PC making a screeching/scratching sound

[XGC Forsakend]

Hey guys, I have noticed my PC lately can randomly make a strange sound. It sounds similar to dragging your finger nail across a wooden desk. It is random and doesn't always happen. First time it happened while I was waking it up from sleep mode 2 nights ago. It was constant and noticed my windows toolbar (where start button is) went back to basic instead of using Aero. Tends to happen when the system slows considerably since it is automatic. I restarted the PC and it stopped.

The second time was last night but it was only for 5 seconds. It stopped on it's own. I was only watching a YouTube video.

As of right now, I am thinking it may be the GPU since I checked temperatures right after it happened the second time (5 seconds) and the GPU temperatures had spiked for a bit and past the screeching duration but the spiking may have started when the screeching started.

I am also assuming it is my GPU since I have been having a lot of crashing issues with BF4 as of lately and it does appear to be my end. I crashed to desktop once recently and battlelog was in the background with artifacting or like an NES game that glitched out and squares of different colors.

So I am under the assumption that it may be the GPU and probably dusty since I haven't put a can of air into it in 2-3 months. I was doing it monthly for a long while. Will open my PC up later on today when I get home, currently in class.

So my question is: Is there anything else I should be checking and how would I go about checking it? It has only happened twice and it is random.

 

[Yevrag35]

Sounds like either something's hitting a system fan/gpu fan, or possibly your hard drive is dying. Instead of looking at it like: "Tends to happen when the system slows considerably since it is automatic", it could be the sound of your hard drive grinding (which could severely hamper performance).

Definitely open your case when you get home though.

 

[XGC Forsakend]

Thanks for the reply Yevrag, I'll update with a new post once I get home with hopefully new information.

Before leaving though, I checked Speedfan temperatures on the GPU and saw them spike up to 40c from an idle of 29-30c. It shot up to 35c then back to idle temperatures quickly before shooting to 40c and rapidly decending again to 30c. All I was doing was internet browsing FB, TF and a Kotaku article.

I will post a picture of it later.

 

[-RockMan-]

Thanks for the reply Yevrag, I'll update with a new post once I get home with hopefully new information.

Before leaving though, I checked Speedfan temperatures on the GPU and saw them spike up to 40c from an idle of 29-30c. It shot up to 35c then back to idle temperatures quickly before shooting to 40c and rapidly decending again to 30c. All I was doing was internet browsing FB, TF and a Kotaku article.

I will post a picture of it later.

What gpu and case do you have by chance and how long did you own them ?
It would help us out more if we get some more details about your machine.

 

[XGC Forsakend]

What gpu and case do you have by chance and how long did you own them ?
It would help us out more if we get some more details about your machine.

My apologies, completely forgot to add this type of information in on my original post:

CPU - Intel Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz

Motherboard - ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Ram - Patriot Viper 3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 X 2

GPU - EVGA 02G-P4-2660-KR GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16

PSU - CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650 V2 650W

Case - HAF 922
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN3-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case with USB 3.0 and Black Interior - Newegg.com

I have bought and owned my computer nearly a year (December 20, 2012).
Everything was bought new and nothing is refurbished.

Hopefully that helps a bit more. I also just got home and here is the picture of the GPU's temperature spiking while browsing the web in Chrome (possibly posted below):

I will be opening my PC up now and putting the can to it. Hopefully it helps out or I find what is wrong.

Thanks for any continued replies.

 

[XGC Forsakend]

Update after putting half a can of compressed air to it:

So I obviously need to go back to cleaning it out every month or so and never let it get to the third month. I noticed all my idle temperatures almost 10c down from before.

I can't comment on the noise yet and didn't see any wires hitting or close to any fans. Hopefully it was just the dust clogging up a fan, will comment back if I hear the strange sound again.

If you guys have any suggestions on what to check next please let me know.

As for the possibility of a dying hard drive, what are the symptoms I should look for to knock that possibility out?

Thanks.

 

[Yevrag35]

As for the possibility of a dying hard drive, what are the symptoms I should look for to knock that possibility out?

You can use any number of hard drive health checking programs out there. SeaTools | Seagate

 

[Joe C]

Failing hard drive sounds
Failing hard drive sounds - Datacent.com - Datacent

I recently went through an episode where my Seagate drive started vibrating, it was just over a year old, For the longest time I thought it was one of my fans until it got so loud I had to check it out. The vibrations were causing my case to make a strange humming noise and it only did it when this drive was in use, intermittently (not the O.S. drive) I thought it was my case so I popped the drive into a different case....sounded worse than the first case. I RMA'd the drive but Seagate sent me a refurb that vibrated too, I RMA'd that drive and they sent me a second drive, it ran quiet for a couple weeks but now that one vibrates too
(enough ranting)
You can try disconnecting all extra case fans (leave the side panel off) and your hard drive and run the pc with a linux live disk, see if it make any noises, then connect one fan at a time or just the hard drive until the pc starts to screech and then you might be able to determine what is causing the noise