City of Heroes: Live Forum Archive

Sounds like I have a nest of bees in my desktop...

Catharctic

By Catharctic,
Posted on: 2009-07-07 08:12 in ALL ACCESS Gameplay Technical Issues Bugs

 

Posted

Ok, so off and on for the past month I've heard what sounds like a nest of bees inside my desktop tower. For the record, there's none in there.

I know it's not the hard drive since I took my main C drive out and replaced it with the backup C drive. Still the same buzzing sound.

I've cleaned the fans but still the sound persists.

If I gently tap the back of the case, right under the power supply and right above the video card, the buzzing temporarily goes away, but comes back within minutes.

So, I'm thinking it's either one of two things: either something is loose and the vibration from the fan is causing the buzzing sound, or the motherboard is dying.

I doubt the motherboard is dying because it was replaced less than a year ago.

So, anyone else come across a buzzing sound from inside your tower that wasn't cause by the hard drives?

Also, if it helps, it's a Gateway 838gm.

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Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
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Posted

YEah, could be a bad bearing in a fan.

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Posted

Could also be some wiring rubbing against a fan.

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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
If I gently tap the back of the case, right under the power supply and right above the video card, the buzzing temporarily goes away, but comes back within minutes.

So, I'm thinking it's either one of two things: either something is loose and the vibration from the fan is causing the buzzing sound, or the motherboard is dying.

[/ QUOTE ]
Motherboards generally don't make any noise, even if they're dying.
From your tapping experiment, it sounds like it's a fan near the back of the case. Perhaps a rear case fan, perhaps in the power supply.

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Posted

Definitely either wires getting nicked by a fan or a fan with bad bearings. Open it up, check to make sure no wires are anywhere near fan blades (and won't be pushed into fan blades with the cover put back on). If that fails, try disconnecting the rear case fans one by one to see if the problem vanishes when one is removed.

It could also be the fan in the P/S, no way to test that unless you have a spare, so I'd try the other tests above first.

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Posted

If you see honey coming out of your USB ports, panic.

 

Posted

I've had this happen at least three times, and all three times it was a fan warping off-centre of its shaft. Twice it was the fan on my chipset, in fact. Not the big one glued to the CPU, but a smaller one off to the side, about as big as a wrist watch. I'm not really sure what it's for and if all motherboards have it, but that seems to fail more than anything else. Beyond that, I've had the fan on my video card do that once. The thing is, the fan will keep turning, but it will make a horrible sound when it does so, and tapping it DOES fix the problem. From what I've been told, the evidence that this is happening is if the fan is turning more slowly and with less force.

The only thing you can really do in this situation is open up your case when it's buzzing, stick your head in there and try to listen for the source of the sound. You should be able to pick up if not the exact source, then at least the general part of the case it's coming from, which should narrow your search area. If it's a buzzing sound, though, I'd say that's a fan.

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Posted

[ QUOTE ]
For the record, there's none in there.

[/ QUOTE ]
Gorram it, how could he have possibly known we were going to suggest that!!??

P.S. I'll put 5 to 1 odds on a fan being a tad off kilter.

 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
For the record, there's none in there.

[/ QUOTE ]
Gorram it, how could he have possibly known we were going to suggest that!!??

[/ QUOTE ]
My next guess would be hornets.

Paragon City Search And Rescue
The Mentor Project

 

Posted

Update:

After dealing with the buzzing straight through for over 24 hours, I sprayed Raid Wasp Killer™ in it and everything seems to be fine!

Well, no.. not really.

I did open the sucker up and removed the fans. Turned a giant floor fan on it and fired the sucker up. Worked fine without the buzz. One by one I added a fan back and I found that the culprit is the one attached to the motherboard... kinda.

For the life of me there are NO PHOTOS of this fan anywhere online. I searched google and google images for over 2 hours and nothing came even remotely close to looking like the fan, so I'll show you what it kinda looks like:

http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/sceusa/cpu_fan.jpg

Imagine that with a cone over it that make it twice as big...

Anyway, what I did was removed the fan itself from the silver metal "thingy", plugged the fan it without the silver part and viola... no buzzing.

One problem... the motherboard started beeping "Dixieland" (no lie.)

So, I attached the metal part to the fan, attached it to the motherboard and presto! Dixieland stopped playing and the computer booted perfectly... except that the buzzing was back.

My knowledge of PC's extends as far a being able to replace the harddrives and powersupply. Anything beyond that is a mystery.

Apparently, instead of a 24 hour buzzing sound, it now lasts for about 15 seconds then I hear a "click" then the buzzing stops for about a minute before starting up again.

So, as I see, the fan works without the metal piece though the motherboard doesn't. The metal piece (or the chip case under it, attached to the motherboard) seems like it's the problem. But why? The metal thing doesn't loot like a conduit or anything, but apparently it's needed for the motherboard.

Anyone know what this is and if there is any way to fix it? I assume buying a new fan and metal thing attachment will do it?

Also to note: I had this SAME EXACT problem one year ago. Was still under warrenty wioth Best Buy, took it in, and waited 3 months for them to give it back to me. Their diagnosis: the motherboard and power supply was fried. Although they replaced both, the fan was the same, but didn't have this problem till just now.

Thanks a lot all.

pohsyb: so of all people you must be most excited about the veats
Arachnos Commander: actually, I am
pohsyb: I mean you kinda were one already anyways ^_^
Arachnos Commander:

 

Posted

The pointy metal object is a heat synch and is used to draw the heat away from the heat sensitive parts. The fan then cools it so that the process can restart. That is about the extent of my knowldege on that. It sounds like the fan may have warped over time and be hitting one of the metal protrusions from the heat synch, but not be quite messed up enough to touch anything else.

As for it starting and stopping? It sounds like the impact with the heat synch is enought to jar the fan back into place, and then it works its way back to buzzing, only to be sent back into line... ad infinitum. Best bet IMO? Take the fan and/or the heat synch to a computer store and see if you can't get it replaced... at least that way you will know for certain that you are getting exactly what you need. I am waaaay not technical enough to tell someone how to fix a computer fan... mostly because I couldn't do it myself.


 

Posted

[ QUOTE ]
One problem... the motherboard started beeping "Dixieland" (no lie.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah, that would be an audio alert that your CPU (the 'brain' of the computer) is overheating because you took off its cooling fan. Historically, doing that would FRY the CPU and possibly the entire motherboard. Newer CPU's will generally shut down without damaging anything. Or so I hear - I sure as hell would never try it.

You need to buy a replacement fan. If you were able to take it off and replace it, you can certainly install a new one. In the meantime, don't run the computer without that fan installed.

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