Computer making horrible buzzing noise.

[Magus]

Hi, I'm Jeremy and my computer sometimes sounds like a chainsaw.

To elaborate, today I got home from school and started up a game of league of legends. Not 10 minuets into said game, I lagged horribly and my compute was making a sound like a chainsaw coming from the inner-most part. And yes, it DOES sound exactly like a chainsaw, ask anyone of my fellow TF2 division members that have heard it over Ventrilo. Anyway, I had to D/C from my league game and restart my computer in hopes of it getting rid of the lag and the noise. The lag only worsened and the computer was still buzzing. And when I mean lag, I mean my mouse could barely move across the screen and I could not move in my TF2 game, it would just keep playing the same sound over again like MED-MED-MED-MED-MED-MEDIC!!! (the reason I launched tf2 despite my comps poor performance at the moment is because I had an event to host.) I told my fellow EC1 to get a different EC to substitute as I fixed the issue. I shut down my computer completely, only to sit through a 30 minuet long "installing updates" BS. After that, I gave it some time and rebooted it. Still nothing, computer still lagging hard and making the same noise. (my ears were bleeding by this point.) So, I shut down again (no updates this time) and unscrew the shell of my computer to take a look at it. Nothing seems wrong as far as I could tell, so I screwed it back on and tried yet again. This time I opened system mechanic and did a "repair all." After about five minuets it was done and I had to restart AGAIN to initiate the fixes. When I clicked the prompt to restart, it shut down in stead of actually restarting. When I turned it back on, it said it could not restart and files may be corrupt and it had to verify or de-frag or something like that. While it did that, I removed my computers shell a second time to look at it while it was running to see if I could find out what the problem was. Needless to say, it looked the exact same as it did when I checked before. After it came back, I immediately shut it down because I was starting to smell smoke and burning rubber. I tell you, the noise stopping was one of the biggest reliefs I ever experienced.

TL;DR My computer is making a noise that sounds like a chainsaw and I need help ASAP.

Thank you for reading and if you have any suggestions please tell me, thank you.

~jeremy


Thanks

 

[Snipeye]

A few questions Jeremy, though I already have an idea what that noise is, and you're not gonna like it.

1) Have you left the case opened and then restarted it? If so, were you able to figure out where the source of the sound come from?
2) How old is your computer, and when was the last time you made any changes to it? Such as new RAM, CPU, heatsink, fans, harddrives, etc. etc.

Depending on what you say, it WILL decide what's the cause of the problem. If you're up to it, if your answer to #1 was a No, try to boot it up again, with the case open so you can find it. There are only FOUR possible spots that sound can come from, and I'm pretty damn certain it's not 2 of them. Try to locate the sound of the grinding or smell of rubber and smoke if it's still possible. Try the video card, or your hard drive.

 

[Magus]

A few questions Jeremy, though I already have an idea what that noise is, and you're not gonna like it.

1) Have you left the case opened and then restarted it? If so, were you able to figure out where the source of the sound come from?
2) How old is your computer, and when was the last time you made any changes to it? Such as new RAM, CPU, heatsink, fans, harddrives, etc. etc.

Depending on what you say, it WILL decide what's the cause of the problem. If you're up to it, if your answer to #1 was a No, try to boot it up again, with the case open so you can find it. There are only FOUR possible spots that sound can come from, and I'm pretty damn certain it's not 2 of them. Try to locate the sound of the grinding or smell of rubber and smoke if it's still possible. Try the video card, or your hard drive.

Thank you for replying. It is well met, snipeye.

i will restart my computer without the shell and see what i find after I type this reply. Second, I obtained seven new gigs of RAM around august or July last year. The noise started at about December or November. My computer is from 2010 and is a Dell inspiron laptop. I also got a new battery around the same time as the new ram.

Again, thanks.

 

[pillar]

I will say that ive had a similar issue & come to find out that its my 200mm fan sometimes having kittens. So to be honest, im taking a guess itll be 1 of your case fans, if not possibly your video card.

Also is the memory the only thing youve recently upgraded? If you can do us a favor and download cpu-z and run that? Itll let you know what cpu your using, whats ur total memory & the bus speed, along with other good stuff. Once you get this info up, then please take a screen shot. It def doesnt hurt to post a screen shot of your stats, and it may even help us to pinpoint your "chainsaw" sounding issue.

 

[Ric]

Ater it came back, I immediately shut it down because I was starting to smell smoke and burning rubber. I tell you, the noise stopping was one of the biggest reliefs I ever experienced.

Your house is not worth your computer. You should never ever smell smoke or burning rubber, less your PC is more of a bomb.

Just be safe. Electrical components can catch on fire, although most PCs today have a shut-down defensive mechanism.

 

[Grimmaz]

When your computer sounds like a chainsaw it is typically a fan that is hitting something or failing. Shut the computer down and disconnect the power cable. Open the case and look to see if there are any wires that might come in contact with one of your fans. For example I have built computers where the CPU fan wires that connect to the motherboard were too tightly pulled and were in the direct line of the spinning CPU heatsink fan. All you would have to do is just tug on the wire a little to give some (not a lot) slack so the fan does not make contact with the wires. Look at every fan inside your case including the CPU fan and make sure the fans aren't going to make contact with any wires. Next I would reconnect the computer to the power cable and start it up. If you continue to hear non typical noises like a chainsaw or buzzing noises, listen closely to each fan to locate which one is causing the noise. Once you locate the fan making the noise, look at it and determine if it's spinning at the proper speed. Some fans are make noises due to heavy dust coating, failing fan, etc. I would also be sure to take your tower outside and use compressed air (follow directions on the can) and blow out your tower so that your tower is dust free. This is also important maintenance to prevent hardware failing before it's time. Let us know how you do with this.

edit - On the subject of your computer lagging. Based off of the information you have provided, I am guessing the lag is due to heat. When your computer is overheating it will not perform as it should under normal operating temperatures. Try the above solution and once that is complete let's see how the computer performs. Please respond with results. Thank you!