Random grinding noise.

[Bubbleawsome]

Hello all, today when I started up my computer, a sound that can only be described as unearthly came from within. I tried to turn it off and on again, and instantly, the same thing. I give a third try, but this time I remove my external hard drive, but it doesn't help. I finally give in and unplug everything, move it out of its cubbyhole, and re set it up without its side panel. I turn it on and there was no sound! I set it up in its normal position again, turn it on and no sound!

So now I am wondering what it was. I know it was not either of my case fans or my CPU fan, I doubt it was my gpu fan or HDD, and I kind of suspect my PSU, but I have no idea. The psu and videocard are both near exactly 1 year old, everything else is nearly 4 years old.

It was really a horrible, loud sound, and I have no idea what would make that sound. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!

 

[Torn Mind]

Has to be a fan. Nothing else in the computer really moves on a macroscopic level.

 

[mfenn]

Has to be a fan. Nothing else in the computer really moves on a macroscopic level.

An HDD spins its platters at a macroscopic level.

But anyway, since the sound went away when you moved the PC, I'm betting that a wire or something had gotten close to a fan blade. Moving it around could have gotten it loose.

 

[Berliner]

Have you checked that all your hard drives still work ok? Sounds should be either from them or a fan.

Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Have you checked that your hard drive still work ok? Sounds should be either from them or a fan.

Better to be safe than sorry.

Fixed it. It's rather horrible on the storage side. But yeah, it's working fine.

An HDD spins its platters at a macroscopic level.

But anyway, since the sound went away when you moved the PC, I'm betting that a wire or something had gotten close to a fan blade. Moving it around could have gotten it loose.

All my wires are far from my fans. And it was more of a grinding than a buzz. I have no idea, it's bugging me.

 

[Torn Mind]

An HDD spins its platters at a macroscopic level.

But anyway, since the sound went away when you moved the PC, I'm betting that a wire or something had gotten close to a fan blade. Moving it around could have gotten it loose.

True, true.

Anyway, Bubbleawesome, I still think it is the fan. I too have a setup that randomly went into "grinding noise" mode and it was alleviated by rocking the computer back and forth until it was gone. I suspect it was from the now-retired piece of crap Okia case PSU that powered that Socket 478 system. The -surprisingly- quiet fan in that PSU is usually drowned out by the loud "jet engine" heatsink fa(s no wires near the heatsink fan), but occasionally, the "grinding noise" pops up.

As an aside, the PSU never actually caused much trouble during its life(except one non-reproducible instance in which closing Firefox shut down the whole computer), but I could hear its terribly filtered power when there was a periodic pulsing sound coming through my speakers; that sound did not occur with the Neo Eco 520C or $18 used OEM Seasonic(with OST, not Japanese caps) PSU.
Although, its power delivery was truly shoddy because a SATA drive added to it would not be consistently detected.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Well, I think it is the PSU now. The entire computer shutdown and rebooted after about 3 hours of gaming. :| Going to redo a SMART and virus scan, but I'm pretty sure it is the psu.
I got this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182131

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Sorry to cross reference forums here, I know it's dark magic, but I wandered over to a few different places, and ended up on TH. It ended up like this.
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1898744/550w-psu-dead.html#12029431
Well, I'm wondering if a 750w PSU is enough with an overclocked 280x. They are just crazy 7970s, so that's a ton of power. I would be running near 24/7, sometimes folding, sometimes gaming. Help?

 

[sm625]

I installed an aftermarket cooler on my video card a few years ago, and it has always made a strange sound when starting up cold.

 

[mfenn]

Where does the 280X come into play, are you thinking of buying one? You definitely aren't overloading it with your current system (you could draw ~220W absolute max). It's still possible that your PSU could be failing, but since you mention that your PC is in a cubby hole, I suspect your problem has more to do with overheating. Try taking your PC out of the cubby hole and leaving the side panel off.

As for Tom's, I had to laugh at the guy suggesting a 1000W PSU for somebody with an i7 870 and a 7770.

 

[Charlie98]

It's still possible that your PSU could be failing, but since you mention that your PC is in a cubby hole, I suspect your problem has more to do with overheating. Try taking your PC out of the cubby hole and leaving the side panel off.

...and along those lines, have you cleaned any dust off/out of the components lately? A thin layer of dust acts as an insulator and further restricts airflow. About every 3-4 months I blow the dust out of the computer and it's components... including the PSU. I'm always amazed at how much has accumulated...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Zuul

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Where does the 280X come into play, are you thinking of buying one? You definitely aren't overloading it with your current system (you could draw ~220W absolute max). It's still possible that your PSU could be failing, but since you mention that your PC is in a cubby hole, I suspect your problem has more to do with overheating. Try taking your PC out of the cubby hole and leaving the side panel off.

As for Tom's, I had to laugh at the guy suggesting a 1000W PSU for somebody with an i7 870 and a 7770.

The 1000w guy might have been me, but for my system with a 280x, as I would like to upgrade. It isn't overheating though, CPU stays under 80c while the GPU is under 70c.

...and along those lines, have you cleaned any dust off/out of the components lately? A thin layer of dust acts as an insulator and further restricts airflow. About every 3-4 months I blow the dust out of the computer and it's components... including the PSU. I'm always amazed at how much has accumulated...

