PC makes weird noise (not coil whine)

[Mikeh108]

Hello,
I build a PC last year on 20-7-2015. About 2 months after building it, it started making a weird noise when it was running for a couple of hours.
Now these are the things I know:
1. The noise isn't coming from inside the computer itself, I can only hear it through my headphones or speakers. (it's not caused by my sound system, I used different ones past half year)
2. It happens when my pc has to work hard. For instance when starting up a game.
3. Doesn't go away unless I restart the computer. It will then appear after running for a while again.
4. Doesn't matter if I leave alone the pc for a week or use it everyday, the noise will come after a while.
5. Didn't hear it once for the first 2 months, when I heard it for the first time I wasn't doing anything different.
6. It's not coil whine.
7. It's gotten worse and worse by time, at first I never heard it for at least the first 3 hours of gaming. Nowadays when I restart the computer and startup a game it sometimes immediately occurs.
8. The noise itself is annoying but what's worse is that my pc starts lagging when it happens. Like skipping a couple of frames in a game, or clicking on a tab and having to wait 5 second before it shows. (not the tab loading, screen freezes, when it stops freezing the page is viewed)
9. It's a hard noise to describe. I think it sounds like something is grinding.
10. The harder it is for the pc to run the program the faster the noise appears. (Black Ops 3 made it appear immediately a couple of times. When browsing the web there are mostly no problems, except for when a lot tabs with streams/video's are playing.

This is my pc build:
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K Boxed
MB: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-Gaming 5
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0
HDD: Seagate Desktop HDD ST1000DM003, 1TB
Case: Corsair Carbide 300R
Fan: Noctua NH-U12S
RAM: Corsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
Parts bought on https://www.megekko.nl/ except from the PSU, which was bought on https://www.afuture.nl/ .
I bought Windows 8.1 and immediately upgraded to Windows 10 when I build the pc.
My guess is that it's caused by the GPU, I heard EVGA GPU's had problems more often.

Thanks for reading and I hope someone can help me, you can leave a comment for further information if needed.
Greetings, Mike

 

[geofelt]

You might post this on the evga support forums if you think it is gpu related.

I might suspect the drivers for the onboard gigabyte sound.
Try reinstalling the drivers.
Or, it could be insufficient shielding of the motherboard sound circuitry from whatever emissions come from the graphics card.

 

[Ironsounds]

Hello... We in the maintenance field will use a stethoscope, or roll up a piece of paper and make a pin point examination of each component for the location of the "sound".
1) your CPU fan will be speeding up during harder processing.
2) USB headphones will have the PS 5vdc wired into them... This can pickup electrical noise present on that Voltage supply/System.
3) Your hardrive will Spin up/peak power during Game/APP loading.

Check your Windows Power settings, make sure hardware is set for 100% performance, and no devices are set for hibernation, sleep, or energy savings.

 

[Quixit]

It sounds like it could be EMI (electromagnetic interference) from one of your components. These things are very hard to narrow down, so the first thing I'd do is totally reinstall Windows and see if the problem comes back. If it does the it's definitely hardware and I'd go through switching out the PSU, GPU and other higher-power parts first.

 

[Mikeh108]

You might post this on the evga support forums if you think it is gpu related.

I might suspect the drivers for the onboard gigabyte sound.
Try reinstalling the drivers.
Or, it could be insufficient shielding of the motherboard sound circuitry from whatever emissions come from the graphics card.

Thanks for the quick reply.
Like I said at 8, it's not only a noise but the computer also laggs in terms of performance. I will give it a try though thank you.

 

[Mikeh108]

Hello... We in the maintenance field will use a stethoscope, or roll up a piece of paper and make a pin point examination of each component for the location of the "sound".
1) your CPU fan will be speeding up during harder processing.
2) USB headphones will have the PS 5vdc wired into them... This can pickup electrical noise present on that Voltage supply/System.
3) Your hardrive will Spin up/peak power during Game/APP loading.

Check your Windows Power settings, make sure hardware is set for 100% performance, and no devices are set for hibernation, sleep, or energy savings.

