Whistling sound from computer?

[crich70]

I am stumped. Now and then I get a short whistle sound coming from my computer. The fans are working, the computer boots up, nothing seems to be loose. Could it be a dead, or dying cmos battery?

[cromag]

The obvious guess would be a fan bearing, either on a case fan or the cpu fan. It could just be going bad -- no idea how long the process could take.

I take it there are no other noises? No rattling or clicking?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by cromag

The obvious guess would be a fan bearing, either on a case fan or the cpu fan. It could just be going bad -- no idea how long the process could take.

I take it there are no other noises? No rattling or clicking?

Nope. Other than the occasional whistle that lasts for just a few seconds there are no other odd sounds. When you say "It could just be going bad" do you mean the fan or something else in the computer?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by crich70

Nope. Other than the occasional whistle that lasts for just a few seconds there are no other odd sounds. When you say "It could just be going bad" do you mean the fan or something else in the computer?

It's either one of the fans or one of the hard drives making this whistling sound. If it's a fan, that's easy to replace. If it's a hard drive, that's a bit more costly.

[fum]

Time to backup. Try and vacum-clean it after the backup.

[cromag]

Originally Posted by crich70

Nope. Other than the occasional whistle that lasts for just a few seconds there are no other odd sounds. When you say "It could just be going bad" do you mean the fan or something else in the computer?

If it is a fan bearing that's failing, and it eventually fails completely, your computer will probably overheat. If your computer overheats it should display an alert on screen and then shut down.

There are some utility programs available that will read the temperature sensors in your computer to keep you posted on what's happening. A few years ago I had a Pentium based computer running XP that would occasionally overheat (that one would shut down without warning), but I don't remember what program I installed to watch the temps.

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.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by cromag

...
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.

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.

[crich70]

Nope I don't have one of those fancy cases. I have tried using air to dust the unit and still get some whistle now and then. A big headache when the desktop goes non responsive (or seems to). The unit goes to sleep or something even though I didn't set it to do so.

[oren64]

Check if your CPU is not overheated, download a free software like Speccy or Real Temp.

[theducks]

IMHO Fans start out with a chatter/growl sound and initially quit after a few minutes . That is your warning call.
A squeal is also a possibility for smaller fans.

Case and CPU fans are easy to come by. GPU and (CPU) chipset fans tend to be custom nightmares


Been a long time since I heard a Drive Anti-static spring squeal. That design is pretty mature


I had poor luck with generic Health monitor tools

A good number of BIOS have a section devoted to PSU voltages and fan speeds.
You could try (F2 or Del is common) there the next time you COLD start (after an overnight)

To S.M.A.R.T status for your HD. I use the drive status tool on a Linux Live Boot (that wont always say bearing fail, but there might be other signs. Among them is Power UP time (I just replaced a 7.5 YEAR spin time drive)

[crich70]

Originally Posted by oren64

Check if your CPU is not overheated, download a free software like Speccy or Real Temp.

Thanks for the tips on the software. Speccy looks interesting. Alas my system isn't supported by real temp.

[crich70]

I did get some info from Speccy

CPU
Intel Pentium D 820
Cores 2
Threads 2
Name Intel Pentium D 820
Code Name SmithField
Package Socket 775 LGA
Technology 90nm
Specification Intel Pentium D CPU 2.80GHz
Family F
Extended Family F
Model 4
Extended Model 4
Stepping 7
Revision B0
Instructions MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, Intel 64, NX
Virtualization Not supported
Hyperthreading Not supported
Fan Speed 2513 RPM
Stock Core Speed 2800 MHz
Stock Bus Speed 200 MHz
Caches
L1 Data Cache Size 2 x 16 KBytes
L1 trace cache 2 x 12 Kµops
L2 Unified Cache Size 2 x 1024 KBytes
Cores
Core 0
Core Speed 2790.8 MHz
Multiplier x 14.0
Threads APIC ID: 0
Core 1
Core Speed 2790.8 MHz
Multiplier x 14.0
Threads APIC ID: 1

Not sure if the readings for the fan etc. are good or bad. The system seems to be around 58-59 C as far as temperature.