Can't trace high pitched sound and startup noise

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loninappleton
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:19 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Can't trace high pitched sound and startup noise

Post by loninappleton » Fri Mar 26, 2010 12:28 pm

After fooling around with fans figuring a different size fan would reduce a high pitched noise, I have come here for advice.

I saw the post about Coil whine but I don't know if this is the same thing.

At startup, there is some noise maybe from PS like fan spin up and then that noise settles down to nothing. But later on I have noticed a high pitched sound higher than 60hz electric but not like tube noises ( which are extremely high.) I thought it had something to do with the frequency of the chip.

This is a new Biostar board with AMD dual core chip and a Hercules inexpensive PS. The memory is Kingston DDR2.

I don't think damping tricks will fix this.

But would swapping out the PS or fully understanding coil whine be of some help?

magu2k
Posts: 30
Joined: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:44 am
Location: Canada

Post by magu2k » Wed Mar 31, 2010 8:29 am

inexpensive PS
Could be that.
At startup, there is some noise maybe from PS like fan spin up and then that noise settles down to nothing.
It is normal for video card fans to really give a good spin up during post. I can't say so much for Nvidia, but definitely ATI's. Some CPU fans may do this too.
I would start unplugging stuff one by one, startup, and shut down before it goes to boot your OS. For stuff, IE the power supply, maybe swap it out and see how it sounds then.
Then you can eliminate items and determine what is causing it.

loninappleton
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:19 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Post by loninappleton » Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:02 am

I have been listening to things.

On another rig one of fans seems to have a normal low hum from the blades depending on fan size (smaller fan equals higher whine) has a secondary high pitched frequency.

I only notice this sort of thing when watching media and everything is quiet. But where I am I like the quiet so no loud music or other things.

The spinup problem though is surely in the PS.

What is the best quiet, low speed case size fan that you know of from your reviews here? The bigger the better and the slower rotation the better.

In my effort to get the noise down I have made my own solution to cpu cooling: a case fan mounted on 4 inch threaded screws with nylon feet stood horizontally. Laugh if you must but my bench style open case rigs work without heating up. I retain the heat sink from the cpu fan. The idea pretty much came from the Zylotron (whatevs) oversized fans CPU for custom builds.

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