Strange squealing

[Waterboyeee]

Hey guys, I was wondering if you could help me diagnose something. I get a real strange squeal or whine from my computer playing certain games and just randomly. It's strange because it changes pitch with what is being shown on my screen. I've changed to different outputs to my monitor and same thing. Here is a video from two separate people showing what it's doing. Do you think I just need a new PSU?


Zalman ZM-1000HP Power Supply High Pitched Squeal With Vsync Off - YouTube


Crazy noise while playing the sims 3 - from CPU - YouTube

[profJim]

Re: Strange squealing

Don't jump to conclusions that it's the power supply. The problem is often referred to as coil whine and is probably coming from a faulty vibrating capacitor that could be on the motherboard, graphics card, power supply or any add-in card. You could test using a different video card, followed by a different power supply to see if testing with these components reduces the noise. I think that the best way to test might be to remove your motherboard from the case and place the board as far away from the power supply as possible. If the noise is coming from the video card or motherboard, it will be harder to determine which one is at fault.

Before I would disassemble my system, I would first swap out the video card with another card to see if this eliminates or reduces the noise. You might be able to use a mechanics stethoscope to help locate where the sound is coming from, but it should NOT have a bare metal tip because the tip needs to be in contact with the board, card or power supply. You would probably need to cover the bare metal probe tip with a tight fitting, hard plastic tube. You definitely do not want to accidentally cause an electrical short circuit.

Another option would be to buy, borrow or rent a sensitive sound meter that is uni-directional and would only register sound coming from a small, narrow area.

[wazza300]

Re: Strange squealing

It's normal to hear a very faint squealing in some games,esp the menu pages,I get it in crysis,however it shouldn't be heard through speakers,above speaker levels or through headphones if it is then 90% of the time its down to psu emi leakage can be gpu or mb but psu is main cause,what make/model boards was the noise on? Sometimes disabling c1e c3/c6 and eist power saving states in BIOS helps reduce/stop the noise or Intel speedstep,if not then test with another psu

If its totally silent through speakers/headphones then slight squeal and I mean very faint noise is normal in some games when loading up or in certain game menus

[Waterboyeee]

Re: Strange squealing

Thanks for the help fellas. I'll update if I find out what it is.

[Conners]

Re: Strange squealing

Could be a cooling fan or memory cooling fan, might try to unplug those on at a time ti isolate the problem. Note I would not un hook cooling fan of processor though. lol

[hsp25]

Re: Strange squealing

Could be a cooling fan or memory cooling fan, might try to unplug those on at a time ti isolate the problem. Note I would not un hook cooling fan of processor though. lol

I'm guessing you never took the time to see the link or you would not say this