Noise

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 9:13 am

Since I upgraded Motherboard+CPU+Graphics card+memory nearly 6 months ago, my computer has been making noise a lot, and it annoys me.

It sounds like whistling kettle (but not as loud, of course), and is not all the time. Sometimes it starts when I switch on and sometimes it starts after a few hours; there's no obvious cause and I don't really know when it happens and how long it lasts.

The machine hasn't got any other problems (ie. freeze or hang up) more than it used to have.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

HighLordDave · Post by **HighLordDave** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 10:53 am

Check everything that has a lot of moving parts. The likely culprits are: case cooling fan, GPU cooling fan, CPU cooling fan, hard drive, optical disk drive and floppy disk drive.

You might also make sure that your motherboard is properly bolted to the case and that you're not missing a connecting screw somewhere.

If the noise is constant, it's probably one of your cooling fans. If it's intermittant, it may be something related to your hard drive or ODD or it could be a loose connection on one of your cooling fans.

Also, depending on the acoustics of your case, you might be experiencing some airflow issues that may cause a whistling noise. Make sure that all of the covers for your external bays are secured and that any panels on your machine are properly bolted down.

Open up your case and turn the machine on. Listen to see if a particular component is making an inordinant amount of noise. Try an replicate any activity that may be responsible for causing noise (ie-does you computer make the noise more when your hard drive is active or when it is idle?). If you open up the case and cannot get the noise to appear, it may be an airflow issue.

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 11:23 am

HLD pretty much covered it already. My additional 2 cents are:

Check for cables hanging in air the stream of case and processor fans. They often cause quite loud vibrations, especially if they also touch the case.

Many cases are not built too accurately and maybe one side panel is vibrating, a piece of scotch tape where the vibrating panel touches the case construction can work wonders.

Minerva · Post by **Minerva** » Tue Jul 30, 2002 12:34 pm

Thank you to both.

I suspect it's caused by the motherboard is not connected properly to the case. Because the board didn't quite fit to the case which I'd already had, I did omit a few bolts.

I suppose I need to get a new case...