Weird grinding/crackling/revving sound when running games

[Sean16]

Hi there.

On Tuesday while gaming my computer suddenly began revving up and the CPU fan or fans of the GPU started making a horrible grinding/crackling noise. This happened a few months before on July 30, 2022 and lasted until I rolled my drivers back on August 7, 2022. I posted on the AMD forums about it but never got a reply. My PC is pretty old at almost 9-years-old and I'm planning on getting a new one soon, but I only recently upgraded to a new GPU in July 2021.

My current specs are:

• CPU: AMD FX-4300
• RAM: 16 GB
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3
• HDD: Seagate 2 TB
• PSU: XFX Pro 550W
• GPU: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 570
• Drivers: AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 22.8.2
• OS: Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
• Monitor: Samsung C24F396FHU (1920x1080p)

At the time when this first happened, my AMD drivers had only been recently updated to version 22.7.1 on July 27 from 22.6.1 and I had been playing a sourcemod with vsync off. I have since updated from 22.6.1 (skipping 22.7.1) to 22.8.2. Usually with vsync off, if I begin getting too many frames, my GPU fans will kick in but they've never produced the kind of sounds that I heard back in July and again in October. Rolling my drivers back to the previous version through Display Driver Uninstaller seemed to fix this. I also cleaned my PC and replaced the 6-to-8 pin adapter I had with a new one in case it had somehow shorted as I've heard they can be a bit iffy. Everything seemed fine and I've managed to play a ton of games since then until it started again on Tuesday.

The game I was in was Bridge Constructor Portal which doesn't seem to be all that demanding and I was getting around 60 FPS so I'm a little lost as to what could be causing this. I also cleaned my PC the day before. I tried to reproduce the sound today but it didn't return immediately, as it had been doing the previous days. I tried several games and managed to get it to produce the noises with Half-Life 2 with vsync off, though even with vsync on it still happens and comes and goes randomly. It hasn't done it outside of a game yet which makes me think that it has something to do with the GPU or at least related to running games, or that maybe the CPU is doing too much. My system is bottlenecked but I don't run very demanding games.

I took a few recordings of the sounds it was making and screenshots of information from AMD Radeon Settings, Task Manager, CPUID and Speccy while all this was going on. My temperatures look okay as they usually idle around these anyway but noticed some pretty high GPU and CPU usage.

I have a video from August 2022 and another from today. My fans are pretty loud but you can hear a crackling/whining like noise. In the video from today it stopped making the noise around half-way. I hadn't done anything other than tab out to take screenshots of the monitoring programs I had open. I had no other programs open in the August video other than a game. Sorry for the clicking in the second video!

August 2022

https://imgur.com/0vAkiWm

October 2022

https://imgur.com/lkT5PjF

Really sorry if it's hard to hear but it's kinda like a whining or whistling with crackling.

AMD Radeon Settings

https://imgur.com/ZCzUtBu

View: https://imgur.com/ZCzUtBu


Task Manager

https://imgur.com/1Frx6Y7

View: https://imgur.com/1Frx6Y7


CPUID Monitor

https://imgur.com/SkU0XpS

View: https://imgur.com/SkU0XpS

https://imgur.com/cAWR2Nh

View: https://imgur.com/cAWR2Nh


Speccy

https://imgur.com/ZBwM2LG

View: https://imgur.com/ZBwM2LG


Sorry if the above videos or screenshots don't give all that much information. I also saved a copy of the log from CPUID but not sure how to upload here without clogging up the thread as it's a pretty long file. I also noticed that in my screenshot of AMD Radeon Settings that it says that GPU usage was at 0%, though just before I screenshotted it was at 99%. I noticed that it seems to jump from almost 0% to 100% pretty frequently. Sorry if this thread is pretty nonsensical but I'm a bit stumped as I thought I had originally fixed this issue back in August after rolling back my drivers, I thought maybe I just unlucky and something when wrong in the install.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[DavidM012]

Your +12v in hw monitor looks like 9.936v, 10.008v max and your vCore looks high for being at default. 1.38v can do a 4.7ghz overclock. 4000mhz is simply the default boost.



PSU looks on the way out - dunno why the vCore is so high. XFX Pro - Tier C on the PSU Tier list . Might've thought it was alright for a mere quad core fx.

