How to pinpoint annoying high pitch noise??

[FiveHorizons]

I'm getting a high pitch noise coming from my system. It is not exremetly loud, but loud enough for me to notice and it to annoy me. I know it is not the case fan or the cpu fan (i stopped these fans with my finger which probably wasn't the wisest thing to do but oh well).
The noise seems to cease whenever the computer is working. i.e. whenver I am opening a program or moving files. I play world of warcraft a lot and it also makes the noise while playing, but seems to cease when it is loading zones.

Here are my system specs:
CHAINTECH VNF3-250 Socket 754 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX AMD Motherboard
Thermaltake Silent PurePower TT-420AD(DUAL FAN) ATX 420W Power Supply
AMD Athlon 64 2800+ Newcastle
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered
Seagate 120GB SATA
WD 80GB
Pioneer 16x Dvd Rom
Plextor CD burner

 

[ElFenix]

you don't have a CRT, do you?

 

[Cheezeit]

chipset fans are usually the verdict for high sounds because they are so small

 

[jkresh]

could be the harddrive though with it stopping when loading that is somewhat strange. Have you checked the fan on teh graphics card/powersupply?

 

[FiveHorizons]

I do have a CRT, but it is definitely coming from the system.

I'm pretty sure this MB doesn't have a fan on the chipset, so that couldn't be the problem.

I have checked the graphics card fan and it isn't it. I havn't check the power supply fan, so that could be it although it doesn't really seem like it is coming from there.

If I put my ear near the system it does seem to either be coming from the hard drive area or cpu area. Like I said, it is hard to pinpoint exactly though.

 

[ElFenix]

hard drive bearing, sounds like. while there is electronic whine of some items on the motherboard, it should not be noticeable over fan noise.

how old is that WD? i had one that would make high pitched whining noises at times. 800JB

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Also put your ear next to your mouse--I've heard people talk about that as well...
Tas.

 

[LiekOMG]

Probably the capacitors on the motherboard. Cheap and/or defective ones tend to whine. My Shuttle MB has the same exact problem - a very high pitched whine (not too loud, but noticeable) that comes and goes depending on CPU activity, and is very noticeable when running games. There is no real way to correct this problem except to replace the caps, or get a replacement motherboard.

I also doubt its from the fans or the HDD, because if it was from them, it would be a constant sound, and would not come and go depending on CPU activity.

 

[FiveHorizons]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
hard drive bearing, sounds like. while there is electronic whine of some items on the motherboard, it should not be noticeable over fan noise.

how old is that WD? i had one that would make high pitched whining noises at times. 800JB

I have an 800JB also, and it's a little less than a year old. It is being used as the storage drive for movies, mp3s, etc.

As far as the capacitors on the motherboard.....how could I even test that?

 

[Joepublic2]

My GA-K8NS (motherboard) had a capacitor that whined, it worked fine until it broke 7 months later (got it RMAd, it doesn't whine anymore).

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: FiveHorizons

Originally posted by: ElFenix
hard drive bearing, sounds like. while there is electronic whine of some items on the motherboard, it should not be noticeable over fan noise.

how old is that WD? i had one that would make high pitched whining noises at times. 800JB

I have an 800JB also, and it's a little less than a year old. It is being used as the storage drive for movies, mp3s, etc.

As far as the capacitors on the motherboard.....how could I even test that?

unplug the JB drive. if its only storage then you won't really need it for the next day or so, and other than using it just use your system normally.

for me, that whine was little more than an annoyance, the drive is still working fine, and it's been well over a year, probably 2, since it first started happening.