Buzzing Noise

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

My computer is making an odd buzzing noise, and which spiked a few minutes ago. It seems to be working fine, temperature normal, CPU and memory usage normal, but the buzzing continues. Any ideas on what this may be?

[Mikeus Caesar]

Maybe something got trapped in the fan cover and is making a buzzing noise from hitting the tips of the fan?

Either that, or there's a flying insect like a bee or fly trapped in there.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Might be the case fan. They enjoy making pathetic noises yet posing no problems. Must be a sort of mechanical androposis.

ADD: Hey Mikeus!
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[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Well, it was running silently mid-use, then suddenly started to buzz, loudly, and there was a small noise I couldn't identify, and then I flipped the power switch. It just started again, a louder buzzing/humming noise. Built up, died away. It's not the fans, I turned them off and it continued. It sounds almost like a jigsaw or skillsaw cutting through a thin piece of wood. When I power off the computer, it gradually dies down to a slow whine (like powering off a power saw), and then goes away. It doesn't happen with the computer on standby. I'm not sure if my fan controller has power over the PSU fan, so that might be it, but I don't know.

[Whacker]

Just to be clear... This sound isn't coming from your speakers, is it? Or is it mechanical, from inside the case?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Just to be clear... This sound isn't coming from your speakers, is it? Or is it mechanical, from inside the case?

It is most definately from the case.

[caravel]

Check the graphics card fan and cpu fan as well. The graphics card fans in particular are often the cheaper sleeve type fans and will start to gyrate noisily after a year or so.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Check the graphics card fan and cpu fan as well. The graphics card fans in particular are often the cheaper sleeve type fans and will start to gyrate noisily after a year or so.

I've had the computer for little over two months or so, and my fan controller turned both these fans to 0%. Nothing happened.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I'm taking the side panel off to have a look around. (Note I'm on a different computer at the moment).

EDIT: I think it's coming from the area of the hard drive.

EDIT2: Order of events

1) Computer on standby (Everything's fine)
2) Computer powers on - still fine
3) Fans start - still fine
4) Seconds later - buzzing begins

Took the CD out of the drive. No change.

EDIT3: Yeah, pretty sure it's the hard drive, but what's wrong with it is beyond me. Help?

I downloaded Seatools from Seagate to test the drive.

[Xiahou]

EDIT: I think it's coming from the area of the hard drive.

That'd be my guess at this point. See what the diagnostics say, but a whining HD is something that always makes me nervous. That said, I had one before that I left run 24/7 for several months and it never failed until I finally decided to replace it.

[caravel]

Try removing the HDD from the cradle and powering it up in your hand, if it still buzzes then you know it's the HDD that's the problem. If it stops then it may be vibrating due to being loosely/badly fitted in it's cradle.

Note: Back up your important data ASAP.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

The buzzing seems to have stopped after I've let the computer run. All my data is safe. I'm running the Seagate tests right now, and it's fine so far. Thanks Caravel, I'll try that as soon as I can.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Be careful - it will shake itself to pieces if not replaced soon, resulting in the destruction of your PC as shrapnel flies everywhere.

Also, Hi Mouz.

[caravel]

The buzzing seems to have stopped after I've let the computer run. All my data is safe. I'm running the Seagate tests right now, and it's fine so far. Thanks Caravel, I'll try that as soon as I can.

This could point to it being the cradle, as those symptoms point to a loose fitting object ceasing to vibrate as it heats up and expands to fill the "gaps". Heat sinks often do this also, are you certain it's the HDD and not a heat sink?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

That's possible, as this computer is really quite cool most of the time, due mainly to the location of it. It's possible it is the heatsink, but I don't know if the sound was coming from there. It's gone now, but I'll check if it comes back.

Here's system temperatures:

System: 28C
CPU: 37C
GPU: 51C

[Papewaio]

Sounds more like the PSU.

It could be a loose connection between anything that is spinning and its housing / cradle to the case.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I thought it was the PSU at first too, but the sound was coming from the region of the hard drive, at completely the opposite end of the case.

[Ramses II CP]

If it's the hard drive it will, in my experience, fail fairly soon. Noisy drives are nearly dead drives. YMMV. Keep good back-ups and have a look at your warranty; every so often a HD rolls off the line with so small a fault that nobody notices until it fails at the end user. You might've just gotten unlucky, but your warranty should cover it.

If you suspect it might just be vibration in the case try switching drive bays, or tightening up screws.

My first suspect would've been the fans too, but usually if you open up the case and it's a fan you can tell immediately where the noise is coming from. It's a good thing when a fan fails in a noisy fashion, it's only dangerous when they go completely quiet and you're not watching the temp.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

It's running normally now, and has been for a few hours, so I hope it'll be OK. I don't have another place I can back up my data to right now, so it'll have to last. The only good thing is that it's a new computer, and the only files I lose I'll probably be able to replicate within a few days of failure.

Since it's normal now though, and is staying that way, it looks like I'm in luck.

[Whacker]

Evil_Maniac_From_Mars:

Just caught up. I concur with the others, beware, any wierd noise coming from your HDD is always always always always bad news!

1. Make SURE you've backed up your important data. Documents, saves, bookmarks, email, etc etc etc... Back it all up and verify your backup.

2. See if Caravel's suggestion is a spot on, it "could" just be loose connections causing vibration. If you can verify 100% that it's the case, you should be ok, but just keep an eye on things. If you are NOT able to determine it's loose screws, then consider yourself on borrowed time. Even if it stops rattling, doesn't mean that it's "ok" now. My experience with those tools from different manufacturers is that they're all bunk and do not give any real indication of your drive's health whatsoever, though almost always the SMART settings will go south very soon before mechanical failure. As others have said, YMMV.

Best of luck!

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I need it to hold out until I can get an external HDD. I'll probably end up getting it checked out tomorrow, to make sure it's OK.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

My C drive backup wizard requires me to insert a floppy to make a floppy disk. I don't have a floppy drive. How can I make the disc?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

I've seen this before. Your rig is full of bees.

Move away from the machine and run, run for all you're worth!

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

By the way, my hard drive just stood up to multiple stress tests, including one from nVidia. If anything's wrong with it, it's physical.

I am actually thinking at this moment that it may be the fan in front of the drive, which would explain the noise. I'll have to test that out.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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I'm not sure but can Daemon Tools or something of the sort fake a directory as a floppy drive?
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[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

This means I've backed up my entire drive - but I haven't got any way to boot it in the event of a failure.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Try Nero. It has a very neat full drive backup feature, which builds your backup on a botable DVD/CD.

I'm running on my same years old setup for three hard drives and two mobos.
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[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

It just so happens that I have Nero. I'm using the backup tool now. It's a beautiful program.


Thanks. :)

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Glad it works.
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[Ramses II CP]

You don't have a USB floppy drive? Very useful little buggers, cost about $15-$20.

Here's an example online, but you'd have to pay shipping:

http://www.buyextras.com/ioteoemusbe...FQk_gQodf0pfqQ