Dunno if anything else is going out - mobo maybe. Not sure why the fans revved up. Horrible cracking noise might've been a PSU malfunction of some sort. 9 years old is your money's worth so I don't see anything exceptionally abnormal about the situation.

You have to shut it down immediately though and replace PSU . In case the mobo can't take it no more. Don't know how it lurched along on 10v with a vCore of 1.38 since august.

 

[Sean16]

Your +12v in hw monitor looks like 9.936v, 10.008v max and your vCore looks high for being at default. 1.38v can do a 4.7ghz overclock. 4000mhz is simply the default boost.



PSU looks on the way out - dunno why the vCore is so high. XFX Pro - Tier C on the PSU Tier list . Might've thought it was alright for a mere quad core fx.

Dunno if anything else is going out - mobo maybe. Not sure why the fans revved up. Horrible cracking noise might've been a PSU malfunction of some sort. 9 years old is your money's worth so I don't see anything exceptionally abnormal about the situation.

You have to shut it down immediately though and replace PSU . In case the mobo can't take it no more. Don't know how it lurched along on 10v with a vCore of 1.38 sjnce august.

Thanks, I did think something might be going out but wasn't entirely sure. It seems perfectly fine outside of gaming but it's been okay until the start of August, and then was fine since I rolled my drivers back until the start of this week. I might replace it but I'm way overdue a PC so might be the excuse I need to upgrade.

Thanks for pinpointing the problem though. Tbh I'm not entirely clued up on voltages, etc. Is it possible for me to underclock to get a little extra out of my rig?

 

[DavidM012]

I wouldn't recommend it with a failing power supply. It has to go. It could be hazardous and simply fail finally at any time.

If you buy a PSU that will be OK for your new build, a 650w corsair tx-m would fit many scenarios if you aren't going overboard to a really hi end rig. So I mean maybe plan your new build now and buy the power supply for it and use it for the moment.

Evga have some offers too- or just scout around to see if anything else is on sale.

You could turn off the turbo clock in the bios. It can actually be underclocked, if you set the core multiplier lower than the default. Not sure what the default multiplier is on the 4300. If it's 18 set it to 17, see if it posts. Maybe get down to 1.181v @3.5 Ghz. -if the mobo vrms are still ok. The capacitors or mosfets on it might be degraded - if it simply doesn't work at a low voltage there's a deeper problem with the mobo too.

It would also be pretty slow underclocked - windows logon would take longer for example.

Depends if the bios has any overclocking (or underclocking) options. It isn't an fx990 chipset variant mobo so options might be limited.

Check in your bios that the vCore is on default or auto. Also shut down, switch off mains, clear cmos and set to defaults and start from there if you really want to try.

 

[Sean16]

I wouldn't recommend it with a failing power supply. It has to go. It could be hazardous and simply fail finally at any time.

If you buy a PSU that will be OK for your new build, a 650w corsair tx-m would fit many scenarios if you aren't going overboard to a really hi end rig. So I mean maybe plan your new build now and buy the power supply for it and use it for the moment.

Evga have some offers too- or just scout around to see if anything else is on sale.

You could turn off the turbo clock in the bios. It can actually be underclocked, if you set the core multiplier lower than the default. Not sure what the default multiplier is on the 4300. If it's 18 set it to 17, see if it posts. Maybe get down to 1.181v @3.5 Ghz. -if the mobo vrms are still ok. The capacitors or mosfets on it might be degraded - if it simply doesn't work at a low voltage there's a deeper problem with the mobo too.

It would also be pretty slow underclocked - windows logon would take longer for example.

Depends if the bios has any overclocking (or underclocking) options. It isn't an fx990 chipset variant mobo so options might be limited.

Check in your bios that the vCore is on default or auto. Also shut down, switch off mains, clear cmos and set to defaults and start from there if you really want to try.

Thanks, will do.

 

[DavidM012]

Actually now I think of it, it's the fx4320 that was the lower voltage variant, not the 4300. If you lower your vCore to 1.3v - 1.28 maybe you'd be able to underclock it to 3.5ghz. However this vCore doesn't really do anything to help the power supply. It's basically the default vCore of an fx4350 - it won't really make any difference to lower the vCore and all you'll get is a slower cpu.

