Help with clicking noise

[Eponymous98]

Hello everyone,

Some days ago my desktop started having a clicking noise coming from somewhere. My first thought were the fans, so I tested them individually, I even disconnected them and they were not the problem. My PC does not have any HDDs installed. Then I disconnected the GPU to check if the sound was coming from it but it wasn't. The sound was still persistent when I booted the PC. 

Then when I tried to boot the PC the next day it wasn't turning on, which was strange because the previous day it was turning on normally despite the sound. After reseating every cable the PC booted but the sound was there still.

I did the paperclip test to test the PSU and the fan spinned normally without making any noise.

So I don't know what's going on. Could it be a bad PSU? Or is it possible that the noise is coming from the motherboard?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks

[Eponymous98]

Video where the sound is audible 

[DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly]

10 minutes ago, Eponymous98 said:

Video where the sound is audible 

Honestly even with pretty decent earphones i couldnt hear too much. What do you mean you did 'paperclip' test ?

 

What kind of PSU do you have ? Fan bearings are not endless and they do start to fail at age, producing distinct rattling sound.

[adm0n]

23 minutes ago, DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly said:

Honestly even with pretty decent earphones i couldnt hear too much

You have to reeaally turn your volume up to hear anything.

 

1 hour ago, Eponymous98 said:

My first thought were the fans

It does sound like a fan. Does your mainboard have a chipset fan, and did you test that one? Anything else in a PC that could make a sound, would be some kind of electric circuit open and closing rapidly. But at the voltages present in a PC, I doubt that would be audible.

 

Can you physically locate the sound? If it is coming from the PSU, then it could actually be something like arcing over very short distances. If that is the case, I'd hope nothing died in your PC and get a new PSU.

 

[Hiss]

The fans and gpu has been eliminated as sources of the noise, it could still be the PSU however.

 

Did you try disconnecting every connector in the IO?

 

from the bpm it really sounds like a fan to me, could it be the PSU fan? since some PSU fans dont start spinning until a load is applied.

 

[Eponymous98]

4 hours ago, DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly said:

Honestly even with pretty decent earphones i couldnt hear too much. What do you mean you did 'paperclip' test ?

 

What kind of PSU do you have ? Fan bearings are not endless and they do start to fail at age, producing distinct rattling sound.

The PSU is a Corsair RMx 750x. 

The paperclip test: https://help.corsair.com/hc/en-us/articles/360025085372-How-to-Test-a-PSU-Power-Supply-Unit-

 

[Eponymous98]

3 hours ago, adm0n said:

You have to reeaally turn your volume up to hear anything.

 

It does sound like a fan. Does your mainboard have a chipset fan, and did you test that one? Anything else in a PC that could make a sound, would be some kind of electric circuit open and closing rapidly. But at the voltages present in a PC, I doubt that would be audible.

 

Can you physically locate the sound? If it is coming from the PSU, then it could actually be something like arcing over very short distances. If that is the case, I'd hope nothing died in your PC and get a new PSU.

 

My motherboard doesn't have any fans. I think the sound is louder near the PSU, however when I did the paperclip test outside the PC the sound was gone. 

After some research online I found some users suggesting that a screw holding the exterior bracket above the fan could become loose and make that noise.

Or that dust could get in the PSU and make it sound like that.

So I think I will use some compressed air and tighten the screws a bit.

In the meanwhile, while doing nothing to the PC I booted it and now the noise is completely gone.

[Eponymous98]

3 hours ago, Hiss said:

The fans and gpu has been eliminated as sources of the noise, it could still be the PSU however.

 

Did you try disconnecting every connector in the IO?

 

from the bpm it really sounds like a fan to me, could it be the PSU fan? since some PSU fans dont start spinning until a load is applied.

 

I did, it may be the PSU fan rattling and clicking.