No bad data, nothing evil on my screen, no symptoms of any problems at all. But just this morning it started with a very high-pitched whine. It lasts anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds, at random intervals, apparently unrelated to what I’m actually doing.
My first thought was that it is overheating, but that would cause a shutdown. It wouldn’t just come and go randomly, right?
My second thought is that the hard drive is going, but that would be a very ugly grinding noise, not this whistle.
Third thought is the sound card, after all, I do have Spotify playing music in the background. But the music is coming from the speakers, and the whine is from the pc.
It’s an old Dell Vostro 220, running XP SP3. Antivirus is up-to-date, and I did not notice anything unusual in Task Manager.
Any guesses? advTHANKSance!
(PS: This is at work, where I am the computer guy.)
Could it be a fan? Fans sometimes make odd, intermittent noises if they need some attention. I had one case fan make kind of a buzzy grindy noise at random moments, which I could resolve in the short-term by tapping on the grill where the fan was mounted. The ultimate solution was to lubricate the fan, which is easy and cheap to do (all you really need is a screwdriver and a bottle of 3-in-one oil, blue label preferred but the more common black label won’t hurt anything).
The sound is most likely either a fan or a disk drive (or maybe a banshee but if that was the case it should have stopped after Halloween). A bearing going bad can make all kinds of hideous noises. Sometimes the thing will keep running for years perfectly with a bad bearing. Sometimes it dies the next day. You never know.
It could also be a heat sensor going bad or the heat sink stuffed up with dust, and the cooling fan is kicking into high gear as a result of it. It might not be a bad idea to download a cpu monitor and check your temperatures while it’s running.
And there are likely a number of different fans to check – e.g. case, power supply, CPU, or (if one is installed and there’s a fan on it) graphics card.
I won’t be sure until I restart the PC but it sure sounds similar. Which makes me wonder about the fan idea. It is clearly some sort of electronically-produced sound such as would come from a speaker, and not a mechanically-produced sound. So the fan idea would make sense only if there’s some kind of sensor to trigger the whine, and not if the fan is off-balance or otherwise broken. Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Anyway, it last whined while I was typing the OP, and not a peep since. Sometimes, I really think that our computers are more aware of their owners than our pets are.
If you’ve got a utility which allows you to change the CPU cooling fan speed or temp profile, you can use that to momentarily change the fan speed without opening the case, to verify that you are hearing that fan. “Quiet” was a factor into the last system I built, but when I do hear significant noise out of it, it usually correlates very well with a simultaneous rise in CPU usage and temperature. I can tweak the fan through a utility, and verify that it’s the CPU cooler. THEN worry about what’s taking the cycles - usually remediable by stopping the browser which is displaying some media heavy site. I generally run this system very cool in a “loafing” mode - if the temp got anywhere NEAR the redline, I hate to think of the banshee imitation I’d be hearing.
It had been pretty random, but clearly more frequently in the minutes during and prior to my first post. Silent since then. Then it dawned on me: :smack: about a hour ago, I was feeling a bit warm, so I turned on the room fan, currently located on the floor., about 15 inches from the pc. :smack:
Another hour and I’ll turn the fan off as an experiment. And I did download a temperature monitor, which I’m watching.
Some motherboards are set up to beep when the temperature exceeds a certain value (they are also usually set to shut down completely at a slightly higher temp). Maybe you are getting warning beeps.
Fan whine can sometimes sound like a bios beep. It’s hard to tell without being able to actually hear the sound.
Seconded, I have seen quite a few of these they will have an auto shutdown temp to avoid damage and about 5 degrees lower they will emit a really unhappy loud beeeeeeeeeeep noise.
IF you have not dusted lately, time to invest in a couple cans of air.
DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner unless it was designed for use with electronics.
Step 1. Shut off the computer, disconnect everything, remove the cover panel, and clean out the dust! (Ideally, use a low-power vacuum, or bottled air to gently blast it away. You can get attachments for house vacuums for this purpose. It’s like a tiny crevice tool, and usually with a vent closer to the hose to allow reduced suction.)
Step 2. With the cover off, plug in monitor, mouse, and keyboard, and turn it on. KEEP HANDS CLEAR! Make sure to keep animals and children away. Listen and find out where the noise is coming from (if it continues).
Yes, do this, and I would also recommend if the sound continues, you turn off the monitor and speakers next time you hear the noise. It could be either of those.
NEVER use a vacuum cleaner inside a computer unless it is a vacuum specifically designed for electronics. Normal vacuum cleaners can generate massive static charges that will kill a computer in the blink of an eye.
NEVER use a vacuum cleaner inside a computer unless it is a vacuum specifically designed for electronics. Normal vacuum cleaners can generate massive static charges that will kill a computer in the blink of an eye.
I will keep doing this anytime I see it, or it gets quoted.
I won’t argue the point with you, but I have been vacuuming computers for 14 years. I should have added I do touch the case of the computer with my hand before vacuuming it.
Using a regular vacuum is a really bad idea. Touching the case doesn’t really help (at least not with the vacuuming/static issue). The static charge isn’t in the vacuum cleaner before you turn it on. It’s generated by the flow of air, dust, etc. into the nozzle and through the hose. There may be some residual charge on the machine if you’ve used it recently but that will usually bleed off fairly quickly unless the humidity is exceptionally low.
Are you sure you’ve been using a regular vacuum cleaner? The vacuum cleaners that computer shops use are specially made so that they don’t generate static, but they pretty much just look and operate like a regular vacuum cleaner.
The only way I use a vacuum cleaner is as a blower. And I don’t touch the components with the hose or nozzle. And I keep myself grounded and the nozzle up out of the case. And then I fire up the air compressor (with filter and air dryer).
The blown air from the vacuum is just to clear the really big dust bunnies out. The compressed air is where the deep cleaning happens… down into the CPU cooler and the video card casing and such.
But that’s just me. I always assumed the airflow through the plastic hose was going to be a serious static charge source, so I’ve made a point of keeping the hose away from the sensitive stuff.
ETA: To clarify to hasty readers: I’m not the OP, and I’m not specifically answering engineer_comp_geek. Just relating my experiences.