Mystery Noise HDD CPU GPU?

[lylesloudmouth]

hey guys,

 

im inching towards the end of my rope. heres a nutshell version of the story:

 

this noise started last summer, when i left my webcam and recording software running all day to find out how my cat was getting into some stuff around my room. i come home and its making this awful noise. i figured, ok, the computer doesnt like that running all day long. so i didnt do it again. fast forward to a few months ago. i was playing M&B warband a lot, and all the sudden, the same noise starts, except only in the menu screens (where the FPS shot to like 120 - 130..somewhere around there) but not during actual game play. so i google the unholy s*** out of this noise, describing it as anything from a whine or a beep, squeal etc etc to no avail. i finally resort to gutting my tower (which was ballsy cause im essentially useless at any and all things computer, except breaking them) and noticing that the fans, all the hardware guts, everything is covered in dust (i smoked like it was my job in the room i was in at the time). so i clean it. all the fans, lightly w/ qtips around everything, got tweezers and pinched all the stuck smoke grime buildup stuff around the fan blades, until it was pretty much spotless. cross my fingers, put it all back together and bam, computer actually turns on (to my astonishment) and on top of that the sound is gone. celebration ensues in the form of M&B fun for next few months

 

so i got sick of M&B, and reinstalled skyrim, running close to the 215 mark for .esps, a few textures SMIMM, amidianborn, 2K light, you know the drill, standard stuff. and all the sudden the bastard is back, with a vengence. this time its making the sound in game as opposed to just the menu screens, and in the menu screens and sometimes after i shut down the game it sticks around for a few seconds. it also happens sometimes briefly when im converting videos taken on my android with windows live movie maker. and i have NO f***ing CLUE what it is.

 

like i said ive googled the crap out of this noise trying to follow every lead i could, i thought it was maybe a BIOS beep code, a coil whine, my harddrive failing, my graphics card failing... i just dont know. all im really doing is regurgitating things google turned up when i searched computer warning beep/whine/whatever.

 

so i made a video of the my computer making the sound. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwaaNNTJvjk&feature=youtu.be noise starts at 0:23.

i am positive it is not coming from the speakers, but from the guts of the tower somewhere, and i unfortunately do not know too many specs about my computer. heres what i do know

 

windows7 x64

intel i3-2120 CPU@ 3.30GHZ x4

8 gigs ddr3

amd radeon 6570

 

like i said im pretty awful with computer stuff, so if any kind souls out there feel like helping and wanna remind me how to pull up my specs to be more specific, if needed to help me troubleshoot, feel free. and besides that, ANY input AT ALL would be appreciated.

 

thanx in advance for anyone willing to read/help

 

**edit** btw this results in no CTDs, framerate drops or infinite loading screens or anything im used to, as far as problems running skyrim are concearned. which i guess is a good thing, but all the more infuriating cause its not actually affecting the game or computer (that im aware of), but is just annoying as all hell. and of course, i know that its happening for a reason, which makes me worry that some part of my machine is on its way down the toilet, which obv id like to avoid

Edited June 27, 2014 by lylesloudmouth

[Thor.]

ITTSSS ALLLIIIVVVEE!!!! :woot:

 

Okay hmm sounds like it could be a ethernet card beeping, or its trying to communicate with you, or mobo onboard sound, any idea where its coming from. Open the case and see if you can give a good look where the beeping may be coming from, then round out the possibilities.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Thor.

[lylesloudmouth]

thanx for the suggestion Thor.,

 

ive opened the case already and poked around. its difficult for me to pinpoint what area the sound is coming from. everything appears to be running smoothly. ive googled motherboard and ethernet cards warning sounds and havent found anything that matches the sound ive got. the only thing that i DO know isnt looking to hot is the fans and the dust build up again. not nearly the level it was at the first time around when i cleaned it, but its there and its sizeable. cleaning is my next step, and hopefully someone on the board will have a little more of an idea.

[Vagrant0]

get a tube from the center of a toilet paper roll and an earplug. Put the earplug in one ear (finger also works), and put one open end of the tube to the other ear. Put the other end of the tube near various parts of your computer. By limiting the sound you should be able to have a better sense of where it is coming from and work from there.

