Hear a noise from my desktop when I web browse at times

[Sonikku]

This thing has been driving me crazy. It's like a faint whirl sound, or maybe like a tiny fan spinning sound. But I hear it when web browsing. Strangely, the noise "stops" when I'm scrolling down a page with my mouse wheel but starts up again when I stop. Like if I turn my mouse wheel one notch to scroll down a line then for that one second the noise stops, then resumes. Weird.

What the hell could it be?

 

[master_shake_]

disconnect your post test speaker and see if it goes away.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OH noes! EMF IN DA HOUSE!!!!

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Coil whine. You can sometimes isolate it, can't really do anything about it unless you're an EE (or just buy a new board).

 

[Sonikku]

But if I cant suppress it temporarily by doing something like mouse scrolling on a web page then surely there must be some jerry rig solution to suppress it permanently?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

But if I cant suppress it temporarily by doing something like mouse scrolling on a web page then surely there must be some jerry rig solution to suppress it permanently?

It's got something to do with how the internal components are processing information, or under some value of $load, or something. I don't know the details, I just know I've had it a few times on a few different components, and there wasn't anything I could do about it but get headphones or louder fans.

 

[Ketchup]

The computer I gave to my kids does that It's a Vista-era Dell AIO (back when AIO meant built in TV tuner and dedicated graphics). See if anything like this sounds familiar:

Little things here are there make the sound change or go away, but it's there pretty much the time.It's a cross between a hum and static. If anything audio is running, you can't really hear it. In fact, I didn't even mention it to the kids, and since they mainly use it for games, Youtube, and Netflix, they haven't ever mentioned anything about it.

 

[giantpandaman2]

As Osiris said, sounds like coil whine. Not much you can do depending on where it is. You could try what he does in this video though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DirFjf3OO4