Help!! High Pitch Whine

[Argent74]

Just bought a new mobo (ASRock 775V88) and P4 3.4Ghz and installed everything just fine. It has a high pitch whine that I can't find, however. It's an intense whine that hurts my ears to the point where I've had ringing all day in my left ear! It's unacceptable and unbearable.

I can't find where the whine is coming from. It seems to only manifest when processing is occurring. When I boot up it doesn't start whining until running through the BIOS. When running Windows it doesn't whine unless I'm opening an app. When I run games it whines continuously.

I've unplugged or taken everything out (PCI/AGP cards, IDE drives, RAM, monitor, speakers, EVERYTHING) and booted the bare mobo in the case w/power supply and the whining still occurs. I've isolated the CPU fan and case fans and have disabled them each in turn and that didn't fix the whine. I've tightened screws on the mobo, that didn't help. Where is it coming from?? How can I make it stop?

On a side note, after using this new PC for a couple of days, the BIOS has stopped letting me into setup during POST by hitting F2. That's not as critical but also something that I'd like to fix.

Do I have a bad CPU or motherboard that I shold RMA back??

Please help!! Any ideas?

Thanks much,

Argent74

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

That would be your powersupply most likely.. I would replace it with a high quality item.

My emachines system use to do that.. They use very cheap psu's.

 

[EricB]

sound like a bad processor. i had that problem before, and the whine drove me crazy.

 

[TheMajor]

I've never heard of a processor making noise. I think its the harddrive or a FAN

 

[Argent74]

It's more like an electrical whine. Very high pitched. It's also intermittant and only manifests when there is processing.

It can't be the hard disks, I had those unplugged and it still whined. I also doubt it's a fan, I checked each fan by holding the blades still and the whining occurred even while each fan was not moving.

I'm stumped! What can an "electrical" whine mean? Can a CPU make a whining noise? I'm thinking of returning the CPU and mobo at this point.

Thanks for your replies, any other ideas?

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

I have never heard of a CPU whinning.. lol

You really should try replacing the PSU.

 

[TheMajor]

I don't think CPU's can move or vibrate that much.
Probably a FAN or the PSU.

 

[EricB]

It's more like an electrical whine. Very high pitched. It's also intermittant and only manifests when there is processing.

It can't be the hard disks, I had those unplugged and it still whined. I also doubt it's a fan, I checked each fan by holding the blades still and the whining occurred even while each fan was not moving.

I'm stumped! What can an "electrical" whine mean? Can a CPU make a whining noise? I'm thinking of returning the CPU and mobo at this point.

Thanks for your replies, any other ideas?

I had that same problem 2 month ago. I exchange my processor (and fan) at the store where I got it. the new one didn't do it. the sound bother women more than it did me. they can hear higher fequencies

everything you describe is what I was going through

a good processor make no whine, but my bad one did

 

[TheMajor]

It was probably your FAN.

 

[grego]

EricB, it could have been the fan that was with your first CPU that was making the noise.

Argent, I would bet that it's the power supply. ChaosBlizzard said he had the same symptoms from a cheap PSU. Think about it. It only happens when you are doing things like opening apps, gaming etc. The times when your PSU has the most demands put upon it!

I also really doubt its the CPU...can those things even make noise?