Cracking sounds from PC?

JoshB · 1 Nov 2013 at 23:47

I have noticed in last couple of months that my pc is making these cracking sounds. It normally happens:

after booting windows
Playing game which eat a lot
Just randomly cracking sounds

Any ideas who is doing that? I've seen forums and they say it it PSU. Anyone can confirm?

Thanks.

Hyburnate · 1 Nov 2013 at 23:54

What component is it coming from?

JoshB · 2 Nov 2013 at 00:01

I don't know but from inside the case. Hard to say it could be anything. Most common case?

Hyburnate · 2 Nov 2013 at 00:21

It's hard to tell without further inspection, I'd take your side panel off and put your ear near it when you expect it to do it.
How long does it go on for and how loud is it?

Bart_Hunt · 2 Nov 2013 at 07:23

Do you have normal HDD and how old is it?
I work around computers a lot at work and they are some old Dell models, they make all sort of sounds, including what you described. And I had that with an old hdd. It happened every time it was on loading screen in a game or installing something big, any action that required its max write speed capability.
My disk still lived quite a while after it started making those sounds, but I had to replace it at some point. I'd make a safe copy of anything valuable you have on it, because it may die unexpectadly.

Narj · 2 Nov 2013 at 08:30

Is it an electronic type cracking noise? Only I get the odd cracking noise from my PC and it's caused by the case expanding and contracting as temperatures rise and fall.

Glanza · 2 Nov 2013 at 08:59

I get the odd 'cracking' noise once my PC is up to full temp as the case expands.

DarkTheSupreme · 2 Nov 2013 at 09:21

I think it's just your case expanding or something, I get the same thing.

JoshB · 4 Nov 2013 at 14:34

Thanks.

ts316 · 4 Nov 2013 at 14:40

It might be worth keeping an ear on the PSU for the time being to ensure there's no arcing going on, as in my experience that seems to be the most common source of unnerving sounds! Arcing usually produces ticking/popping sounds but I've had instances where it sounds similar to cracking. Hopefully it's simply the case as stated above.