Whine on first boot?

For the last few days, when booting in the morning, I hear a low pitched whine, loud enough to get my attention. When booted complete, whine no longer audible.

I can re-boot many times during the day, no repetition of the whine. Only audible on morning first boot. Any clue on what this might be???

I'm just hoping it is not a drive. potential sources:
3 HDD, 1 CDR-RW, 1 DVD + CPU fan, Graphics card fan, power supply fan, case fan, hard drive fan, and???

Any simple diagnosticts?

 

Normally 2 causes for this.

Ball bearings in a cooler fan, typically Power supply but can be cpu cooler fan. The reason it does so in mornings is that it is completely cold when starting and goes away when it warms up.

To pinpoint remove the case before bootup, then boot with case off listen closely you should be able to tell if cpu fan or power supply fan. Also watch both fans for a jerky startup. If they have a jerky startup they need replaced now otherwise only a nuisance.

Sometimes this is caused by dust and lint in fans. So get some Air spray and blow out the fans. If much dust blow out entire system.

As long as you have normal air flow by feel of exhaust from the power supply and you can see the CPU fan spinning and no jerky startup, then no worry as I have seen these do this for years. But keep a check on it!

Mike

 

MFlynn: Thanks for the response and advice. I'll have to wait till tomorrow for first boot to listen when noise is loudest. I pulled case cover and rebooted, could see no jerky fan starts, but can hear what I think to be hard drive cooling fan making a sort of rapid clicking noise. With all those fans (5) running, it is hard to tell, but maybe it is the culprit. Also found stray power wires brushing against video card fan and making a slight noise. I don't think that caused the whine though. I guess I'll have to open case more often just to look around for stuff like that.

I'm leery about blowing out the case with canned air, the last time I did that, Motherboard shorted out quickly thereafter. I don't know it that caused short, but is suspect. Had to buy new motherboard.

I'll just keep running as is, hopefully tomorrow I can track the noise down. I'll post results.

Thanks again.

 

Never heard of that. It was something else. I do this professionally and have blown out hundreds. Never a problem. If you had a poorly mounted mother board and flexed the case while moving could have shorted the MB to case.

Additionally some how maybe a large static eletrical dicharge to MB? But not just blowing out the case. NO!

OH YES never blow out the processor if it has reached full temp and you just turned it off. Blowing the freezing air on a hot CPU will kill it. But not the MB. Allow to cool with case off for at least 10 minutes if computer has been on.

But if it don't need it why bother!

Disregard HD sounds as you will just hear it better with case off.

Mike

 

Hey Mike: Well, thanks to you that was easy. This morning booted with case open. Louder whining noise. Motherboard chipset fan. Just happen to have an extra, still have old MB, up in garage. Will scavange and replace today.

This board less than 60 days old, chipset fan failure, I'm not too happy about that. will contact mfg, expect them to send a new one.

I dunno about short, tower was just sitting there with case on, in use after air blow, no chance of new static, went to boot machine in morning, instant shutdown when power turned on, local shop and mfg diagnosed board short.

Board was about 2 years old.

Don't need to dust yet, actually rebuilt machine with new board within last 60 days, it is hard to believe how much dust can accumulate inside in a short time, I will follow your advice when dusting.

Thanks again

Bob