Thanks for answering so quickly.
Since the noise isn't coming from inside the system but rather from my headphones/speakers I don't think the noise is coming from the fan. When my headphones aren't in my ears I don't notice the noise, except for seeing the pc lagg.
Headphones aren't using USB.
Everything is set to 100% performance/maximum performance, hibernation is set on never just like sleep and energy savings. (double checked)
The HDD doesn't spin up, looked up the sound and doesn't sound alike. Also it's heard from inside the system and not through headphones if it spins up, I only hear the sound through my headphones.
Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Mikeh108]

It sounds like it could be EMI (electromagnetic interference) from one of your components. These things are very hard to narrow down, so the first thing I'd do is totally reinstall Windows and see if the problem comes back. If it does the it's definitely hardware and I'd go through switching out the PSU, GPU and other higher-power parts first.

Hi thanks for replying.
I looked EMI, the noise sometimes sounds about the same. Although I don't know if it's possible for EMI to be heard after a while only, since the noise only occurs after the pc is running for a while and when I just build it there was no interference. I also don't know if EMI actually depends on how much the pc need to process (only tougher processes make the noise appear), it would be great if you could help me with that.
'Refresh your PC Fixes software problems by reinstalling the OS while preserving the user data, user accounts, and important settings. All other preinstalled customizations are restored to their factory state. In Windows 10, this feature no longer preserves user-acquired Windows apps.' - Would this be enough? I would like to keep my data as much as possible.
By switching out you mean replacing them one by one? I thought about this too but since it will consume a bit of time I first want to try if there is a faster fix. (I don't have any replacements at home for the parts)
Thanks in advance.

 

[indsup]

I've had this problem in the past and it was the power supply. Once you start stressing it a bit it will cause this noise. I would say that it is your power supply, more likely than not. If you have another power supply that you can use to test i would do that first. Don't let this go for long it can go out and take other parts of your system out with it. Happened to me. By the way never ever go cheap on the power supply, it will bite you in the *** if you do. There is an easy way to test this if you or one of your friends have a video card that you can borrow swap it out and see if you still have the whine. If you do it's more tan likely the power supply. If it goes away then it is the video card. By the way it needs to be at least equivalent to your video card or above. Another way to test it is if you have a voltmeter or multimeter measure the 12v rail while getting the noise i bet it is low while your are getting the noise. Also meaning it is your power supply.

 

[Mikeh108]

I've had this problem in the past and it was the power supply. Once you start stressing it a bit it will cause this noise. I would say that it is your power supply, more likely than not. If you have another power supply that you can use to test i would do that first. Don't let this go for long it can go out and take other parts of your system out with it. Happened to me. By the way never ever go cheap on the power supply, it will bite you in the *** if you do. There is an easy way to test this if you or one of your friends have a video card that you can borrow swap it out and see if you still have the whine. If you do it's more tan likely the power supply. If it goes away then it is the video card. By the way it needs to be at least equivalent to your video card or above. Another way to test it is if you have a voltmeter or multimeter measure the 12v rail while getting the noise i bet it is low while your are getting the noise. Also meaning it is your power supply.

Alright thanks that sounds very possible, I hope none of the parts have gotten worse by it yet, I'll ask around if that's cool with them then, do you know if there is a way to test it other then waiting for the sounds? (I don't have a meter)
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html I used this list for my PSU, was it a bad choice?
I want to return my PSU, how do I classify/describe this problem to the website where I bought it?
Thank you very much!

 

[indsup]

The seasonic built evga is better than the other but EVGA is normally good. You may have one that just has a bad solder point making the noise. Very possible. It will also make the power supply fail in time no matter how good the internal components are. Once you put the power supply under load you should get the noise. This is when you heat up the components causing the parts to expand/flex. Loose solder joint = noise.

 

[Mikeh108]

The seasonic built evga is better than the other but EVGA is normally good. You may have one that just has a bad solder point making the noise. Very possible. It will also make the power supply fail in time no matter how good the internal components are. Once you put the power supply under load you should get the noise. This is when you heat up the components causing the parts to expand/flex. Loose solder joint = noise.

Ok then thanks for helping hope everything will workout. I appreciate it, goodbye!