My roommate and I both have laptops, and sometimes when we’re sitting and using them it sounds like some kind of robotic argument going on - a lot of high-pitched "ee"ing kinds of noises. It’s not the hard-disks, and I’ve noticed that sometimes this noise appears with use of the touchpad (but sometimes not). What makes this noise?
Well, the main noise apart from the hard drives is probably going to be the cooling fan. And they tend to turn on and off at intervals, depending on how heavy your computer use is and how hot the inside gets.
Where is the noise coming from?
If it’s the speakers, it’s probably just digital noise leaking into the audio.
If it’s coming from the case of the laptop, it could be the hard drive - Windows does a ton of disk-based stuff behind your back when it thinks you’re idle, and you may be just hearing the normal noises of the drive when you’re not expecting them.
The next possibility is cooling fans - there’s one on the processor, and there might be one on the video circuits as well.
No it’ not the hard-disk, I know although that does sometimes come on at the same time as this whirry noise, and it’s not the fan either, the fan sounds like a fan not a weird buzzing eeeeeeep
If the room is very very quiet and you’ve got a Dell Latitude D600, could be the
power supply. The power bricks on these play little electronic chortling tunes.
I’m on my second PS, Dell replaced the first and the new one was quiet for a while, but it is up to the same tricks as the first one now.
Any cell phones nearby? They are well known for causing speaker interference similar to what you describe.
Not to worry, It’s just hamsters on a treadmill going really really fast
I can usually hear a high-pitched electronic whine from almost any computer at times. Same for televisions. A) You may be hearing noises that are normal but amplified for some reason; B) You may be hearing noises from another piece of equipment in the room. Easy enough to check.