Low but audible sound coming from PC, chirp's/squeals every 1 second

there is a sound coming from the inside of my PC, it is a low, but very audible sound that i can hear over my 6 120mm fans from 4 feet away.

i've stopped all the fans in my computer and i still hear it, what could it be?

my mb is new and i've only used it for 1 month. i've stuck my entire head into the computer already as close as i can and i still can't determine the sound. if it is a capacitor squealing, how can i tell?

the sound comes only when i'm within windows though, i dont hear it when i'm in the bios, not in the booting process of loading windows. i hear it at idle..

what can be causing this?

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Originally Posted by LOUISSSSS

there is a sound coming from the inside of my PC, it is a low, but very audible sound that i can hear over my 6 120mm fans from 4 feet away.

i've stopped all the fans in my computer and i still hear it, what could it be?

my mb is new and i've only used it for 1 month. i've stuck my entire head into the computer already as close as i can and i still can't determine the sound. if it is a capacitor squealing, how can i tell?

the sound comes only when i'm within windows though, i dont hear it when i'm in the bios, not in the booting process of loading windows. i hear it at idle..

what can be causing this?

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A lot of 8800GT's squeal, everyone that I had did.

the weirdest thing, i thought i was volting my mb too high, so i went to bios and reduced my vCore 2 notches down. it didn't squeal in bios, didn't in booting up or login screen, but squealed once i got into windows, then i decided to stability test my new lower voltage so i booted up linX and used all ram as usual and the squealing went away...

its running 25 passes now and i'll report if i hear it during or after the test

so i just finished the 25 passes of linX w/o hearing the squealing.

i'm idling now and it comes back... what kind of squealing only comes during idling???

the UD3R/UD3P's are notorious for this.most ignore it,it comes from the PWM/chokes area.
some people return thier boards only to a new board and still have the noise.it usually
occurs when Oc'ed and under load, but i never heard about it at idle

yea it comes every second because i can match it w/ my windows sidebar telling me my cpu usage is around 0-5% and refreshes every 1 second along with a chirp from my PC. this sucks since i'm sure most of you guys get paranoid when ur pc makes sound in any way out of the ordinary. i know i do: my pc must work 100% of the time all the time or else i start getting nervous

but anyway, its so weird its doing it right now as i type @ idle w/ no programs open except: cpu-z and cpuID HW monitor.
weirder is: it doesn't happen in bios, or while loading up windows, or at the windows login screen, or while i'm @ 100% cpu load.

a bird i think one insid your pc case happened to my budd same thing

Welcome to coil whine.

doesn't happen on my ud3p. though I had an Abit fatality socket 775 a few years ago that did that, but was under load. I found that the noise was coming from around the CPU socket. Probably voltage regulators or mosfets, or even capacitors. still, nothing I could really do about it

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Originally Posted by LOUISSSSS

yea it comes every second because i can match it w/ my windows sidebar telling me my cpu usage is around 0-5% and refreshes every 1 second along with a chirp from my PC. this sucks since i'm sure most of you guys get paranoid when ur pc makes sound in any way out of the ordinary. i know i do: my pc must work 100% of the time all the time or else i start getting nervous

but anyway, its so weird its doing it right now as i type @ idle w/ no programs open except: cpu-z and cpuID HW monitor.
weirder is: it doesn't happen in bios, or while loading up windows, or at the windows login screen, or while i'm @ 100% cpu load.

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Not getting that it's your video card yet? :cool:

Run furmark and listen for it to fluctuate pitch.

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Originally Posted by ReverendMaynard

Not getting that it's your video card yet? :cool:

Run furmark and listen for it to fluctuate pitch.

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Or don't. Furmark brings out the worse =\. I wonder how bad a tri sli set up sounds lol.

@LOUISSSSS, turn off eist and C1E in your bios, my PSU was making noises when my i7 was idling but not while in bios or under load until I turned those both off.

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Originally Posted by ReverendMaynard

Not getting that it's your video card yet? :cool:

Run furmark and listen for it to fluctuate pitch.

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no, it dont think its my video card. i'm running furmark as we speak and i still hear the sound.

the only weird thing is: the sound isn't there when i'm playing cs:s, but IS there when i'm running furmark @ 25% cpu load.

there is no fluctuation in pitch, nor anything different than not running furmark

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Originally Posted by hellcamino

@LOUISSSSS, turn off eist and C1E in your bios, my PSU was making noises when my i7 was idling but not while in bios or under load until I turned those both off.

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hmm i wish that were so since you're symptom were the closest to mine (sounds under idle), my c1e and eist are both disabled already...

i'm willing to lower my OC for the sound to go away, would u guys think lowering the vCore would help or the MCH Core? (pls dont make it more difficult and say both lol) im currently @ 1.425vCore/1.26MCH Core that is LINX 25 pass stable

don't they use some kind of non-conducting sound damping goo on the fat coils inside PSUs to quiet them down (I believe it looks like sealing caulk)? something like that on a smaller scale might work if it's coil whine.

Errrr that's cause the source engine is no where near as stressful as furmark. [Dude this is a normal thing with gpus. Everyone has it =p].

=D

Yes there is something you can use but it's like hair gel [ie no chance getting it off for an rma]. I totally forgot what it is called but I wouldn't bother.

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Originally Posted by MomijiTMO

Errrr that's cause the source engine is no where near as stressful as furmark. [Dude this is a normal thing with gpus. Everyone has it =p].

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i'm not getting it...

you say its my gpu but:
yes sound: idling, furmark
no sound: cs:s, linX, p95 Large

how can you say its my gpu??

Are you sure all powersaving features are turned off? You said EIST and C1E. What about C-States? There is a known issue of squeal with Intel CPUs with powersaving kicking in at idle taking the PC to C3/C4 states. What does realtemp show for the multi at idle?

Do you have the PC hooked to the UPS? If yes, try the wall directly.

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Originally Posted by LOUISSSSS

i'm not getting it...

you say its my gpu but:
yes sound: idling, furmark
no sound: cs:s, linX, p95 Large

how can you say its my gpu??

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Tbh dude I re-read the thread and paid closer attention this time...I am betting it's your video card. Use a piece of hose left over from a water cooling build or something (as long as it's clean and dry) and with the side off of your case, put one end up to your ear and move the other end around near components in your pc. When it sounds like it's squealing in your ear you found the problem! RMA the problem if it bugs you that much.

LOUIS, everything you've showed so far points to the graphics card. If prime doesn't make the coils scream, obviously it's not stressing the shaders. Win 7 and Vistas aero desktop are 3D, and run by the pixel shaders....hence the whine. CS:S doesn't stress your card as much as aero.

Every nVidia card that I've owned since the 8800GTS 640 has screamed like a stuck pig. 8800GT's are NOTORIOUS for it, you'd be lucky if it didn't scream.

okay i will check for the whining from my graphics card once i'm done w/ some stress testing, i just had to reset my cmos and rest my OC due to my freezing problem coming back. it looks like resetting the cmos fixes the freezing. what a PITA tho w/ my wc setup in the way of the cmos bat

Read the Whole thread and I got to agree with ReverendMaynard, your issue sounds like a typical GPU whine.
I used to get in 3DMark 06, still do actually :)
Its pretty common.