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Originally Posted by cromag
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Replacing a case fan, if that's what you need, is pretty cheap and easy. There are videos on Youtube. A CPU cooler is a bit trickier, but still within the scope of a hobbyist.
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If it's a power supply fan the only easy fix is to replace the whole power supply. Dissecting it to replace just the fan is requires a bit more effort.
A high frequency squeal or whistle like sound would most likely be from one of the smaller fans like those mounted to CPU cooling fins.
It could also be from a very very dirty video board or embedded component where dust/dirt is moved by the effects of the video timing circuits. It's a bit less likely with modern computer display circuitry than it was in the old CRT/TV days, but is possible.
This all assumes that you don't have one of the sexy illuminated cases that uses small fluorescent tubes to light up the fancy-schmancy case and guts. This type of fluorescent, like those used for backlighting LCD display in the pre-LED era, operate at frequencies very high in the audible spectrum, near ultra-sonic. They tend to vibrate themselves, and occasionally some light nearby component, very lightly and sometimes move enough air to create an audible squeal. The old Sony CLIE UX-50 was notorius doing this occasionally. There were frequent post on MR about it and a few other devices of that era.