Since psu is on the way out - it'll go when it goes, anyway.

 

[Sean16]

Actually now I think of it, it's the fx4320 that was the lower voltage variant, not the 4300. If you lower your vCore to 1.3v - 1.28 maybe you'd be able to underclock it to 3.5ghz. However this vCore doesn't really do anything to help the power supply. It's basically the default vCore of an fx4350 - it won't really make any difference to lower the vCore and all you'll get is a slower cpu.

Since psu is on the way out - it'll go when it goes, anyway.

Ah right thanks. Eh, I might just go ahead and get a new PC, dunno if it's worth prolonging at this stage. I think it's what I needed really to encourage me to finally get a new system.

 

[DavidM012]

My thoughts upgrading from an FX is that at least double the cpu is a worthwhile upgrade so ryzen 3600x (Zen 2) or greater, or Intel equivalent like core i5-11400. 13th gen Intel launches on the 20th.

You could also go straight to 12th gen intel on a 13th gen mobo to give you space for one more later upgrade - 13th gen will be the last Alder/Raptor Lake lga1700 cpus.

Here's the cpu-z bench list and cpu heirarchy still that by itself doesn't tell you much of the in's and outs. Zen 2 has been and gone already, many Zen 2 users have already upgraded to Zen 3 already (5000 series so 5500g, 5600, x variant, 5700, 5800x & 3d variant (great gaming cpu), 5900 and x where the 5950x is encroaching on workstation turf. and Zen 4 has also launched earlier this month, so there's a lot to catch up on.

Might be simpler to approach it like this. The cpu really needs an upgrade - so that will require new Mobo and Memory. DDR4 for Zen 2&3 or intel up to 11th Gen, ddr4 or 5 for 12th&13 gen intel, or Zen 4 is ddr5 exclusively.

So Intel b660 or z690 mobos support either ddr4 or 5 memory . There's also the z790 chipset mobo which pairs with 13th gen Cpus - article for an idea of the mobo lineup. Also Chipsets article for intel 12th gen. B660 boards are kind of tough to choose from since they aren't great, and don't support overclocking Intel included slightly wider memory compatibility for the latest gens, which makes 'some' upgrades easier.

b550 or x570 mobos for AMD, zen 2 or 3, or X670 and X670E chipset mobo or B650E or B650 for Zen 4 - the latter emerging this month.

I'd suggest starting a new thread for build advice - state your budget and purpose for the machine. If you include region they can also look at prices in your region more easily.

If you wait a few days for the 13th gen launch it will probably cause the market to shuffle a bit so deals galore. The world is your lobster anyway, starting from an FX - you can do with Zen 2 & 3 or Intel equivalents or jump on the newest gen. Zen 4 or intel 12&13th gen Alder/Raptor Lake bandwagon.

You might also want to upgrade your old Mechanical hard drive to a 2.5" sata 3 ssd or m.2 nvme - drives have also forwarded 2 generations and n.v.m.e is now the norm and the same price as now old sata 3 ssds.

A thought about your drive - you might want to shrink down some of your data to save money on a new drive purchase. Well I just load the OS off a 256gb ssd and use the hdd for storage. If you get a Samsung which has Samsung magician for easy OS migration you'd need a 2tb nvme if you want to migrate a 2tb hdd. So it will save you money to shrink the partition and delete unnecessary data if you possibly can. Or you could just buy a 256gb or 500gb nvme and clean install windows on it. Can't really recommend using a 9 year old drive as storage or backup - could go out any time.

The point is you can get any combination of hdd, ssd, or nvme you want.

All modern mobos have nvme ports and Sata 3 ports at the moment. You can still use hdd's on them, some do for large storage.

GPU is another world. A list and a chart to give you an idea of what's out there. Your current GPU will easily work in your new build - you can upgrade that now or later.

Also sign up for a Microsoft account now if you haven't already - you'll (probably) have the option of upgrading to windows 11 with your new build. Because when you upgrade your pc components it might otherwise invalidate your license key.

Your FX build doesn't support the new TPM (trusted platform module) that's a min. requirement of win 11.

