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geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: Freezzy on Sun, 28 April 2013, 01:59:13

Title: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Freezzy on Sun, 28 April 2013, 01:59:13
Now first of all, I'm not the guy that likes to do dirty stuff with the actual parts, Oh but OP how did you get the compu- *slap*. This thread isn't about how I got my computer >=I

Basically, being said I'm not the guy that knows how everything is called...
Woke up, wen't to my PC. Started it up, after a while I noticed this little tk - trk (the sound might have been there for a long time when I think of it). But it's really silent and you can barely hear it over the fan, it happens time to time, randomly. I was thinking of all the bad scenarios that can happen and I started to get really nervous over it. Then I enabled my super hearing (A.K.A Put your ear next to the computer >.>) And I noticed the strange noise is coming from the front panel, where the USB's, headphones, microphone, DVD, AC/DC. All those things, so it's not my PSU, not the hard drive and the other goodies, I felt a relief. But that being said, the noise is still there, it's not a lawnmower or anything like that, I can live with it easily, but is it actually something that I should be nervous of, or does every one has that sound.

Long story short: Tk, Trk - silent sound coming from the front panel, where USB's, DVD, audio jack's, etc. Not my PSU, not the hard drive, not anything Graphics/video card related, and not the fan either.

Oh and btw, hopefully this is the right forums for it. If not... Hello moderators q.q
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: tjcaustin on Sun, 28 April 2013, 02:12:02
Sounds like a cable getting caressed by a fan.

Or someone installed a small roulette table in your pc
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Freezzy on Sun, 28 April 2013, 02:15:58
Sounds like a cable getting caressed by a fan.

Or someone installed a small roulette table in your pc

Hmm, I doubt, my fan is on the other side, running silently, and the sound, it's coming from the front panel as I said, it's pretty random and not constantly there.

I'm thinking it might be ninjas though. Damn ninjas.
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: TheQsanity on Sun, 28 April 2013, 03:00:56
Front fan?
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: IvanIvanovich on Sun, 28 April 2013, 10:16:20
Noise like that, most likely coming from mechanical hard drive which are usually located against front, pretty common noise for seek and nothing to be alarmed over unless it gets really loud and noticeable often.
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Freezzy on Sun, 28 April 2013, 14:11:00
Noise like that, most likely coming from mechanical hard drive which are usually located against front, pretty common noise for seek and nothing to be alarmed over unless it gets really loud and noticeable often.

It is noticable often, but you just gotta "hear it". But if you're gaming with/without headphones and/or listening to music, or just being focused to something. You won't hear it at all, it's barely hearable over the fan, and my fan ISN'T Loud at all.
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: TheQsanity on Sun, 28 April 2013, 16:02:00
Video?
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Leslieann on Sun, 28 April 2013, 16:15:07
Ticking in a computer is no joke.

There is only a few moving parts in a computer, most of them fans.
If it's a cable hitting a fan, it should be fairly consistent as fans spin all the time (99.999% anyway). While you say it's not the hard drive, it being intermittent means it very well could be the drive. A quiet tick can be normal operation, but a fairly audible one is a VERY BAD SIGN.

One way you can check is to access a program with your head near the system, you should hear normal drive operation. If your tick is louder than that, you you don't have a tick, you have the "click of death". If that is the case DO NOT SHUT DOWN THE SYSTEM. Start making backups NOW, for the next time it sleeps or shuts down could be the last time it ever functions.
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: TacticalCoder on Sun, 28 April 2013, 18:56:24
Toroid coil?  :eek:

Unlikely to be the source of the "tk trk" noise you're describing but toroid coils, although non-moving parts, can be incredibly noisy (so noisy that the first time you experience it you'd never guess it was a coil making that noise)   :))
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Freezzy on Mon, 29 April 2013, 05:27:28
Ticking in a computer is no joke.

There is only a few moving parts in a computer, most of them fans.
If it's a cable hitting a fan, it should be fairly consistent as fans spin all the time (99.999% anyway). While you say it's not the hard drive, it being intermittent means it very well could be the drive. A quiet tick can be normal operation, but a fairly audible one is a VERY BAD SIGN.

One way you can check is to access a program with your head near the system, you should hear normal drive operation. If your tick is louder than that, you you don't have a tick, you have the "click of death". If that is the case DO NOT SHUT DOWN THE SYSTEM. Start making backups NOW, for the next time it sleeps or shuts down could be the last time it ever functions.

It was already put to sleep and shut down like 100 times. It isn't as loud today, it was just morning and the level of my OCD is too damn high. Sometimes I when I hear other sounds ex. coming from my sisters TV next door, it's basically kind-of the same sound, so I might have confused to that, I don't hear it anymore today, only when I put my ear right next to it. But it's more like of a, scratching your nail into something. So I guess it's the fan hitting something, I sit right next to my computer, and the actual case has a lot of holes, so it doesn't really keep the sound inside it. But meh, I might have over reacted really
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Elrick on Mon, 29 April 2013, 07:00:14
If electrical items are displaying the same consistent problems and what not, have you checked to see the voltage levels are correct within your house hold power outlet?

I had to personally install a number of Industrial UPS's throughout the basement of my house because I had suffered great problems with low and high levels of electrical current (130V to 290V)  hence a lot of electrical devices such as the Fridges, TV's, Stereo Equipment and Computer's would get damaged/die-off.

After going the UPS way all the electrical items are now quiet (no noise) and operate like normal.

I went all out to solve my problem because I live in the back-water's of an isolated place hence my need to normalize the current was important.
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Leslieann on Mon, 29 April 2013, 14:49:10
I had to personally install a number of Industrial UPS's throughout the basement of my house because I had suffered great problems with low and high levels of electrical current (130V to 290V)  hence a lot of electrical devices such as the Fridges, TV's, Stereo Equipment and Computer's would get damaged/die-off.
You can get whole house line conditioners to stabilize the power.

Sadly the US midwest is like that too, and not the backwoods paces even.
I have lived all over the U.S. and NEVER, EVER have I gone through light bulbs, routers and other equipment like we I do here.  Lights are always dimming as they mess with the power.
Title: Re: Weird noise coming from the PC (Front panel side)
Post by: Internetlad on Mon, 29 April 2013, 17:53:23
the most obvious would be something mechanical, Hard Drives often tick repetatively if they're failing. Any chance you have a floppy or optical drive in that bad boy?

Either that or roaches.