Ominous whistling sound!

Fisher · 12 Feb 2013 at 22:33

I get this extremely high pitched whistling sound coming from my computer, usually when it doesn't seem to be under much stress at all.

For example, it usually only happens when loading up a game/viewing the starting cinematic and in menus....so it's not like it's overheating or anything. I notice it most on the minecraft menus, but not the main menu, only when you enter a sub menu, like singleplayer or multiplayer...very strange.

Anyone know what could be the cause, and if I should be worried?

Rig:

Asus P8Z77-V LX Socket 1155 VGA DVI HDMI 8 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard
Intel Core i5 3570K OC to 4.4GHz Socket 1155 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Corsair Vengeance LP Performance Memory modules 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 2133MHz CL9 Blue
MSI ATI Radeon HD 6950 OC Twin FrozR III Power Edition 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express
XFX Pro750W

olivier renault · 13 Feb 2013 at 00:39

Try minecraft / games with vsync on. It's probably running at stupid FPS. GPU's generally don't like that.

and if I should be worried?

If it's not very loud, then no. Coil / capacitor whine from either the motherboard, GPU, or PSU (probably mobo or GPU). It's not a healthy sound, but it doesn't always mean it's about to die.

If it's a very loud, wailing sound, then your PSU electrolytic capacitor is about to explode

Fisher · 13 Feb 2013 at 07:32

olivier renault said:
Try minecraft / games with vsync on. It's probably running at stupid FPS. GPU's generally don't like that.

If it's not very loud, then no. Coil / capacitor whine from either the motherboard, GPU, or PSU (probably mobo or GPU). It's not a healthy sound, but it doesn't always mean it's about to die.

If it's a very loud, wailing sound, then your PSU electrolytic capacitor is about to explode

Ah, thanks very much, vsync fixed it. I definitely gulped when I saw about the PSU exploding

thank god that's not the problem.

I don't really like vsync though, I'm guessing capping the fps would do the same trick?

olivier renault · 13 Feb 2013 at 10:04

Fisher said:
Ah, thanks very much, vsync fixed it. I definitely gulped when I saw about the PSU exploding thank god that's not the problem.

I don't really like vsync though, I'm guessing capping the fps would do the same trick?

Should do the trick, it's an artefact of running very high FPS.

Fisher · 13 Feb 2013 at 17:32

olivier renault said:
Should do the trick, it's an artefact of running very high FPS.

Ok, thanks very much for the help