Help:Computer making strange static noise

[Trishie]

Hello,

I've just recently built a computer about a week and a half ago. After installing everything, everything seems to run fine. However, I noticed
a faint but apparent high pitched static noise emitting from my PC. This noise is not coming out from my speakers, but actually coming out from inside my computer case. So, I took off the cover to check where exactly it is coming from. At first I thought it was the hard drive that may be failing so I went out to purchase a new hard drive. With a new hard drive, the static sound is still there. So after hours of trying to fix this problem (re-wiring, making sure all the wires and screws are fine etc.), I decided to bring my computer to the store where I bought my parts from (NCIX).

There, I told the technician about the problem and had him troubleshoot for me. However he could not hear any static due to the fact that the store is crowded and noisy, making it impossible to even locate the sound. We decided to exchange my motherboard which was a Gigabyte X58A-UD3R board to a new board, ASUS P6X58D-E X58. He also changed my heatsink's fan, in case it is the fan that is causing the sound.

As we could not troubleshoot at the shop, I brought my computer back home to check. The first day (yesterday), I did not hear any sound. But today, I started to hear the static sound again. Except, this time it is much quieter but I can still hear the computer making a quiet 'piii' sound.

The static was more frequent and louder on the Gigabyte board compared to the Asus board. And I also found out that when I use a usb flash drive to transfer
data or scroll my usb mouse, the static noise would start to emit. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be typical but my old computer did not make such noises so I'm quite concerned if it is harmful in any way. Does anyone else besides me have such issues? I think I'm going crazy hearing the static noise for a whole week. Some tips on solving this issue would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

My built is:

CPU: Intel i7 930 Quad Core 2.8GHz
Mobo: ASUS P6X58D-E X58 LGA 1366
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hypeer 212+
Ram: 6GB Corsair xms3 DDR3 Ram
PSU: Corsair TX650W
GFX Card: XFX Radeon HD 5770 1GB
HD : 640GB Western Digital Caviar Black 7200RPM 32MB SATA HD
Sound: Onboard

 

[mfenn]

Sounds like coil whine. It's fairly common on GPUs, but can occur on mobo components as well.

If it really bothers you that much, you can paint some fingernail polish (preferably clear!) around the base of all of the surface mount components on the GPU (you will have to disassemble the heatsink). That should stabilize the components enough to eliminate the noise.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Do you have a game on the computer to fire up? Preferably full screen, and something that won't tax the GPU at all. The menu screen for a Source-based game like Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, or Portal is perfect. When you sit on the menu screen, the whine sound may get a lot more prominent. If that happens, it's almost certainly coil / choke whine on your graphics card, which is fairly common these days.

 

[Trishie]

hmm...funny thing is when I put a game on full screen like Vindictus, the whining would actually become quiet (When I had the Gigabyte Board). However, now that I try it with the new mobo, I'd hear the whining when I'm on the loading screen.

 

[zagood]

PSU: Corsair TX650W

It sucks to say it because the Corsair PSUs are fantastic in everything else...but I've owned three now, on two different machines, through 4 motherboards from different manufacturers and different sockets, and they all do the same thing. Corsair will replace via RMA if you have this problem. It's not 100% that a new PSU will make it go away though.

This isn't to say that everyone that gets a Corsair PSU is going to have this problem...it's just a regular enough occurrence, with the Corsairs being the single common thread.

Another suspect is if you're using a Logitech mouse, but the symptoms are a little different.

 

[Trishie]

Okay! I'll exchange my psu tomorrow as it will still be within 15days since I purchased my stuff! Hopefully I get one that doesn't make the whine...Thanks