Hissing Motherboard or CPU

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riappi

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I came back from a week long vacation and at some point my computer (custom built, roughly 9 months old, all new parts) has started to make a hiss noise. By hiss I mean something that might be described as static, sizzle, radio tuning, "*pst* over here" or snake noise. It is not a constant
but rather happens when I'm doing specific things.

I am absolutely 100% sure it is not a fan. I have 3 case fans that I tested, rearranged, disabled and enabled. I two different heatsink fans that I've tried and I have two different video cards I've also tried. It's definitely not a fan issue.

I only have 1 harddrive I can really test but I have done extensive listening and I'm really 99.99999% sure it isn't coming from the drive. I've even moved the harddrive holder to a different part of the case to see if it would move the source of the noise and it did not.

I have unplugged the speakers, the monitor, my router, printer and the external CD drive just to make sure it was none of those things even though the sound was obviously coming from inside the PC case.

The weird thing about it is, I figured out how I can trigger the noise by scrolling up and down on certain websites in IE8 (but not with FF3) and scanning through pictures really fast in Windows Photo Gallery. The sound is in sync with the scrolling, the faster I scroll the more noise it makes and some websites are much louder than others. Now to me, I'm not an expert, but that would make me think that it would be a video card or harddrive deal or something. Maybe I'm wrong but I wouldn't think that the MB or the CPU would really be able to discriminate what specific website and browser I'm on to make such a noise.

That all said, as best I can isolate with my ears, the sounds seems to come from either the CPU or the Motherboard somewhere very near the the CPU socket.

I don't know much about this but I read about how the motherboard's capacitors can make noise if they're burning out but in my novice examination, none of them seemed burned out or anything.
 
As you said though, it could also be one/some of the capacitors on the motherboard. Start up the pc, then press your finger on the tops of the caps one at a time. The sound should dim if you've got your finger on the broken cap.
 
As you said though, it could also be one/some of the capacitors on the motherboard. Start up the pc, then press your finger on the tops of the caps one at a time. The sound should dim if you've got your finger on the broken cap.

This might be a dumb question, but do I risk shocking or burning myself doing this? I had a bad experience with an open vcr once.
 
Nah, the caps on the mobo aren't going to hurt you. If they're getting hot enough to give you an instant burn, then they would have popped by now. And you don't need to worry about shocking yourself. The caps aren't that big.
 
Okay, I've pressed my finger on top of all the caps and none of them dimmed the sound.
 
The other way you might be able to find the cap (if it is indeed a faulty capacitor causing the noise) is it might have puffed up a little. It won't be by much, in fact it might not have happened yet at all, but it's something to check for anyway.

Sounds like that can be deceptive as to the location of the source, is it at all possible it's coming from somwhere else?
Put the system under load, see if the sound becomes constant. E.g. run 3dmark, Super Pi, crysis if you've got it, etc. Put the system under as much load as you can.
Does the sound come ONLY when you scroll on certain sites in IE?
 
Sounds like that can be deceptive as to the location of the source, is it at all possible it's coming from somwhere else?
It's possible, it just doesn't seem to be the case. Something I haven't gotten around to is running on a Linux cd and disconnecting the harddrive completely. Even though I've tried two different video cards, I haven't tried using the MB as a direct source of video so I will try that too.

Put the system under load, see if the sound becomes constant. E.g. run 3dmark, Super Pi, crysis if you've got it, etc. Put the system under as much load as you can.
I'll try 3dmark.

Does the sound come ONLY when you scroll on certain sites in IE?
That's where most of it is, but I noticed I can hear it when the computer moves its piece in Chess Titans (not while it's "thinking" but the actual moving of the piece, that might be important to note). I even found a picture that causes it to be really noisey, but if I view the same picture in firefox or Windows Photo Gallery and move the picture up and down, I get nothing.

Oh, and I also tried IE in the windows 7 RC and the hissing was still there but not on the same sites. I don't have it now thought so those results would be hard to verify.
 
Odd, well do you have a CRT monitor or an LCD? I know a CRT can make strange noises when its a bit old... Could also be the PSU, IMO that is probably what it most likely is.
 
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