 

It doesn't have to actually be any sort of audio warning component but could be related to some sort of physical grinding that has started because of the case or components being jostled from the first cleaning. The bearings in one of your fans as the fan increases or decreases speed slightly for example, or a potential harddrive malfunction. Certain types of fans were designed in a way so that they would give a warning before they went completely dead.

[JimboUK]

You could use a mic and any app with a sound meter, even an app with a meter installed on your phone should do the job.

[Tidus44]

I am at work this morning and the Department IT guy was in updating the computer dispatch system in the apparatus so I asked him to take a listen to the video.

 

He says that is almost certainly the BIOS reporting an error, but it isn't giving a clear code. There can be any number of reasons for this and it may be difficult to find out what the problem is. A first place to check is the BIOS Log File. That can be accessed through Control Panel or the BIOS menu on starting the computer.

 

If no specific BIOS error, then ensure anything sending out a radio frequency signal is removed. Things like wireless keyboards, mouse, routers, cell phone, wireless house phone, etc. are no where near the vicinity. Peripherals should be removed one at a time to test as it may be a malfunctioning mouse, keyboard, etc.

 

Make sure everything is plugged in securely and not loose. Power, internet, etc. cables into the computer and that the connection hardware is not wobbly as they can break off or get cracked. A common problem is with connections with threaded connections as people tighten them too much and crack/break them off the card/board they are attached to.

 

Next is check drivers, particularly sound drivers to ensure they are working properly.

 

Then check the interior of the computer for loose connections or parts. A loose RAM or card (video/audio) or a connection (HDD plugin) may be the problem.

 

The final thing was that it may be caused because something has overheated (the computer was on for a day and it seems like it occurs when playing a game) and is slightly damaged, but not sufficiently to cause a complete failure, just an intermittent error.

 

The paramedic on shift listened too and he said be thankful that it wasn't an AED you have connected to yourself. The beep was a flat-line tone - meaning your heart stopped.

 

Anyway, hope something here helps and you get whatever fixed.

[FMod]

This is a BIOS thermal warning sound. If you had a UPS, they can also give similar warnings.

 

In your BIOS there will be a feature called "CPU warning temperature" (can be another one for System), it is usually set to an unreasonably low threshold. The warning doesn't indicate anything has failed, it simply indicates that the particular temperature value, as set in BIOS, has been reported by a sensor. Typical warning temperatures are between 60C and 80C, well within completely safe bounds. You can set it to disabled to remove the sound.

 

If these warnings were correlated with an increased incidence of crashes etc, it would be caused by the CPU throttling. As a half-measure, you can set the warning to the highest temperature permitted. However, disabling it completely is safe too, modern CPU will not let themselves die to overheating.

 

But, when doing so, clean everything again, turn it on, and pay attention to all the fans. Check that they are all running. Make sure the case air intakes are clean. Your CPU is very weak and uses little power, but the stock cooler is junk too.

 

Oh, and while this is a personal thing, might be worthwhile to clean up your game... there is no way it's doing 60fps on your system. Loading up on every mod you find is fun, but realistically, most mod setups can have 25%-35% of the mods removed with no noticeable difference to the player.

[lylesloudmouth]

@FMod, Tidus44, jim_uk and Vagrant0,

thank you guys very much. sorry i never replied to your offering help. very soon after the OP, some personal s#*! got messy and i wound up having to move that afternoon. fortunately, i only managed to get one trip done (which was just my computer, since i dont have a car) and wound up moving back later that night, (cause you know living with your gf of 5 years can be wacky like that), and completely forgot that i even posted this! im pretty silly, sorry.

 

anyway heres the update, i wound up cleaning all the dust and gunk and whatnot out again, and upon initial restart of the computer, the noise persisted. restarted again and the noise was gone :laugh: been running for around a week with no issues! all of your input is appreciated especially Tidus44 for going out of your way to ask an IT guy, and FMod for the apparent certainty. im sure my fight with this f*#@er isnt over, and since cleaning has helped both times, im going to continue to do that when it resurfaces and im going to look more into learning about BIOS temps and whatnot probably this afternoon!!

 

thank you guys again!!