Haven't blown out the PSU, everything else is clean.

Ok, tried a Kill-a-watt to get an idea of where I am at.

Idle: ~70w
Internet: ~90w
GPU only: ~140w
CPU only: P95 Pegs 185w, IBT pegs 190w
EVERYTHINGPOWARRR: ~240w
Gaming: ~150w

So, if my cpu+system=190w and cpu+system+gpu= 240w then why is my GPU only using 50w? It should use 120w. :\
But then your estimate of 220w max with my GPU at +20% is 240w, so I'll trust you guys.
So now why could I be getting shutdowns and freezes? My videocard is failing, but I assumed it was due to the PSU.
Help...

UPDATE: During my gaming test, I BSOD'ed, my fault though. But it made me think, only 2 programs cause my system to hard lock or reboot. Kerbal space program and folding at home, it lasted through a literal 10 hour gaming session of everything else, but not even 1 hour of kerbal. Any ideas?

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Update, I booted today and something is rattling very faintly inside. Sounds like an unbalanced fan. :| It's not the HDD though.

 

[mvbighead]

Easiest thing to do if the noise is persistent is to stop fans until you find the one that is bad. Just stop them briefly, but long enough to determine if the noise is gone.

Typically, I've seen a lot of sleeve bearing fans have issues. Normally ball bearing fans don't seem to have them as often. But typically, if it intermittent, it usually is a fan. If a hard drive makes noise... it generally always makes noise when reading/writing.

 

[Charlie98]

Update, I booted today and something is rattling very faintly inside. Sounds like an unbalanced fan. :| It's not the HDD though.

One of the case fans that came in my HAF922 case had a chip out of one of the fan blades... it always make an odd noise until I replaced it.

Remember, fans wear out, too...

 

[Torn Mind]

The 1000w guy might have been me, but for my system with a 280x, as I would like to upgrade. It isn't overheating though, CPU stays under 80c while the GPU is under 70c.

Haven't blown out the PSU, everything else is clean.

Ok, tried a Kill-a-watt to get an idea of where I am at.

Idle: ~70w
Internet: ~90w
GPU only: ~140w
CPU only: P95 Pegs 185w, IBT pegs 190w
EVERYTHINGPOWARRR: ~240w
Gaming: ~150w

So, if my cpu+system=190w and cpu+system+gpu= 240w then why is my GPU only using 50w? It should use 120w. :\
But then your estimate of 220w max with my GPU at +20% is 240w, so I'll trust you guys.
So now why could I be getting shutdowns and freezes? My videocard is failing, but I assumed it was due to the PSU.
Help...

You must remember to multiply the approximate efficiency percentage as the wall reading of watt includes heat generated per second due to converting AC current to DC current. Or in mathematical form: Wall wattage = wattage(component draw) + wattage(heat dissipation per second)

Efficiency varies with load. Max efficiency occurs when the DC WATTAGE pulled is around 50% of the rated load.

So, assuming 85% efficiency(an overestimate since it is under 50% of the rated load of 550W) your component wattage pull is around 209 watts when you push everything to the max and 36 watts is dissipated as heat.

Assuming, 83% efficiency(probably right on target), your components would draw 203.3 watts but about an extra 42 watts is dissipated as heat.

Your components are actually using only about 125 watts when gaming. 125/550 is a little over 22% of the rated load, so efficiency will be around 82 %. 125 W/.82=152.43 W

I'm not surprised. The 7770 is a power efficient card with an 80W TDP while Nehalem chips were toasty ones.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

Wow. I though my 7770 had a 100w TDP. Well, I guess I won't know whats wrong with the thing until I replace everything one by one. D:

 

[Torn Mind]

Probably want to run whocrashed so you can see the BSOD dump file info and post it here.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

When it hard locks and does or instant shutdown it doesn't leave an error log. Over the past month though my GPU has fallen in it's overclock from 1200 to 1100 to 1050. When it crashes due to too high of an OC I get an AMD miniport on whocrashed.

 

[mfenn]

Zuul

Tarkas are better.

 

[mfenn]

Idle: ~70w
Internet: ~90w
GPU only: ~140w
CPU only: P95 Pegs 185w, IBT pegs 190w
EVERYTHINGPOWARRR: ~240w
Gaming: ~150w
/QUOTE]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Data is the best way to go, kudos to you for measuring.

When it hard locks and does or instant shutdown it doesn't leave an error log. Over the past month though my GPU has fallen in it's overclock from 1200 to 1100 to 1050. When it crashes due to too high of an OC I get an AMD miniport on whocrashed.

That does seem to indicate that the GPU is not able to handle the big overclock anymore. Set it back to stock or slightly under and see if the crashes go away.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I haven't been getting any notifications for these threads. :|

Anyways, I do have the GPU down to stock 1000/1125 but I still get a hard lock in KSP, and F@H will crash and reboot the PC somewhere between 3-17 hours. It's never lasted longer. When F@H crashes my GPU resets to something like 300/400.

The grinding sound came back, but went away after a minute or so. I have a recording from my iPad with a broken camera, but the mic works okish. I'll try and get it off my school secured itunes account.

 

[mfenn]

What happens if you enable vSync in KSP? Any difference?

 

[Bubbleawsome]

No crashes. I have it at every vblank.