Processor making a screeching sound.

[Nick.D]

My processor is making a sort of deep screeching sound, it's an Intel Xeon w3550

It happens when the cpu usage gets up to around 60% or above. It isn't the fan, it still makes that noise with the fan at 0%.

That just started happening today--I was using it yesterday with no problems, then today it started doing that.

Does anybody know what this is? Is there a way to fix it, or will I have to replace the processor?
Now that I think of it, I do have a few spare parts laying around, so I could make a franken-puter, if necessary.

The attached zip has a .wav of the sound.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Processors don't make noise unless you boil them alive. Then they scream. Even still, most ppl just say that's the air escaping from them.

In all seriousness what you probably have is coil whine from your power delivery section, assuming you have zeroed in on the CPU area as the culprit. This noise more typically comes from GPU or power supply.

 

[voyagerfan99]

Yup sounds like coil whine to me.

 

[Nick.D]

At the risk of sounding completely stupid; I have no clue what coil whine is. Is that something serious?
Also, I always use speedfan to control the speed of the cpu fan, and openhardwaremonitor to monitor the temperatures--I never let it get above 65c, with it usually being around 50.

Now I'm running into another issue. I put the franken-puter together, but when I run the windows disk, it gets to the 'expanding files' step, then gives me this message:
Windows cannot install all required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x80070017

 

[johnb35]

Bad ram, failing hdd, or bad installation media.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Let's assume it's bad media. Just create a new installer on a USB drive from the windows website and try again.

And no, coil whine is not serious nor does it indicate impending failure of a part. It is annoying as hell though.

 

[Nick.D]

So I got windows installed on this computer, but there's an issue.
Just by downloading something, the cpu usage goes all the way up to 100%, and the temperatures get to around 50 degrees (Celsius) with the fans at 100%...........

2 people mentioned "coil whine" earlier. I've never heard of it... but is it a serious issue?
Could using my cpu while it's making that noise damage anything? If not I can just deal with it.

It definitely was the cpu, though. I have most of the same parts in this computer, and the noise stopped.

Also, I looked, and the cpu usage while just writing this got up to 100%... So there's something wrong with this one.

 

[Laquer Head]

2 people mentioned "coil whine" earlier. I've never heard of it... but is it a serious issue?
Could using my cpu while it's making that noise damage anything? If not I can just deal with it.

 

[mistersprinkles]

So I got windows installed on this computer, but there's an issue.
Just by downloading something, the cpu usage goes all the way up to 100%, and the temperatures get to around 50 degrees (Celsius) with the fans at 100%...........

2 people mentioned "coil whine" earlier. I've never heard of it... but is it a serious issue?
Could using my cpu while it's making that noise damage anything? If not I can just deal with it.

It definitely was the cpu, though. I have most of the same parts in this computer, and the noise stopped.

Also, I looked, and the cpu usage while just writing this got up to 100%... So there's something wrong with this one.

CPUs have no coils, so they can not coil whine. And no coil whine is not dangerous. There does seem to be something wrong with your machine though.

Did you install all drivers from mfg website particularly the INF?

 

[Nick.D]

CPUs have no coils, so they can not coil whine. And no coil whine is not dangerous. There does seem to be something wrong with your machine though.

Did you install all drivers from mfg website particularly the INF?

When it started making that noise, I did. I haven't yet on this computer, so I'll look to see if they are out of date or not.

Something odd though, it doesn't seem to be cpu usage related. It's gotten up to 70% without making that noise. It, as far as I can tell, only happens if I play a game.

 

[johnb35]

It, as far as I can tell, only happens if I play a game.

Sure its not the video card?

 

[Nick.D]

Sure its not the video card?

I'm pretty sure. I used the same one in the other computer I put together. It was certainly coming from the processor area.

I just launched a game a second ago, and it didn't seem to make that noise anymore.
I'll download one of the stress tests and see if it starts making that noise.

 

[Nick.D]

I did the test, the cpu usage got up to 100% and it didn't start with the noise.
I'm not sure what was happening, but it seems to (hopefully) be gone...?

