Capacitor whining?

[MikalCarbine257]

Just played COD2 today, such a good game. But when loading, I noticed that my computer is emitting a very distinc hissing/squeaking sound. It gets louder when the loading stops and says "Click Fire To Start"

 

Wanting to eliminate any chances of other variables, I ran the system 100% passive and loaded up COD2. Still makes that noise.. now I know its nothing mechanical... I noticed the noise occurs even when Windows is loading, and in Prime, anything intensive. I lowered my vcore down to 1.4 and the noise isn't as strong as it was before in the same scenarios. Upping the vcore (while still at stock speeds) did make the noise higher. I am going to up the MHz to see if it gets louder with that too. I did notice this noise earlier this week but it wasn't as loud.

 

I personally think a cap on my motherboard is slowly going.. but I don't know enough to actually say this. Does anyone else think this too? I highly doubt a CPU could make that noise? It IS happening on the top/right side of the motherboard. I did take a quick glance at the caps and everything looks alright.

 

I also talked to a friend with an SLI-D and he has the same problem...

[SageI]

It is usually the PSU that sings.

 

What causes this is the cap plates interal to it resonate at 60 or 400 hz depending where it is located in the power supply.

[jimmil43]

Caps usually go BANG!!!! I've never heard anything that made a whining sound except for alternator diodes.

[SageI]

Trust me I have been in electronics for 30 years caps and canned transistors can and do sing when they are working with AC.

[MikalCarbine257]

The noise isn't coming from my power supply though, yet the upper half of my motherboard. It is loudest when in 3D (especially COD2, which can be hear from several feet away) and is usually there at idle if I put my ear close

 

Forgot to mention, just thought of it in the shower lol, I have a P180 so my PSU is on the bottom of the case!! ::shake::

 

Motherboard cap then?

[red930]

You should tear the system down and make a naked build outside of the case for troubleshooting.

 

Put the rig together with just the bare essentials. Load it up with prime95 and see if you get the same sound.

 

 

If you can trace the sound to a specific cap you should contact your vendor for replacement. If you get no joy, contact Donna at DFIUSA.com

[jimmil43]

I've been a tech for 27 years and I've never heard a cap sing as loud as he said it sang., transistors do (diodes) but we're talking T5 cans and the bigger stuff. Caps blow up and smoke, burst into flames, and leak. And to the best of my knowledge there is no AC on the mother board. I've never seen a PSU with an AC output especially with the higher voltage AC to make something sing that loud.

[MikalCarbine257]

I wouldn't exactly call it singing, squeaking/almost eletrical noise sounds more appropriate. I recently had a FVS318 router that also had a bad cap/component that sang too, but this doesn't sound like that at all.

 

As for breaking down the board, what should I mount it on? Mobo box w/ anti static bag?

 

Also, who is this Donna person? I purchased this thing back in June, would newegg still replace it?

 

I'll try to get a recording of the noise tomorrow, but I won't be able to break it down until later this week

[red930]

You can use your box to build it naked.

 

Newegg has one year replacement on most items so you should check your order history.

 

Donna works for DFIUSA.

[prjkitch]

my bet is an inductor coil of which there are plenty on the board im a tv enginer so heres the cure!!!

 

1 .get a peice of thin card and roll it into a slightly conical tube

 

2 .run up machine untill whining comences (may be also caused by wife/gf)

 

3 .place on end of tube up against your ear and slowly go around the board untill noise increases

 

4. you now have location of said noisy comopnent

 

5. gently push on coils in the area to find which ones buzzing

 

6. borrow wifes nail varnish and lightly coat coil in varnish noise shoud dissapear

 

:angel: :angel: :angel:

 

hope this helps as its verry common for inductors to buzz

[jimmil43]

Damn I forgot about inductors singing. What ever you do don't put it on an ESD bag they're conductive!!!!!! Put it on something non conductive and firm. You can put a few of the stand offs on the board and use those on a regular table. prjkitch has the best ideas.

[prjkitch]

Damn I forgot about inductors singing. What ever you do don't put it on an ESD bag they're conductive!!!!!! Put it on something non conductive and firm. You can put a few of the stand offs on the board and use those on a regular table. prjkitch has the best ideas.

 

1. REMEMBER IF BOARD IS STILL UNDER WARANTY RMA IT THIS WILL PROBALY VOID WARANTY

 

2. SEND WIFE/GF SHOPPING AS THESE ALSO CREATE LOUD WHINING NOISES!!

 

3. IF WIFE OR G/F THEN A/RMA THEM OR B/ TRADE THEM IN FOR A NEWER MODEL