 

[Sean16]

My thoughts upgrading from an FX is that at least double the cpu is a worthwhile upgrade so ryzen 3600x (Zen 2) or greater, or Intel equivalent like core i5-11400. 13th gen Intel launches on the 20th.

You could also go straight to 12th gen intel on a 13th gen mobo to give you space for one more later upgrade - 13th gen will be the last Alder/Raptor Lake lga1700 cpus.

Here's the cpu-z bench list and cpu heirarchy still that by itself doesn't tell you much of the in's and outs. Zen 2 has been and gone already, many Zen 2 users have already upgraded to Zen 3 already (5000 series so 5500g, 5600, x variant, 5700, 5800x & 3d variant (great gaming cpu), 5900 and x where the 5950x is encroaching on workstation turf. and Zen 4 has also launched earlier this month, so there's a lot to catch up on.

Might be simpler to approach it like this. The cpu really needs an upgrade - so that will require new Mobo and Memory. DDR4 for Zen 2&3 or intel up to 11th Gen, ddr4 or 5 for 12th&13 gen intel, or Zen 4 is ddr5 exclusively.

So Intel b660 or z690 mobos support either ddr4 or 5 memory . There's also the z790 chipset mobo which pairs with 13th gen Cpus - article for an idea of the mobo lineup. Also Chipsets article for intel 12th gen. B660 boards are kind of tough to choose from since they aren't great, and don't support overclocking Intel included slightly wider memory compatibility for the latest gens, which makes 'some' upgrades easier.

b550 or x570 mobos for AMD, zen 2 or 3, or X670 and X670E chipset mobo or B650E or B650 for Zen 4 - the latter emerging this month.

I'd suggest starting a new thread for build advice - state your budget and purpose for the machine. If you include region they can also look at prices in your region more easily.

If you wait a few days for the 13th gen launch it will probably cause the market to shuffle a bit so deals galore. The world is your lobster anyway, starting from an FX - you can do with Zen 2 & 3 or Intel equivalents or jump on the newest gen. Zen 4 or intel 12&13th gen Alder Lake bandwagon.

You might also want to upgrade your old Mechanical hard drive to a 2.5" sata 3 ssd or m.2 nvme - drives have also forwarded 2 generations and n.v.m.e is now the norm and the same price as now old sata 3 ssds.

A thought about your drive - you might want to shrink down some of your data to save money on a new drive purchase. Well I just load the OS off a 256gb ssd and use the hdd for storage. If you get a Samsung which has Samsung magician for easy OS migration you'd need a 2tb nvme if you want to migrate a 2tb hdd. So it will save you money to shrink the partition and delete unnecessary data if you possibly can. Or you could just buy a 256gb or 500gb nvme and clean install windows on it. Can't really recommend using a 9 year old drive as storage or backup - could go out any time.

The point is you can get any combination of hdd, ssd, or nvme you want.

All modern mobos have nvme ports and Sata 3 ports at the moment. You can still use hdd's on them, some do for large storage.

GPU is another world. A list and a chart to give you an idea of what's out there. Your current GPU will easily work in your new build - you can upgrade that now or later.

Also sign up for a Microsoft account now if you haven't already - you'll (probably) have the option of upgrading to windows 11 with your new build. Because when you upgrade your pc components it might otherwise invalidate your license key.

Your FX build doesn't support the new TPM (trusted platform module) that's a min. requirement of win 11.

Thanks! I'll have a look at some stuff. Cheers for the advice!

 

[DavidM012]

Just being thorough(ish): You can also simulate your build on PC Partpicker - that will raise any compatibility flags and post the bb code on the forum (have to cut'n'paste) for assessment.

Don't forget a good cooler - Thermalright Peerless Assassin is a fairly useful overkill cooler that's cheap and competes with noctua nh-d 15 or scythe fuma rev b - depends what'll fit in your case. (can be found on ali express). If you have an old ATX case that has 4x 5.25 bays and 4x 3.5 bays you will have difficulty fitting an AIO liquid cooler, while some of the larger Air coolers like the 6 pipe varieties might be too tall to get the side panel on.

Trying to think of the need to knows - there's lots of details so a 'build advice' thread will highlight any better deals or technicalities.