Wooohah
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Thursday, February 02, 2017 0:08 PM
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Noticed some weird sounds recently. Computer was having some issues so I had to transport them a few times physically in my car to shops. After the last time I transported it I can't help but noticing it has had a few odd noises. It does not happen frequently.
First two times was a little buzz sound. half a second long and I've so far heard it twice. Today the computer had a few weird sounds when I was starting up a game, it buzzed lightly for about 1.5 seconds. Also had a little clinking noise that sounded somewhat like when a Hard drive head is clicking.
Fans seem to be spinning normally, fan speed is all correct, I don't know of really any moving parts apart from fans and the hard drive. The sounds happen randomly and for such short amounts of time I can't pinpoint where they're coming from. Could the vibration and movement of the car have caused something to come loose? It was transported upright in the back seat within the Cases manufacturer box.
Someone suggested it could also possibly be the PSU, but I'm unsure as I can't pinpoint the problem.
I run a hard drive for just general misc stuff, and its for the most part empty so Its not as easy to troubleshoot as if it were the main boot drive. I'm running a long Seatools test right now, it passed all the basic tests.
Should I be worried at all? I don't see any wires near any fans either.
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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JosephL
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 1:29 AM
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Hard drives are very sensitive to car rides. The clicking and buzzing definitely can be a symptom of the hard drive. You can try grabbing the inside cardboard from a paper towel roll and getting a close listen to the components to see where the sound appears to be coming from. If you have not had any issues then it is probably fine.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 1:49 AM
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Yeah... I'm listening to hard drive failure sounds online and the first two buzz sounds sounded definitely like a hard drive problem. The clicking sounded also definitely like a hard drive problem. I'm running 4 Noctua NF-S12A fans and 3 Corsair fans, I don't think the Noctua's would get rattling from a few car rides, The Corsairs seem... fine. Two are radiator fans and I don't see any change in the way they spin.
And no, I don't think i've had any noticeable issues. The Hard drive passed all the simple tests and a long test through Seatools. If the hard drive somehow got physically damaged in the car ride, would a diagnostics tool such as Seatools be able to pick it up?
Thanks for the reply, appreciate it! Using empty paper roll to pinpoint where the sound comes from is a great idea, been trying to figure out how to pinpoint the sound...
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 1:51 AM
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Does it sound like any other parts could have issues from car rides? The only other moving parts apart from my case fans and my hard drive would be my EVGA 1070 FTW and a EVGA 750W G2 PSU.
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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JosephL
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 1:59 AM
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Generally hard drives would be most susceptible as they have very fine needles and other small moving parts. It is hard to say if Seatools would pick it up. If there were some damage that occurred to large sector portions maybe but often times a physically damaged hard drive may not be picked up in a scan. Besides the fans on a GPU most of the parts are not movable. PSU relays sometimes make a clicking noise and there is always the possibility of coil whine. But it doesn't sound to me like that is what is happening. Try to isolate the sound and let us know what you find.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 2:09 AM
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Gotcha, Thank you! The hard drive is actually essentially empty. The times it rode in the car were going to repair shops and at times the computer just got formatted and the OS reinstalled. So there really isn't any data on it, I copied over some larger pictures once to test if it would show noises when writing data, but it didn.t
I went ahead and looked up what Coil whine sounds like and it seems like that isn't it. The sounds i've been hearing have just been small bursts that happen at random times. Although the sounds I heard today were when I was starting up a game (which speeds up the fans).
I'll try to isolate the sound and i'll report back, thank you!
Either way I shouldn't be too worried right? These problems can only really be either a fan or the hard drive? Both of which are pretty easily replaceable.
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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kougar
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 3:44 AM
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Can you manage to get a recording of the sound? Is it closer to a constant high pitch chirping or a low electrical buzz? If there's clicking the first thing I do is unplug fans until the noise stops. You can stop the GPU fan via software or just a finger very carefully & gently applied to the spindle, the only fan I don't recommend messing with is the one in the PSU. Since you are using a CLC system, when it is making the sound you might unpower the pump to see if the sound stops. At idle the CPU won't overheat for awhile, just don't leave it off for more than 20 seconds if your motherboard doesn't display CPU temps on the LEDs.
Have water, will cool.
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bill1024
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 6:19 AM
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Some fans when mounted upside down make a clicking noise. Just had to replace a fan on top of the case, I had it upside down, exhausting air out of the case. Clicking off and on, at first I was thinking HD going bad.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 3:36 PM
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Unfortunately I cannot get a recording of the sound because I can't replicate the sounds. It happens very rarely, I use my computer all day and i've heard these sounds in total 5 times on 3 separate days out of the past 2 weeks. I suspected the hard drive because some sounds sounded like they could be hard drive related, although the sounds I heard yesterday were semi-loud.
The first two sounds I heard at first two weeks ago sounded like a thin wire brushing against a high RPM fan for a split second. Yesterday I heard a low buzzing noise, it was also short for about 1 second. This happened when I was starting up Battlefield 1, so the CPU fans will be speeding up as well as the GPU fans.
