Question Strange noise coming out of the PC (possibly mobo?)

MadSki

Junior Member
Mar 26, 2021
10
3
41
Hi Guys,

I wonder if any of you came across something similar and perhaps could suggest what to look at. Long story short: PC occasionally makes fairly faint arcing/coil whine type of noise. It's super random, sometimes lasts half a second and another it can be few seconds, can happen several times in quick succession and then not happen at all for a day or two. I mostly notice it when web browsing as the sound is rather faint. Here is a vid of it(3 separate samples combined into one)

Microphone was located directly next to psu back grill.

I've had this system for about a year and never noticed this sound only started to notice it after I put a "real" graphics card in(for about 10 months it was running with a puny GT 710), but it's definitely not the gfx card that's making a sound(tried with msi 3080 and asus 3060 - sound happens with both). It's not the psu either, tested with Corsair 850w and evga 650w - again, with either psu noise still occurs. Unfortunately I no longer have the GT 710 to test with.

I'm a bit puzzled, with psu and gfx excluded that pretty much leaves the mobo/cpu and SSDs. I've had coil whine on gpus under load but this one is different, not sure if that's a sign of imminent failure or what? Any thoughts?

Btw, the mobo is msi x570 Tomahawk Wifi with stock 5900x in it, Patriot Viper Steel 2x16gb 3600, Sabrent Rocket 3 and a Samsung 980.

Regards
Mads
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
3,365
1,118
106
Well, you already ruled out the PSU / GPU which would have been my guess. Since it's more related to the load of the RTX 3xxx cards I suspect maybe there's a board issue or maybe the power leads not fully seated.

The only correlation is swapping to the higher power draw cards. Maybe it's just enough to show any weakness on the board. As to immanent failure? Might just be a minor annoyance or it could be something larger brewing under the higher load.

You could really rule out any PSU issues with a tester for ~$20 just for peace of mind before diving into a board issue.
 

MadSki

Junior Member
Mar 26, 2021
10
3
41
Thanks, but everything is fully seated. What's bizarre is that while they are higher power draw cards, the noise occurs while web browsing and that's when both cards sit idle at around 10-15W.

What PSU tester do you mean?
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
3,365
1,118
106
Agree and that leads back to the board. Someone else might have a different idea though. You could strip it back to the basics and test while adding in parts. If the GPU is the only add on component it's a quick test.
 

MadSki

Junior Member
Mar 26, 2021
10
3
41
Yeah, might do that if I find some time. Or perhaps just move the case further away from the desk so that I don't hear it and try to forget it's there :)
 

MadSki

Junior Member
Mar 26, 2021
10
3
41
Yeah, I'm not even considering RMA for that exact reason. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to live with it and hope that one day it doesn't go up in smoke and take other things with it...
 
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In2Photos

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2007
1,603
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That sounds like something rubbing against fan blades.

I would test everything outside the case. Perhaps there is some odd resonance occurring with the additional weight of the new GPUs (3060 and 3080 are quite a bit larger than the 710). Maybe a loose motherboard screw or something rubbing together occasionally?
 

Muadib

Lifer
May 30, 2000
17,914
838
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That sounds like something rubbing against fan blades.

I would test everything outside the case. Perhaps there is some odd resonance occurring with the additional weight of the new GPUs (3060 and 3080 are quite a bit larger than the 710). Maybe a loose motherboard screw or something rubbing together occasionally?
I agree, and since this is a X570 board, Madski should check the fan on the chipset.
 

MadSki

Junior Member
Mar 26, 2021
10
3
41
That sounds like something rubbing against fan blades.

I would test everything outside the case. Perhaps there is some odd resonance occurring with the additional weight of the new GPUs (3060 and 3080 are quite a bit larger than the 710). Maybe a loose motherboard screw or something rubbing together occasionally?

I know that's what it sounds like but no cables are even near the any of the blades. But yeah, maybe the best approach is to take it out of the case, if it happens again at least it would give me a chance to roughly determine where the sound is coming from. Will give it a go over the weekend.

@Muadib I did suspect the chipset fan originally but I never see that thing spin other than briefly after a reboot. I thought that's normal behaviour though, considering this machine is pretty much idling most of the time.

@Harry_Wild Nice idea but the hassle of it is just too much for me :)