Low droning from system

Jon12345 · Post by **Jon12345** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 5:56 am

My PC is fairly quiet except for a droning sound that comes and goes, cyling about every 1.5 seconds. I think it might be the PSU fan, which is otherwise quite quiet.

How can I stop this without buying a new PSU, since it is new? Is it likely to be it vibrating against the case or what?

Thanks,

Jon

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Wed Mar 05, 2008 6:22 am

Hello Jon,

It might be that the fan in the PSU is wearing out, and the vibration/beating you are hearing is caused by the bearings. If this is the cause, then you might be able to either:

a) replace the fan

2) lubricate the bearings in the fan

How many hard drives in the system? If there are two or more, then they might be causing it. Since they both are turning at ~7200RPM, if they are slightly different, this can cause the "beating" that you describe, as well. Can you feel vibration from one or both hard drives?

Plekto · Post by **Plekto** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:13 pm

Also check the little Northbridge fan if it has one. Often this is the culprit for fully half of a system's noise.

Sylph-DS · Post by **Sylph-DS** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 1:03 am

Since you say that its a new PSU, its unlikely that the bearings are wearing out.

Either way, before you start doing anything, be sure its the PSU. When the droning starts, try opening up the case and listening closely to where the sound is coming from. You can also try holding some of the other fans back (carefully) to make it a little easier.

If you're sure its the PSU, the reason its droning is possibly that it gets a lot of left over warm air from the PSU, making the fan spin faster to keep the PSU cool. If this is the case, ducting the CPU-cooler to your rear exhaust fan might help (not sure if its possible in your setup because I don't know your system specs).

Jon12345 · Post by **Jon12345** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:04 am

Thanks guys, I think it is the PSU. I will replace that and see what happens.

Das_Saunamies · Post by **Das_Saunamies** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:32 am

Ten bucks on HDDs. Every "droning beat" I've met so far has been HDDs. Had some too with Seagate drives myself - switch to WD AAKS cured it.

Carson89 · Post by **Carson89** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 2:51 pm

I have nearly the same problem in mine and its one of my disk drives.

With your computer running, place your hand on each Hard disk and see if you can feel the droning through your hand, if you can then its the hard disk.

ACook · Post by **ACook** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:21 pm

it's easy enough to stop the fans in the case, on the cpu and in the psu for a few seconds to hear what happens.

my money is on the hd's as well, they can start to resonate when working together, mine do as well.
it goes like mmmmMMMMMMmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmMMMMM but then very low. sometimes lifting up one side of the case disrupts it enough.