19 replies to this topic

[Kondrath]

Originally, I thought the issue was my mechanical hard drive making annoying "loading" sounds whenever the PC loaded anything or whenever I moved the mouse over certain areas of the screen, but I've since replaced that HDD with an SSD, and I'm still hearing the same issue. If I move the mouse or load something, then put my ear up to the case, the sound seems to be coming from the right side of the motherboard. It's an annoying squeal / buzz, similar to a dial up modem but not as harsh. Unfortunately, the noise also travels into my new Studio Monitors, even through an external firewire sound card. I am at a loss. I have no idea what is making the noise and I have no idea how to stop it.

[neufuse]

Bad grounding on your power supply / bad or no ground on your wall outlet? I've seen issues like that occur when this was the issue... or a lot of noise on your electical line (thats why they have isolated grounds for equipment)

try taking it to someone elses house and see if you get the same noise, if so, it is probably an electical issue in the house causing it

[Shane Nokes]

So 3 questions.

Onboard Sound?
What PSU & Motherboard do you have?
Have you tried to see if it's coming from the same spot on the motherboard as the BIOS beeps? Usually the buzz is coming from that speaker.

[Osiris]

Dial up sounds ah memories. Maybe your motherboard is just feeling nostalgic

Sorry couldnt help, ill depart so that others can continue to offer help.

[LiquidCrystalMeth]

If you hear it handshake like a modem and then ask "Would you like to play a game", i would be worried

Ive had a machine do that, and it was, for me, line noise and its effect on the power supply and on to the motherboard, in the end i put in a surge/noise filtering powerboard

[Vambo]

It sounds like a ground loop. Had a friend with the same problem, every time he moved the mouse it was making a "zipping" noise.

He ended up putting passive DI boxes in line with the speakers and using the ground lift to eliminate the noise.

[Kondrath]

neufuse, on 11 September 2012 - 14:27, said:

Bad grounding on your power supply / bad or no ground on your wall outlet? I've seen issues like that occur when this was the issue... or a lot of noise on your electical line (thats why they have isolated grounds for equipment)

try taking it to someone elses house and see if you get the same noise, if so, it is probably an electical issue in the house causing it

I leave for work in a few minutes. I'll try taking it over there.

Shane Nokes, on 11 September 2012 - 14:41, said:

So 3 questions.

Onboard Sound?
What PSU & Motherboard do you have?
Have you tried to see if it's coming from the same spot on the motherboard as the BIOS beeps? Usually the buzz is coming from that speaker.

Mobo and PSU should be in sig specs. EX58 UD3R and...I can't remember the name of the PSU. Doesn't happen with onboard sound. Well, I can still hear it inside of the PC Case / Mobo, but it doesn't travel through my old speakers. It's only really noticeable with the new speakers via external firewire soundcard. (But I've had the sound card for years and it works fine on my laptop). If it's coming from the mobo speaker, can I just disable the speaker somehow?

Osiris, on 11 September 2012 - 14:47, said:

Dial up sounds ah memories. Maybe your motherboard is just feeling nostalgic

Sorry couldnt help, ill depart so that others can continue to offer help.

Haha. The good old days...

LiquidCrystalMeth, on 11 September 2012 - 14:48, said:

If you hear it handshake like a modem and then ask "Would you like to play a game", i would be worried

Ive had a machine do that, and it was, for me, line noise and its effect on the power supply and on to the motherboard, in the end i put in a surge/noise filtering powerboard

Man, just looked into noise filtering power strips aren't exactly cheap! But I Actually have one already and it doesn't help. Should I plug the PC into it or the Speakers? With the PC plugged in, it made no difference.

Vambo, on 11 September 2012 - 14:48, said:

It sounds like a ground loop. Had a friend with the same problem, every time he moved the mouse it was making a "zipping" noise.

He ended up putting passive DI boxes in line with the speakers and using the ground lift to eliminate the noise.

Yeah... That might be an option, but I'd like to eliminate the problem at the source so I don't have to worry about it traveling through the speakers to begin with.

[Azies]

Yeah let us know what happens, this is an issue I'd like to track just for curiosity's sake.

[CW-88]

One of my friends had this sorta issue with his computer. He had slightly damaged a capaciter whilst putting a gfx card in and it resulted in this noise. He tried to repair the slightly broken connection and all was well.

Zero explanation why that would cause this problem but it was resolved that way.

[neoadorable]

maybe it's a bad built in speaker and it just sounds like dial up? there's nothing on your board that would sound like that, i mean 10/100/1000 LAN controllers do not make sounds. disconnet the front panel speaker if you have one and see what happens.

[Kondrath]

I don't have a front speaker, but there are a lot of issues reported with static on the Antec 900 front out jack. Except I'm not even using that jack...I'm using an external firewire card.

If you go here and scroll down to the second post, then click "Noise while installing a program", that's what I'm hearing. But mine is a bit stronger than that. http://www.gearslutz...nk-problem.html

[Hum]

Kondrath, on 11 September 2012 - 14:20, said:

I have no idea what is making the noise and I have no idea how to stop it.

Uninstall Windows 98

[Kondrath]

Alright, I just tested it at work. Same issue!

[threetonesun]

If possible, try swapping out the power supply. Based on the amount of electrical interference in your computer case, you're probably going to have to switch out everything one at a time if you want to narrow it down, although it's most often your PSU or motherboard.

[Kondrath]

threetonesun, on 11 September 2012 - 17:59, said:

If possible, try swapping out the power supply. Based on the amount of electrical interference in your computer case, you're probably going to have to switch out everything one at a time if you want to narrow it down, although it's most often your PSU or motherboard.

The only extra PSU I have is too weak, so that probably isn't an option. Man this is awful. I wonder if buying better speaker cables would help. It's weird; when I use my old mouse, there's no "cursor moving" noise, but I still hear the PC's activity.