Am I going to die?

[AtlantaBob]

The above says it all. There's a distinct humming electrical sound when the PSU is plugged in (but not turned on). You can't hear it when the PC is on, and you can only hear it when your're leaning kind of close to it.

Should I be concerned? I can't remember any other PC doing this, but it's not like I've really paid that much attention to it before.

It's running a Shuttle Mainboard, and Athlon XP 2000+ (underclocked to 100 MHz FSB), 1 GB of Ram, a WD 80 GB HDD, and a DVD-R, with a low end video card (Radeon 9250) and a Microsoft WiFi Card.

Edit 2: the power supply is a Enhance ENP 2320, 200 Watt PS; it's the default that came with the Shuttle, and from what I remember, they're supposed to be fairly good?

Edit: the more pedestrian title did nothing to get responses. Perhaps a more dramatic one will help.

 

[AtlantaBob]

Bump?

 

[AtlantaBob]

Please?

 

[AtlantaBob]

Once again, with a new, more exciting title....

 

[Tiamat]

you need to at least tell us what PSU you have....

 

[Powermoloch]

Originally posted by: Tiamat
you need to at least tell us what PSU you have....

 

[xrax]

probably the transformer in the power supply
after googled transformer hum
http://www.psaudio.com/articles/hum.asp
my recommendation would be to try a new power supply.

 

[Fresh Daemon]

Unusual humming noises from electrical equipment are often caused by a grounding fault. Try it in a different outlet, preferably on a different circuit (i.e. fuse), if it goes away have that outlet checked by an electrician.

If it doesn't go away, strip down the computer and make sure there's nothing like loose screws, excess standoffs or anything like that which could cause a ground fault.

If it still does it, RMA it. It's not likely to be dangerous but best to err on the side of caution - you'll feel pretty stupid if you ignore it and it causes your house to burn down.

 

[AtlantaBob]

Crud, guys, I'm sorry. Can you tell it was late when I wrote that? I'll go ahead and try those suggestions...

 

[AtlantaBob]

New information on the power supply. Thanks for the thoughts so far. I'll try a new power outlet and check for loose screws or something tomorrow (although there's nothing that I can think of that would change to cause that).

Oh, Everest and MBM both report that the power (except for the -5 rails) are within their 10% tolerences...

 

[Rubycon]

It's normal for a/c mains powered devices to produce an audible hum even in quiescent state.

Noisy devices on the same circuit can augment this characteristic where it seems abnormal.

Yes you will die, everyone does. Of course this observation will not hasten the journey to death so now it's time to move on. Have a beer and chill for a while.