Weird noises coming from my CPU

Asked By John Allen 130 points N/A Posted on - 05/28/2011

Hi, I have been through the website and find it interesting that we can share our problems here to commonly solve our personal computer issues at home with a moderator expert in computer applications.

My desktop pc is not an old one, not a brand new one. We can say it is middle aged with an Intel Pentium 4 configuration. It is working perfectly with no freezing issues or slowing down when many processes are running.

All computers’ cooling fans do make some noise while in running conditions. Some are reduced to their silent mode by having a controllable speed through the processor. Ok, I identified the fans located in my CPU: One on the Processor, one in the Power Supply, One in the CPU casing itself.

The noises which I hear are annoying as they are similar to a fan starting to run and immediately stopping. It does that each and every interval of minutes.

What I did was to observe the running computer under normal conditions. I saw that the three fans mentioned above are running correctly with no stopping in between during running mode. Still the annoying sound could be heard. 

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Answered By green_goblin 0 points N/A #107997

Weird noises coming from my CPU

This is a common phenomena with Pentium 4 CPUs. It is actually the Fan on the processor that is making this noise. As you’ve said some CPU fans are reduced to silent mode by controllable speed. This is causing your fan to speed up when your Processor temperature reaches a certain level and then slowing it down when the temperature is reduced. As your PC is a middle aged one, your fan is making audible noise while rotating at higher speed. Usually, when the fan is new, there is not much difference in noise levels between low and high speed, but when it gets older, dust accumulates on the bearing system wearing it out and the noise difference becomes much more audible.

The way of eliminating this noise depends on your fan type. There were two types of fan used in Pentium 4 set ups. If it is a thermistor controlled fan, which is indicated by a 3-wire power connector between fan and motherboard, you can only change the fan and get e new one as it’s speed is not controlled by motherboard but the fan itself. You can also try cleaning the fan’s blades and the bearing’s reachable parts. If it is a PWM fan having 4-wire power connector, you can disable fan speed control from motherboard which will stop the speeding up and down of the fan making a constant but high noise. Or you can still change it with a new and quite one. Cleaning is also worth a try.

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• Posted on - 06/13/2011
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Answered By hanraehoon 0 points N/A #107998

Weird noises coming from my CPU

Good Day!

I have the same problem with you and i solved it myself. I think the number one reason why there is a noise in your CPU is a broken fan.

Fans located throughout the inside of the computer help to dissipate the large amount of heat generated by the CPU, the power supply and other components.

Noisy fans are an indication that they are not working properly which means that heat may be building up inside the computer – a potentially damaging scenario.

Follow these steps to determine why one or more of these fans may be making loud or strange noises.

• Clean the CPU fan.
• Clean the power supply fan.
• If the noise persists and can be narrowed down to the CPU fan, replace the CPU fan.
• If the noise persists and can be narrowed down to the fan inside of the power supply, replace the power supply. (the whole power supply unit)

Hope it goes well, good luck

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• Posted on - 03/07/2012
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