Topic awaiting preservation: Strange noises in my computer...

Well I think I may have a hard drive failure brewing in my computer, but I'm not sure. The sound is quite annoying with the following charactereistics:

- Low humming
- Comes and goes
- Begins humming for 5-10 seconds, then follows with shorter bursts of humming that get progressively longer
- There is no consistent period of time without sound, just starts whenever
- Kind of sounds like a cow that wants someone to open the barn door (quiet but annoying)
- It's appearance becomes more frequent as the days go by

I don't think this is a fan issue, since I just put everything into a new computer case (tossed the old fans). Here is an mp3 that I recorded of the noise (poked the microphone in an open drive bay). I had to do some amateur noise reduction, since the 8 fans I have in my case were overpowering the sample:

strangnoise.mp3

Any help deciphering this noise is most appreciated...Thank goodness I have 2 copies of everything!

I don't really have anything intelligent to add.

I just had a good chuckle at the title of this thread when I looked at the nick of the person who started it....

:::krets.net:::

do you have a fan for your processor chip? check that one...


if you ask me, it's time to take the hood off this baby, and maybe even get the ol' stethoscope out!

seriously tho - from my limited knowledge, if it is a HDisk hum, then you should be able to pick up some vibrations from the faulty disk simply by touch. Also, they would probably be more likely to occur during read/write - which doesn't seem to be the case from what you said.

another good test is just to oil all your fans, and see if the noise stops after that. (or, you could do a fan-by-fan effort, to try and find out which one it is)

good luck, and tell us how you go.

Maybe you're suffering from tinnitus?
(jk)

I had that with the cooling fan on my processor ... exactly as you describe it. Try opening the box, and stopping the fan for a few seconds to see if it goes away. It shouldn't affect the temp. of the processor too badly.

If it is, then consider a ball-bearing fan. The sleeve bearing ones only last for a couple of years, especially in hot, dry climates.


Bug-free software only exisits in two places
A programmer's mind and a salesman's lips

i think u have a hungry cockroach in there

I once had a better (more intricate) noice problem.

My computer (motherboard, apparently) would whistle whenever I scrolled, or ran something that would require the processor to work. It was incredibly annoying, because I would be the one causing it mostly... scrolling down a thread, and it whistles along with the motions of my scrolling wheel.

Had to replace the mobo... it's been quiet ever since : )

The mooing sound in the background sounds just like the tiny little fan on the northbridge on my motherboard. Mine does it for the first 90 seconds or so after power-up.

Confirmed the diagnosis with my finger (on the hub not in the blades, ouch). Stopped fan and the noise stopped. Removed my finger, the fan started and so did the noise. I'm assuming it's a temperature issue since it goes away after a minute or two.

It's not annoying enough for me to mess with. When it stops making teh noise I'll do something.

Thanks for all of the diagnosis fellas. I checked the processor fan, and could not get anything to make noises there. My CMOS says it is running at it's normal RPM, and my CPU temp is 40 degrees C. The mobo is only 3 months old too, and the fans were shot with compressed air not 2 days ago, no dust at all. After a reboot, the noise has subsided, but it always comes back. brucew, the same behavior is with mine sometimes, when I power up...But there are times it takes a good hour or so of being on for it to begin humming.

If it really is a hard drive, I am not too concerned, as I have doubles of everything. It's just really difficult trying to pinpoint which drive is the culprit, since my case houses 5 of them. I have 2 hard drives that are at least 4 years old, so I am expecting something to die soon. It is just hard to concentrate knowing that there is something wrong in there.

I have run scandisk 3 times per drive...nothing. But then scandisk won't always detect physical problems. Perhaps just waiting it out will do since there are no temperature issues, data loss, or irregular fan RPM. I have all the important things backed up on 13 CDs, so I am not too worried.

Then i say... crank the music and wait for something to catch fire....

My hard drive used to randomly make short buzzing noises every now and then, but when I defragged it, the noises went away.

???

do you live on a farm?

if so, then it could be a real cow outside.

^^^ Hah!

But that definatly sounds like a fan to me. You could always unplug the HDD and leave the computer sitting on the cmos screen for a while to see if the noise goes away, just to be sure. The only other time I've ever heard noises like that not being fan related were with my friends CD drive as it constantly tried to read certain CD's in the drive.

Good idea Drac...I'm gonna try this in the morning. The noise has not been apparent for about 12 hours and counting...Very confusing!