High-pitched fan hum

[Stale Sweetroll]

I made a similar post in troubleshooting, but I find it hard to get responses in that section, so here I am.

 

I'm at my wit's end right now. I recently put a bunch of new stuff in my PC, and with it has come some very annoying sounds. Right now I'm focused mostly on this high-pitched, fluctuating humming sound, almost like running a wet finger along the rim of a glass. I -think- it could be coming from the CPU cooler (Cooler Master Hyper D92). It's got dual 92mm sleeve bearing fans for reference. I tried to record the sound, but the mic just wouldn't pic it up.

 

It used to only happen occasionally, but the past couple of days it has been almost omnipresent. This is NOT, I repeat, NOT coil whine. I've watched dozens of youtube videos trying to find someone with my problem, and most of them were coil whine. This is a very different sound.

 

I had it even before I put my new GTX 980 in here, but that was with my old graphics card's fans and it would go away when I changed the fan speeds. The GTX 980 I have doesn't turn the fans on unless it gets warm, and this is happening at idle and during games.

 

I wish I could just temporarily turn my cpu fan off, literally just for 3 seconds to see if it stops or not, but I'm pretty sure that's not possible. I could unplug it, but the sound doesn't always start immediately so i'd be running without a fan for a while just to test it, no bueno.

 

There's probably not much you can advise me to do on this (but feel free if you have ideas for ruling out the CPU Fan without causing harm or replacing it), but I'm more interested to know if this is normal and acceptable or if it indicates a problem? I can deal with it grudgingly if it's just a common issue. What I can't deal with is my motherboard or GPU or PSU dying with GTA V and Witcher 3 on the horizon.

[W-L]

-SNIP-

 

If you want to make sure it's coming from the fans, when you hear the noise use your fingers to stop the fan temporarily by making contact with the hub, to slow and stop the fans, but do not touch the fan blades, it won't be a problem for it to run a bit without fans since there is still a heat sink on it.

[Stale Sweetroll]

If you want to make sure it's coming from the fans, when you hear the noise use your fingers to stop the fan temporarily by making contact with the hub, to slow and stop the fans, but do not touch the fan blades, it won't be a problem for it to run a bit without fans since there is still a heat sink on it.

 

I considered it, but honestly I've always felt like that's a good way to ruin a fan by forcing it to stop suddenly. Is this not the case?

[W-L]

I considered it, but honestly I've always felt like that's a good way to ruin a fan by forcing it to stop suddenly. Is this not the case?

 

Good quality fans will stop after encountering resistance and will wait a few seconds before starting up again no real damage to them as long as you don't stop the fan indefinitely while powered on.

[Stale Sweetroll]

Good quality fans will stop after encountering resistance and will wait a few seconds before starting up again no real damage to them as long as you don't stop the fan indefinitely while powered on.

 

Well, I opened it up to do just that, but it turns out the fans have a plastic guard that prevent me from doing that. Also, once I took the side panel off, I noticed the sound got slightly quieter rather than louder. Using the incredibly scientifically accurate method of sticking my head halfway inside my computer, I was able to tell that the sound is most likely coming from the CPU, but possibly the GPU or motherboard as well. However, like I said this isn't coil whine, so since neither of those last two should be making any noise, I'm going with the CPU fan.

 

If that's the case, how big of an issue is this? Is it just an annoyance at worst? *finger's crossed*

[W-L]

Well, I opened it up to do just that, but it turns out the fans have a plastic guard that prevent me from doing that. Also, once I took the side panel off, I noticed the sound got slightly quieter rather than louder. Using the incredibly scientifically accurate method of sticking my head halfway inside my computer, I was able to tell that the sound is most likely coming from the CPU, but possibly the GPU or motherboard as well. However, like I said this isn't coil whine, so since neither of those last two should be making any noise, I'm going with the CPU fan.

 

If that's the case, how big of an issue is this? Is it just an annoyance at worst? *finger's crossed*

 

If it's just fan noise no real problem could be an indicator the fans are degrading slwoly since the lubrication on sleeved bearings is fairly important to keep them from ticking or making excess noise. However if it's a hum it could be from HDD or other components causing the actual PC case to vibrate or making it resonate.

[Stale Sweetroll]

If it's just fan noise no real problem could be an indicator the fans are degrading slwoly since the lubrication on sleeved bearings is fairly important to keep them from ticking or making excess noise. However if it's a hum it could be from HDD or other components causing the actual PC case to vibrate or making it resonate.

 

Hmm, alright. The CPU cooler has only been in there for a couple of weeks, so I'd be surprised if it was degrading already. I did just put a new HDD and SSD in yesterday, and given that the sound got slightly quieter with the side panel off, I do wonder if you're on to something about case vibration.