The clicking sound happened once. This ones a bit harder to explain what it sounded like. It sounded a lot like a hard drive head clicking once, but somewhat loud.
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 3:56 PM
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I'm looking online and it seems from transport the main things most susceptible to damage are hard drives like Joseph said. And then as well as large CPU air coolers. I'm not seeing too much on fans being possibly damaged or wiggling free...
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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KenMcC
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Thursday, February 02, 2017 11:47 PM
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What about the voltage regulation capacitors? I never had this happen but in older times I heard / read some where having noise from them during a heavy load burst.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Friday, February 03, 2017 4:51 PM
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Hard drives are always spinning right? Even if i don't have much data on it or when i'm not using it? As long as it has power?
I'm thinking i'll just unplug my hard drive and see if the sound continues, since it happens rarely I cant recreate the sound :/
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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bdary
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Friday, February 03, 2017 5:09 PM
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Wooohah Hard drives are always spinning right? Even if i don't have much data on it or when i'm not using it? As long as it has power?
I'm thinking i'll just unplug my hard drive and see if the sound continues, since it happens rarely I cant recreate the sound :/
Yeah, once unplugged, if you don't hear the sound again, you'll have your answer...
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mike406
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Saturday, February 04, 2017 2:37 AM
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Wooohah Hard drives are always spinning right? Even if i don't have much data on it or when i'm not using it? As long as it has power?
I'm thinking i'll just unplug my hard drive and see if the sound continues, since it happens rarely I cant recreate the sound :/
If it's the system drive, then obviously yes it will always be spinning. If it's a secondary drive then Windows will spin it down after a specified amount of idle time you can set in Power Options. Anything that accesses the drive at an interval such as system monitoring tools or Steam, etc will not allow it to spin down.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Saturday, February 04, 2017 5:55 AM
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Nah it's not my system drive. It's basically empty.
I went ahead and unplugged it, gonna see for the next week if I hear the sounds again. So far nothing, which is a good sign. Rather have it be this hard drive than a fan, easier to narrow it down to one part than one of the 10 fans in this system....
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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RainStryke
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Saturday, February 04, 2017 12:12 AM
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It's probably coil whine from the GPU or PSU.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Saturday, February 04, 2017 2:29 PM
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No they're like small bursts, I'll hear the buzzing sound once for a second.
I know what coil whine sounds like, it's lower pitched than that. I know there's a bit of coil whine from my GPU when I start up really intensive programs, but it doesn't stop until i exit the program
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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quadlatte
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Sunday, February 05, 2017 6:33 AM
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Wednesday, February 08, 2017 9:13 PM
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Welp... Its not the hard drive. Unplugged the hard drive and I haven't heard the noise in a few days but I just heard it again today, so its most definitely not the hard drive.
It sounds more a little buzz from vibration. It happens so rarely that I don't know which fan to even pin it down to, I have 2 fans on my radiator, then 5 case fans and a PSU fan along with 2 fans on my GPU... Since its literally happening once every few days, should I just ignore it until it gets worse?
My old case had a fan that vibrated really really badly and it was quite easy finding out which one it was since it vibrated on and off every day.
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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Sajin
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Wednesday, February 08, 2017 9:25 PM
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Wednesday, February 08, 2017 9:37 PM
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Thanks, that's what I'll have to do then. If a fan breaks (granted its not the PSU or GPU fan) there's really no big deal there right?
CPU: i7 6700k GPU: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Motherboard: ASUS Z170-ProRam: (2x8GB) 16GB Gskill TridentZ @3200mhzPSU: EVGA 750W G2Storage: 250GB Samsung SSD, 1TB Seagate HDD 240GB Mushkin SSDCooling: 4x 120mm Noctua NF-S12A, 1x 140mm Corsair, Corsair H55 water cooler w/ 2x Corsair 120mm fans.Case: Corsair 400C (Clear/ White) Display: ASUS PG279Q (1440P 165hz IPS Gsync)Sound: Sennheiser HD558 w/ Behringer HA400 Amp.
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Sajin
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Wednesday, February 08, 2017 9:38 PM
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Wooohah Thanks, that's what I'll have to do then. If a fan breaks (granted its not the PSU or GPU fan) there's really no big deal there right?
Yeah.
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Wooohah
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Wednesday, February 08, 2017 9:41 PM
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 Thanks man
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Sajin
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Wednesday, February 08, 2017 10:07 PM
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No problem.
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kougar
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Re: Weird sounds from computer
Friday, February 10, 2017 11:48 AM
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Since ya ruled out the HDD and it isn't bothering you then yeah, just ignore it. The sound should get much worse and occur constantly before the fan is likely to stop spinning on you. Sometimes something as simple as the angle of the computer case/fan can create or make the noise go away, you might make sure the system is level (or give it a bit of an angle with a boot under one side) if it bugs you and see what that does. My test rig has a FDB bearing fan in its PSU, but if the case is angled to the side it can actually cause it to vibrate while it spins making some noise. The case lost one of its feet during a move so until it never sat level. Now I make sure it sits level so it stays silent.
Have water, will cool.
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