Strange crackling or buzzing sound coming from my system this morning

[Scrooge2]

I left my computer on last night and when i woke up this morning there was a STRANGE and loud Buzzing noise (or crackling sound) coming from my system. I figured it was a bad fan and did the finger test, i ie, i touched stopped each one of my fans with my finger and listened to see if it stopped but it didn't! I checkd the CPU fan, chipset fan, PSU fan, two case fans, and the buzzing wont stop! I turned the computer off and as the system powered down (hard power off) the sound faded EXACTLY LIKE A FAN, it would buzz and a very high frequency then as the power faded it would slow down like *click* *click**click**click**click**click**click* slowly until there was nothing left. I quickly turned the power back on and the buzzing started again. After like 3 restarts the 3rd restart had no buzzing. I tried to put my ear to the system and i cant honestly located the darn origin of the noise but believe me it was pretty loud. I thought possibly it could be the capacitors but the board i have just bought has solid capcitors for this reason.

I will play with it more when i get home from work but i am very worried. I just got a new mobo and new video card last week and I am worried one of the components is bad, possibly the PSU? Anyone else have a similar problem before?

Sys specs:
Core 2 Duo e6320 @ 3010 mhz
Gigabyte 965P-DS3 @ 430 fsb
Crucial Ballistix 800 DDRIi @ 960 fsb
Seagate 7200.10 400 Gb
BFG 7950 GT not overclocked
Antec Earthwatts 500w PSU
SB Live

 

[GrumpyMan]

Well the only other moving parts are your PSU and hard drives. Check those? Oh I see you check the PSU. Hard drives then.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know what your problem is, but you can isolate sounds by using a short section of garden hose. Put one end up to your ear, and check the different components with the other end. Watch out for fans though

 

[AmberClad]

Try switching out the PSU just to be certain and rule it out as the cause.

I had a problem with odd noises and startup problems on a system last year. I had to keep powering it off and then on several times before the noises would stop and it'd get past BIOS. I put my ear up to the system and tried to isolate where it was coming from, and it seemed to be the PSU. So I unscrewed the PSU so I could look at while it was running. Even disassembled the outer casing. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the fan, but it still seemed like the noises were coming from the PSU.

I couldn't find any other component that could have been the source of the noise, so I finally just switched the PSU out and installed an old salvaged Dell PSU. The noises and the startup failures stopped immediately.

I still have no idea what part of the PSU was causing the noise though. Like I said, it didn't appear to be the fan. Something electrical maybe? Anyways, that may or may not be the problem in your case, but if you have a spare PSU lying around, it might be helpful to try that.



EDIT: So it turns out I still have that PSU lying around. Just opened it up and took a closer look. One of the copper coils has black stuff on it, and two of the capacitors next to it are partially melted and fused against the coils . Looks like I got lucky and removed it before the capacitors completely blew...