Strange Hissing Noise... read on

[Desertfox2006]

When the game starts up, after the bink intros, I boot my game up after a fresh install. I enter the BFHQ panel and am greeted by a NASTY hissing sound coming from my tower. With the sheer amount of fans I cannot identify the component making the sound. It sounds like an electric hiss, and is not a warning beep.

My specs are:
ATI Radeon X1900XTX, latest catalyst drivers
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ socket AM2, watercooled, not overclocked
running on Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe mobo
2gb Corsair XMS DDR2-800 default timings
200gb seagate 7200rpm, oldest part on the rig
Thermaltake 480watt PSU, same age as HD
edit: using Soundmax onboard audio, it makes slight electronic hissing in headphones, but the hissing I get is much more dangerous and electric-sounding and is clearly not emitted from the headphones or any other audio device

I cannot duplicate the noise under any circumstances. Memtest86 produced no errors. Video card doesn't hiccup on any other games or on 3dmark. CPU responds to stress well. I can't make heads or tails of this problem.

Hissing noise goes away when I quit the game or go back to the menu login screen.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Strange Hissing Noise... read on

it almost has to be the video card, unless the added strain of pushing those pixels is straining the psu. the electronics in a PSU can get "vocal" if they are heavily strained or failing.

have you checked to be sure there isn't some dog hair/clumped dirt clogged in there somewhere? when you stress your system (depending on your thermal controls) some of the fans will spin faster--thus your "whining sound" may ALWAYS be there, but may only be audible when the fans ramp up and pass a threshold cfm rate--which then blows enough air over an obstruction to produce an audible whine.

in other words, blow everything out with a can of compressed air, remove the video card and blow out the fan, blow air directly into the air "intakes" if it has those, blow backwards and forwards through the psu, and see if the noise changes.

[Desertfox2006]

Re: Strange Hissing Noise... read on

The X1900XTX is brand new (reason I don't think it's defective is because other games perform fine, temperatures do not spike on any component). PSU is old, around 2 years. It has plenty of dust in it. I'm thinking it's possibly bloated capacitors leaking. But why only in certain circumstances (eg the BFHQ screen???). I mean, i ran various stress tests without problem or issue. But this really worries me. I am strapped for cash, just having replaced my CPU and mobo, and then re-replaced my GPU after the 7900GTX I bought had to be RMA'd.

Thank you for the response! I will try the PSU idea tomorrow if I can get a hold of some compressed air.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: Strange Hissing Noise... read on

the CPU fan is also thermally controlled, and will ramp up when under load (like processing a big .exe like BF2).

do you have onboard video? thought of taking the card out and giving it a shot?

or disconnect the other fans one at a time (not the cpu) and verify that it isn't a thermal-reactive fan that's on it's last leg and is grinding it's bearing at speed?

if you can, you should run it with the panel off, put a cardboard tube* to your ear, and isolate the general area of the sound.

*a tube from an empty roll of paper towels is fine; aka a tech stethoscope

[Desertfox2006]

Re: Strange Hissing Noise... read on

the CPU fan is also thermally controlled, and will ramp up when under load (like processing a big .exe like BF2).

CPU is liquid cooled.

do you have onboard video? thought of taking the card out and giving it a shot?

No onboard video

or disconnect the other fans one at a time (not the cpu) and verify that it isn't a thermal-reactive fan that's on it's last leg and is grinding it's bearing at speed?

The hissing sound REALLY doesn't sound mechanical, it sounds electrical. I just wish i could record it and send you a .wav . It's quite possibly the most horrid sound i've ever heard. Anyway, the other fans on the system are knob controlled--I control RPM.

I've checked the capacitors on the motherboard and I see no bent or leaking units.

*a tube from an empty roll of paper towels is fine; aka a tech stethoscope

Good idea, but i'm still reluctant to boot up the game again. I'm afraid something will explode :hmm: