Windows 7: A very strange buzz/vibration from case

xenomorph1974 · 07 Apr 2012

Hi

I hope someone can point me in the right direction to cure this buzz I get from my pc. It is very strange and I'll attempt to explain it as best I can.

I have just replaced my motherboard, cpu, memory and case and after assembling everything I began a clean install of Win7pro. At some point during the instalation I got this very annoying buzz (like an electrical buzz) from the chassis so after the installation of windows, started the process of elimination. I removed the GPU, each HD (in turn) and various other things but each time the buzz appeared once windows started to load - I can sit in the Bios quite happily with no buzz.

After a while I noticed that playing a video file in windows (either on a webpage - You Tube for example or by playing one of my files; video or audio) the buzzing would stop and also that it didn't matter whether my sound was physically turned on or not or whether the video/audio file was on top of my other open windows.

So I am now using the pc with a video running in the background (tucked away out the side of the screen) so I don't get annoyed by this odd noise.

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing windows and my hardware to interact in this way when a file is not playing?

Any help would be great for my sanity at the moment...

Thanks in advance.

Solarstarshines · 07 Apr 2012

looks like you have a hardware conflict if you have onboard sound and still installed a sound card that might be the issue

Did you ever check device manager for any caution signs ?

xenomorph1974 · 07 Apr 2012

I've just double checked the bios to make sure the onboard sound is switched off which it is.

This is really very odd. Just sitting here now and using the middle mouse button to move the screen up and down is enough to stop this buzzing but once the screen stops (i.e. when I stop moving the mouse button up and down) the buzzing starts again.

This issue doesn't appear to be sound related because the buzzing is the same regardless of whether the sound is on or not, muted physically or within windows.

To sum up, a buzzing from inside the case appears to be determined by what windows is doing at the time.

Oh and the device management was all clear apart from 2 under other devices which showed as "Mass storage controller" and "Universal Serial Bus (USB) Controller" Edit: Just fixed the USB issue with a driver install but the MSC is still showing a warning icon. Edit 2: All devices functioning correctly now. Still got the buzz though!

rraod · 07 Apr 2012

The buzzing sound you are getting is likely a mechanical noise coming from a vibrating or rotating component like power supply fan, CPU fan, GPU fan or hard disk. or an electrical noise coming from the power supply.

Keep the system in a quiet room and start the system without covers and follow the buzzing sound. try to hear carefully and locate from which part the noise is emanating. Once you locate the component making noise, you can attempt to fix it.

xenomorph1974 · 07 Apr 2012

Well I think it is coming from the PSU, judging by what I can hear. Isn't it odd that the noise isn't constant, or is at least fixed by playing an audio file or movie?

linnemeyerhere · 07 Apr 2012

When was the last time you blew out the system with compressed air. I would give all the fans and fins a good cleaning and then pay extra attention on blowing out the PSU. Check all filters and clean of course then see if that doesn't help or fix. If not then it looks to be a fan issue inside the PSU which if very handy you can replace but you likely will void warranty.

xenomorph1974 · 07 Apr 2012

Well I've literally just put this thing together, including a new case so everything inside is quite clean. The PSU is from my old system (a 850 W - so should be powerful enough still) and I did give a good blast with c.air before placing inside.

I had no trouble with noise such as this before, only since I swapped MB, CPU and memory. I find it odd that is makes noise when not doing much (like now) but when I open up some music or a film (or move the screen up and down with my mouse) the noise stops.

I have the latest driver for my 285GTX; is there a chance that could have something to do with it because that wasn't the driver I had before I did all this? I might try to load an older driver and see what happens....

Thanks for all the replies so far

linnemeyerhere · 07 Apr 2012

Ok so scrap my idea. I think you need to pull the side panel off and put your ears to work. Try when you hear it to push on the PSU. Could you need a rubber PSU gasket or could the fan be hitting while slow but when under load and spinning faster not hitting the guard? Take some pictures of the overall case layout and side fan, then some closer shots of the psu.

profdlp · 07 Apr 2012

You might also want to make sure all your motherboard standoffs are in the right place. If the new board had mounts in different places than the old one you might have a grounding or shorting (eek!) problem.

Windows 7: A very strange buzz/vibration from case

A very strange buzz/vibration from case problems?