Solved My motherboard is singing: this can't be a good thing

[pxfragonard]

Last time my motherboard sang it was bad news. I used the HP diagnostic tests and it showed up nothing wrong. The only thing new is that sometimes icons disappear from the taskbar. I go into taskbar, uncheck something and check it, save it and all's well. But there must be a bug. The only new thing was to download Brink's shortcuts to the power profiles but Brink's stuff's always good stuff. I had a new video card put in about 6 months ago with a new power supply to go with it and my mechanic guy seems to know what he's doing. How much time do I have? What's the best course of action? I try not to overreact with computers. Thanks in advance.

 

[Brink]

Hello pxfragonard,

When you say singing, what exactly does it sound like? A whining, squealing, or whistling type noise?

Does this happen all the time, or only after your system gets hot?

You might open up the case and see if you may be able to determine exactly where it's coming from. Some possible sources would be any fans, video card fan, or HDD's.

 

[pxfragonard]

None of the three, Sean. It is definitely a tune. A rather happy little tune. I don't recognize it. It happened last time I turned the machine on. I think it was off with the power switch off, which would rule out overheating. Thanks for your response. I'll open the case tomorrow when I have more time. Maybe it's dusty or something.

 

[MeOnMine]

Sounds like a FET is singing to you. (Field Effect Transistor).
FETs are found in your power supply, around your CPU for power control and on high end video cards for power control.
Use a piece of tube to your ear and point it in the different directions to the components in your PC this may show you the culprit.

It could sing for a long time before it expires, although you will more than likely get sick of it before then.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Sounds like a singing capacitor.

 

[pxfragonard]

Thanks MeOnMine. I do have a high end video card because I use Photoshop and Lightroom to develop rather large photo files. The power supply was replaced with the card because my tech said without it, it would blow. So that sounds like a good idea to use the piece of tube to try to track it down.

But the sound hasn't recurred since turning it on. It would be hard to track it down if it doesn't sing

@linnemeyerhere: Thanks very much. I'll use the method of discovery above to see what it is.

Many thanks to you kind souls. What a great site this is!

 

[madcratebuilder]

Sounds like a singing capacitor.

+1

Some well coat the caps with clear nail polish to change their tune.

 

[pxfragonard]

Update: It started singing again. It took a week for it to happen again. I took the side off to look and I'm blowing the worst of the dust out. Then I noticed something odd. The fan on top of the new graphics card is still covered in its plastic. I'm not sure that looks right. But how to remove it safely is something I'm going to take my time to do. Can anyone advise on the right way to go about this please? I don't want to pull anything out of place. I'm very inexperienced.

 

[UsernameIssues]

What video card do you have? (You might want to update your system specs.)

 

[pxfragonard]

On the box it reads Radeon HD 6750 but now I have a new problem. After dusting the machine with a photo blower and my mouth I turned it on and.... no picture. I'm using my other machine to type this. It's connected to a KMV switch but I unplugged that and tried it straight into the monitor. No picture!

 

[Solarstarshines]

Update: It started singing again. It took a week for it to happen again. I took the side off to look and I'm blowing the worst of the dust out. Then I noticed something odd. The fan on top of the new graphics card is still covered in its plastic. I'm not sure that looks right. But how to remove it safely is something I'm going to take my time to do. Can anyone advise on the right way to go about this please? I don't want to pull anything out of place. I'm very inexperienced.

Your Mechanic left the plastic wrap on the card it could have got hot and melted over everything

If he installed it he is the blame for the tune because he should of taken all the plastic covering off I admit it isn't always that easy to see but on the fan that should of been a big eyesore for the builder :sarc:

Anyway blowing it out shouldn't have did anything

 

[UsernameIssues]

Does the card look like this?
XFX Radeon HD 6750 Graphics Card

You might want to power everything down and remove the video card - then put it back in and test. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you might need to take it to the person that installed the card.

 

[pxfragonard]

Update: It started singing again. It took a week for it to happen again. I took the side off to look and I'm blowing the worst of the dust out. Then I noticed something odd. The fan on top of the new graphics card is still covered in its plastic. I'm not sure that looks right. But how to remove it safely is something I'm going to take my time to do. Can anyone advise on the right way to go about this please? I don't want to pull anything out of place. I'm very inexperienced.

Your Mechanic left the plastic wrap on the card it could have got hot and melted over everything

If he installed it he is the blame for the tune because he should of taken all the plastic covering off I admit it isn't always that easy to see but on the fan that should of been a big eyesore for the builder :sarc:

Anyway blowing it out shouldn't have did anything

Um, well, I'm glad the blowing shouldn't have hurt it but... well, nothing was melted and I carefully removed the plastic... still not getting a picture, darn.... but thanks for your reply.

 

[pxfragonard]

Does the card look like this?
XFX Radeon HD 6750 Graphics Card

You might want to power everything down and remove the video card - then put it back in and test. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, you might need to take it to the person that installed the card.

The pic at the link you posted doesn't look at all at what I'm finding (picture enclosed) but that's the name on the box... ??

As for taking it out and reinstalling, I don't have the confidence to do that at all... Maybe I'll google it but more likely I'll take it in.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Can you detail where you found the plastic as I don't see anything blocking your fan and if the plastic wrap was covering the black plastic housing then just carefully pull if off. Get a can of compressed air and blow the rig out completely every 90 to 120 days. I like to stop all fans from spinning and I use a soft dry paint brush to loosen the dirt and blow it away from all fans and cooling fins and surfaces, this is best done outside for sure !

 

[pxfragonard]

Hi and thanks for your response. Next time I'll use compressed air and outside too! I learned that the hard way. The plastic was on the housing and not blocking the fan at all. But still, I can't figure out why just cleaning out the worst of the dust suddenly gives me no visuals at all. Coincidence maybe. The card may have been singing that it was failing and it just happened to fail then.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Just looking at the fans the rig is holding a lot of dust, you're going to be amazed when you hit the fins and fans how much dust fly's! Dry brush the things you can and don't touch with your hands. Hold the fans still and blast away till you can't hold your breath any longer and walk away (outside) then come back till no more dust. If the gpu is hot then the fan will spin like crazy trying to cool itself.

 

[pxfragonard]

Already cleaned, thanks. But still no pic. Thanks for your response.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Is it still singing?

 

[pxfragonard]

No. It's unplugged. I can't get any visuals.