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.
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.