High-pitched sound from PC?

GamingRealist

GamingRealist

GamingRealist

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6 Jun 2012
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I was playing a game and all of a sudden there was a random high-pitched noise that only lasted 3 secs. This was a one-off scenario, as the sound hasn't occurred since. I don't know where it came from, but i did open up the case after and i realised there was a very faint high-pitched humming noise coming from the hard drive. Could this be it?

Thanks.
 
Sounds more like so called 'coil whine'. Coil whine is usually found on some graphic cards although it can be the PSU too. Generally aside from being annoying, coil whine is not an indication of anything going wrong though: its more like the induced currents flowing through a coil cause vibrations and in some instance it become audible. For manufacturers the cure is usually circuit design and / or using some kind of epoxy glue to stop the vibrations.

For graphic card coil whine, certain sections of games like menus etc. where the frame rate tends to very high (with vsync off) is a major cause. If you can replicate the problem, you can then open the case and see if you can find where it's coming from.

The wikipedia has an article although it's not computer specific:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise

Of course, it could be something else. Hard disks do fail but the sound of a failing hard disk is generally not described as high-pitched. Maybe have a look on youtube if you can find recordings of coil whine and compare what you heard to that?
 
Did some research and the high-pitch sound of the hard drive is normal and not a problem. But im not sure about the random burst of whine that was present for a couple of seconds.
Im upgrading my PSU anyway, so yeh guys.
 
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