 

[mistersprinkles]

That's how coil whine works. What you're hearing is vibration of one of the actual coils in the power delivery section of your motherboard, or your GPU, or your powersupply due to a slight manufacturing issue, usually improper insulation AFAIK. It manifests itself usually when the component is under heavy load, ie when the device is drawing high current, like when your CPU is running at high % usage.

It's very difficult to pin down where whine is coming from without swapping out components. Apart from it being difficult to put your head inside your case to listen for it, the human ear is very bad at directionality with extremely high frequency sounds, like coil whine... so even if you think you hear it coming from the CPU area you could be wrong.

 

[StrangleHold]

Sounds like to me you might just be having a fan bearing going out. Will make the sound when cold and cranked up, but a minute or two goes away.

 

[Nick.D]

Well, the sound isn't happening anymore.
But, as per usual with my computer problems, it's a chain reaction. One problem just leads to another.

I'm not getting the same performance.
On this game, I was able to run it on max settings just fine, but now it's having trouble on just medium settings. In fact, the game suggested I use ultra-low...

Something odd did happen though, while putting this computer back together.
I didn't even get a chance to re-install windows on the hard drive, it started up normally like it had never even changed computers, everything was exactly the same... As far as I'm aware, that shouldn't happen.
Maybe it still thinks I'm using the weaker processor?
I went into dxdiag, and it did show the correct one, though.

I have updated drivers, and I ran the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool, and it passed.
Specs:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
20 gb ram (it was 32 before... Maybe some of them are loose or something?)
Intel Xeon w3550

I know the w3550 isn't for gaming, but the game I'm trying to run isn't very demanding.
The processor it calls for is the Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz...
It also only calls for a video card w/ 256mb vram, so I'm good there too, I have 1,699.

 

[mistersprinkles]

I think your motherboard is fooked. Your card has 4GB of RAM, not 1699. Well more like 3.5, you have half a gig of gimped ram on that card, but its not 1699MB.

 

[Nick.D]

I think your motherboard is fooked. Your card has 4GB of RAM, not 1699. Well more like 3.5, you have half a gig of gimped ram on that card, but its not 1699MB.

Yeah, it was more earlier. I reinstalled windows, 7 this time. I'll see if it changes when I download new drivers. I'm hoping that this will somehow solve the performance issue...

Now that I'm looking, it says 1699 in one spot, and 4096 in another...

 

[mistersprinkles]

???

We need more details on what programs you're using to get these readings. Please use the latest drivers from motherboard website for all your components. Get the latest Nvidia/AMD driver for your GPU, etc.
Let us know everything you're doing from here on so we can try to figure this stuff out.

I'm not convinced your screeching sound isn't going to come back either... might want to look further into that too.

 

[Nick.D]

I hit windows button/ r, then typed in dxdiag and went to display for the first one (the 1699 one)
And for the second one (4096) I went to Control Panel>Display>Adjust Resolution>Advanced, and it says that under the 'adapter' tab.

I just finished updating my drivers, they should all be good now.
Also, I use Speed Fan/ and OpenHardwareMonitor to monitor/ adjust fan speeds. They both show different temperatures, though (both are using Celsius), so I use OpenHardwareMonitor to look at temperatures, but only Speed Fan can control cpu fan speed.
My cpu fans usually don't go above 30% on their own, even if the cpu is really hot, so I control that fan myself. I keep it around 30% if I'm not doing anything, and if I'm playing a game, I set it to ~55-65%, that keeps the cpu temperature around 55-60°C most of the time.

Right now I plan to do a stress test again, run the Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool again, and then download a game to see how it handles it.

I also don't have a system or any auxiliary fans in my computer. I do have an extra fan or two, but there's nowhere to put it in my case. The only fans I have in are the cpu and gpu fans. No Sys, no Aux, and no fan for my hard drive.
I'll probably take a picture of the inside of my computer and attach it here once the downloads finish... It's a mess, but there really isn't a way I can clean it up.

I lied. I do have a sys fan, I thought that was where I put my gpu fan...