Annoying High-Pitched Noise

Gundog48

Gundog48

Gundog48

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13 Sep 2009
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Maidstone, Kent
So, my computer makes this really annoying high pitched noise that I don't quite know how to describe. I have included a video that shows the problem. The noise is not normally as constant as that, I think it was because I was recording. The problem is fairly unnoticeable when not doing anything, just comes up in bursts. However when I do something like move my mouse or scroll a webpage the problem is more noticeable (the bursts of noise in the video are when I move my mouse). It is also worth noting that the noise can actually be heard without headphones, it is actually a physical noise as well as coming through digitally.

I would say the the noise is linked to the HDD, especially due to the fact it can be heard coming from the inside of my PC as well as digitally. Maybe some kind of grounding issue? I am really stumped. Would a new HDD solve the problem? It really ruins my experience of music and gaming. The headset I'm using is a Roccat Kave. I will try moving the control bit further from the computer to see if it helps as it is prone to picking up interference. Here is the video anyway:

 
Could be interference from PSU/Grfx/Mobo being fed into the soundcard. I had a similar digital noise when gaming on onboard sound. This vanished when I went proper soundcard.

Apart from that it could be capacitor squeal from PSU/Grfx/Mobo which is very difficult to pinpoint. This is usually caused by a component vibrating at a certain frequency and resonates with another component's vibration. The cure is to find the component and stick a blob of glue or something on it. It's not ideal.

My old PSU used to resonate with my old graphics card sometimes, it wasn't as loud and obtrusive as yours but it was there and changed as I scrolled a webpage.

To verify if it is a hard drive simply isolate the hard drive from your case and see if it stops the problem. Touch it with your finger and feel for vibrations, this is how I determined that my Samsung F3 1TB was vibrating as it vibrated at exactly the same pitch as my case.
 
Sounds very much like good ol' speaker interference (especially as it occurs when you move the mouse).

The pci soundcard idea will almost always work. You can get a really good asus one for £20.
 
I do have a sound card, although the problem is worse with onboard. I had just come to the conclusion Tealc had about a minute ago when I found the noise seemed to come from the PSU/Graphics card area. I have seen capacitors, which many new PSUs have built in, that can be put between the PCI-e power connector and the graphics card which is supposed to stop cap squeal, think this will work? I need a new PSU anyway...

I cannae hold this 6950 with this 520W PSU much longer Captain, she's gonna blow!
Click to expand...
 
Just for reference for anyone else suffering with the same problem, it is caused by my Gigabyte motherboad and it is capacitor whine as mentioned earlier, but on the board rather than the PSU. You can RMA it for this problem.
 
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