Squealing sound when booting computer

Lotheric · 14 Jun 2012 at 08:24

Hey all,

I ordered a pre built computer 2 years ago from Overclockers UK. I've been really happy with it until some days ago when I started hearing some squealing noises when I boot my computer. It starts just before windows is loaded and sometimes you can hear it when you run large files or sometimes even when you scroll a website. I thought it was the hard drive giving up so I exchanged it but the noise didn't dissapear. I've recorded it here, and the noise starts about 6 seconds into this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExU8IH6uTQg&feature=youtu.be

Any ideas about what it can be?

The computer is:

"Ultima Viper" Intel Core i7 930 2.80GHz @ 4.00GHz DDR3 System
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5870 "AVP Edition" 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card
Antec Nine Hunded Case

Thanks in advance.

Andre · 14 Jun 2012 at 08:43

To locate a sound on a computer, I use the cardboard center of a kitchen roll.
Put one end to your ear, the other you waft about inside the case until you find where the sound is coming from - this is normally the problem part.

I would suspect a fan spinning up, possibly PSU or GPU. If it has a "silent" CPU cooler, then that could also be the culprit

BluSky · 14 Jun 2012 at 14:29

my cpu cooler does something similiar intermittantly, as above the culprit is usually a fan of some description

Ohlawll · 14 Jun 2012 at 22:25

Sounds like your HDD is squeaking when the platters are spinning up.

arknor · 14 Jun 2012 at 22:42

it doesnt sound like a fan.

i reckon its a capcity squeel everything is under the most load at boot , see if you can narrow it down to one of the capacitors on your motherboard.

they are the black round battery looking things on your mobo.

see if any look swollen to

Diggsy · 14 Jun 2012 at 23:31

I have a similar noise and it's my PSU. I previously RMA'd it to Zalman it was so bad, as it happened even when gaming. Now it only happens when the system is really heavily loaded.

I think it's coming from one of the coils and I've read that a little dab of hot melt glue will sort it, but I've never got round to trying it.

I would suggest you check that.

Justintime · 15 Jun 2012 at 00:54

Coil whine. Annoying but not fatal.

hughesy627 · 15 Jun 2012 at 21:35

I had the same with my old ocz psu, try powering up the psu with out everything connected to eliminate wether it is fans or hdd etc, i could only hear it on the initial start, the fans etc would drown it out.

Lotheric · 30 Jun 2012 at 17:39

I have changed the PSU and the hard drive, but the noise is still there. So it cannot be any of these that causes the noise.

So its prolly the motherboard cpu volt regulators or something that's causing it...

jeff6475 · 30 Jun 2012 at 18:42

its Gremlins

Ollie1132 · 30 Jun 2012 at 18:54

jeff6475 said:
its Gremlins

Best analysis ever.

bitslice · 30 Jun 2012 at 23:32

Lotheric said:
or sometimes even when you scroll a website.

Justintime said:
Coil whine. Annoying but not fatal.

Coil whine on GPU.

Jay85 · 30 Jun 2012 at 23:53

bitslice said:
Coil whine on GPU.

+1 i get this on my gtx 680 especially when loading inbtween game screens and animations.