly happens to my old computer... like every 1/30th time I start it.

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The CPU can, in extreme cases, make noise. Since a CPU operates by pinging electricity back and forth between contacts, theoretically, enough current through a contact would cause it to vibrate and make noise. However, for this to happen, you'd have to remove the heat sink and fan, which I imagine you haven't done. Also, the contacts on the CPU would have to be long enough to vibrate at a wavelength the human ear could hear, meaning they'd need to be at least three inches long.

In other words, open up that bitch and clean that shit out!

DC

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Originally posted by Doom-Child
The CPU can, in extreme cases, make noise. Since a CPU operates by pinging electricity back and forth between contacts, theoretically, enough current through a contact would cause it to vibrate and make noise. However, for this to happen, you'd have to remove the heat sink and fan, which I imagine you haven't done. Also, the contacts on the CPU would have to be long enough to vibrate at a wavelength the human ear could hear, meaning they'd need to be at least three inches long.

That CPU would overheat :P

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Originally posted by fodders
As this is a hardware thread, thought I would post info about this cool new keyboard here virtual keyboard

Keyboards, printers, scanners etcetera are peripherals, not hardware.

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Keyboards, printers, scanners etcetera are peripherals, not hardware

What??? You're silly Cren.

Yeah they are peripherals, but they are also hardware. (ie peripherals are a subset of hardware :P)

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[edit]GODDAMNIT!!!!! WHY'D YOU HAVE TO EDIT IN THE MIDDLE OF ME MAKING A POST???????????? I WASTED SUCH PRECIOUS STRENGTH AND TYPING TIME TO MAKE A POST ONLY THE EDIT IT TO ABOUT 1/5 THE ORIGINAL SIZE OF IT!!!!![/edit]

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GODDAMNIT!!!! MY MOUSE SLIPPED!!!!

AND YOU'RE STILL SILLY!!!!

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Originally posted by stphrz
GODDAMNIT!!!! MY MOUSE SLIPPED!!!!

AND YOU'RE STILL SILLY!!!!

Heh

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Originally posted by pritch
If you beat me to 1000 posting like that caveman I will not be happy!

Maybe. You're still one day ahead.

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What you describe is not fan noise. It would be more expected to come from a monitor. The TV sound you mentioned is caused by the 'horizontal oscillator' circuitry and hardware. The horizontal oscillator provides the signal for sweeping the electron beam in the CRT (cathode ray tube) from side to side and is in the audio range. The sound itself is caused by vibration of mechanical components including wire coils and picture tube when they are 'excited' by the alternating magnetic fields resulting from the alternating current in the horizontal oscillator circuitry.

That being said, your noise, if coming from the computer and not the monitor, should be generated by some oscillating signal in a component / circuit which again has some degree of coupling to a physical surface which then emits the sound. I don't know of any circuitry operating in the audio range though, even old computers have busses in the megahertz range (waay above audio). BUT....I did have a 486/50 DX some years ago which did in fact make some sort of faint high-pitched sound from the motherboard and no one knew why. It was definitely related to cpu and memory use, and as I was running finite-element analysis software and it would "crunch" on problems for hours sometimes, I could put my head down by the computer and listen to it make sounds which changed in pitch and pattern as the software ran through various functions.

The comment a few posts above about "electricity pinging back and forth between contacts..." and "has to be at least three inches" is incorrect. Electricity does pass through the pins on the cpu package, if those are the contacts referenced, but if a cpu pin is free to vibrate audibly, there will be intermittent electrical contact and the CPU will not function. But.....a piece of wire the length of a cpu contact pin, much less than 3", can in fact, if free, vibrate in the audio range.

A guess - if the sound is new, it's probably not the CPU, more likely related to the power supply.

Other poster mentioned "back of tower making a low hum, growing higher...". Yes, that is a fan noise and cleaning it to eliminate unbalance could help. The basic problem is probably that the motor bushings are loosening up a bit and the part which rotates actually vibrates around within the bushings. One of my computers does that at times, then it clears up. Cleaning the fan helped and it's still running.

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yes, the sound may be powersupply. that high pitch sound is common when capacitors, and other parts, charge. larger capacitors make a bigger sound. though many times that sound is too high for many of us to hear. i would guess it is the powersupply and if not then the motherboard. personaly i would have to heard this sound to know if it was what i think it is. it could be as simple as a fan or hard drive

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Originally posted by elbryan42
First of all my specs:

Pentium 2 300
Abit BH6 MB

I came home today to find my computer making an annoying high pitched noise. You know, the kind your monitor or tv sometimes makes when you turn it on. Whenever ANY processing is going on, even scrolling this page, the pitch gets higher and then down when the processing is done.

So any ideas? Is my processor ready to go? Could it be my chipset fan? If there is a problem, how long does my computer have to live?

Thanks in advance.


I think your computer is broken.

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Thanks! I think it may be the power supply myself. The machine just turned itself off. Well, there's $50 down the drain...

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Originally posted by Crendowing
That's probably the case. I know that whenever my HD does some processing it makes kind of a low clicking-type of noise while it turns. My CD-ROM drive does a "whirr" sound when the CD spins. Out of the back comes the faint but clearly audible hum whenever I start my computer up or when some programs are starting up; that's gotta be the fan.

isn't that the case with all/most computers?

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