Buzzing sound when computer is Idle

moles

moles

moles

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8 Jun 2004
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296
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Here's a tricky one for all of you. Been driving me insane!

If my computer is sat idling then I get a constant buzzing sound from the case. Dont know what component as its hard to pinpoint. This will go away instantly if I do something. Even scrolling in firefox will stop the computer from idling and the sound will stop.

Also if I overclock the CPU in bios the buzzing goes away. I want to keep the system at stock though.

Specs:

Gigabyte ex58-ud5 mobo
i7 920 cpu
gtx 295 graphics
6gb crucial


Anyone had a similar issue?
 
Im not sure if speedstep is enabled. Do I disable in BIOS?

It cant be the hard drive because the sound goes away when i overclock.
 
What about a small overclock to change the frequency so the noise stops. It's probably a couple of components resonating with each other.

I had a bad resonance a short time ago. I suspended my hard drives with bungee elastic and the noise stopped. The noise wasn't coming from the hard drives but the vibration it put out must have caused a capacitor somewhere to sing.

Not sure I'd call it a buzz in my case but the symptom sounds similar i.e. scrolling pages caused it to stop.
 
right. I disabled speedstep and now the buzzing is gone. Strange thing is there is a faint beep everytime the hard drive is accessed when idle. Like every 1 or 2 seconds. Also CPU-z reports the multiplier changing even though speedstep has been disabled.
 
scratch that. The buzzing is back :( must have still been some background processes. The buzzing is now just as it was before. Might try a small overclock as Tealc suggested. Though still doesn't answer why its buzzing... A friend of mine has the exact same system. In fact it was a complete system bought from overclockers.
 
Just an idea but its helped me many times before. Buy a mechanic's stethoscope. Should be able to find one for under £5. I have one I've had for well over 25 years and its the best damn way there is to establish where noise is coming from.
 
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Put the pc on a table and searched for the noise. It appears to be coming from the power supply which is a corsair hx620.
 
Its just one of those things tbh. Some PSU and GPU combos work lovely, others don't.

I RMA'd my Zalman PSU because of buzzing and the replacement still does it, although much less.

From what I read around the net, some nail varnish or hot melt glue applied to the coils within the PSU can stop this noise. Although it's up to you as you could void the warranty.
 
Sorry to part hijack the thread but has anyone noticed that the quieter you make a rig the louder buzzing power adapters for printers, etc. seem to become. :mad: I guess we should all buy h'phones and wear them all the time. Problem sorted....:D
 
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