I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then. Open the case, clean your fans. Run the PC with the case open, and see if you can identify where the noise is coming from. Fortunately, fans are (usually) cheap and easy to replace.
Also if you use canned air don’t blow it into the fan unless you are holding the blades still. This can force the fan to spin too fast and actually damage the bearings. And don’t use a vacuum inside the case. They build up a massive static charge.
I opened the case, and tried to identify. It’s really tough to tell, since it’s so loud, and the sound bounces around everywhere. I think it’s coming from the bottom of the board, closer to the graphics card, not the CPU at the top of the motherboard. But again, that’s a guess, since it’s really tough to tell. The CPU fan does look really bad in dust cloggedness, but I’m not exactly sure how to clean it. Blowing on it doesn’t get rid of much dust. I’ll see if I can find some kind of small brush in the house. If I can’t find one, maybe I’ll go with an older toothbrush, but I think toothbrush would be too stiff to work well in this case.
If the sound is coming from the graphics card, then I’m not sure how to fix that. It might still be under warranty though, so if it is the graphics card, that would be a great scenario.
If I can’t tell where fan noise is coming from, I’ll briefly push on the center of each fan (while the PC is running) until the fan stops. And only until it stops, to see if it gets quiet when it’s not spinning. I do that with each fan until I’ve identified the culprit. Look in every spot you can think of. My brother had a noisy fan once on a card that I’d never seen a fan on before.
Compressed air has always worked well for me, with the caution mentioned above about not letting the fan blades spin too fast. But for it to work effectively, you need to keep after it, like every 3 to 6 months, to keep too much build-up from occurring. While you’re at it, clean out those cooling fins, they can get plugged pretty fast.
Dirt built-up on the blades that cannot be removed with canned air can be gently removed via damp q-tips. Though this is a painstaking job.
Q-tips! That’s genius! I have q-tips!
So, I was stuck in the endless cycle of being too lazy to work on my computer when I got home from work. So every time the CPU usage went above 50%, it would make that godawful noise. I just started avoiding games with larger CPU usage. Until Grim Dawn. When I played that, it would make the noise, especially when I listened to podcasts at the same time.
So I kept doing that, it didn’t seem to be hurting my computer yet, so I started playing regularly, even with the noise. The podcast and sound effects were turned up loud enough that I could sometimes pretend the loud noise didn’t exist.
But last night, right in the middle of the game, my PC shut down, and rebooted. And suddenly the noise was on almost all the time. Now it was coming on any time my CPU went above 25% use.
So I shut down my PC and went to bed.
I got up this morning, thinking if I left for work like this, my wife would turn the computer on, and maybe my CPU might actually get damaged while I was gone, so I got about 2 dozen q-tips and opened up the case and went to work.
It took me 30 minutes, and even after I called it, I was still pulling all kinds of dust from the heat/sink/cpu fan area. Geez. 6 years of build-up I guess. Plus I’ve heard that the way you should make your PC cases is that more air should be flowing out of the case than into the case. But my PC is the opposite. I’ve got 2 fans blowing air into the case, only one fan outward, so I guess that doesn’t help with the dust buildup.
After the clean up, I fired it up while the case was open. I started a podcast, some spotify, Grim Dawn, and started wading into a heavy monster area.
No noise. Hallellujah. Thanks gents!
Btw, I didn’t even need the q-tips to be damp. They were magnetic, the way they attracted dust to them even when dry.
The problem with dry q-tips is that little pieces of cotton fluff can be easily pulled off to reside in the depths of your computer. Same reason why you should always wet them before cleaning your ears.
Well actually you shouldn’t clean your ears with q-tips in the first place. But everybody does anyway.
A paint brush or camera lens blower is much better. For PCs, not ears.
I had a video card die because dust had accumulated in the heat sink to the point where it blocked the cooling fan from moving. This was about 15 years ago; I didn’t know better at the time, and I was running the PC with the case open in a dusty environment.
Since then I’ve made it a point to clean the insides of my computers on a regular basis. Even if it doesn’t kill your PC outright, dust buildup can have a large impact on its operating temperatures. And it can be surprising how dusty a PC can get, even if you think it’s operating in a relatively dust-free environment.
I use a coke spoon. Perfect size.
So, this happened today while playing the game and listening to Tom’s stream. The PC just shut down, just like yesterday. Hmmm. So maybe all I did was stop the noise via my cleaning, but some problem persists?
Suggestions on the next step? Is there a program or Windows utility I can use to maybe log my CPU temperature while I play? Which will persist even if the computer shuts down and restarts?
I suppose I could install MSI Afterburner and start looking at the GPU temperature as well.
I found a utility that can help me stress test my CPU called Prime95.
And I found a utility from CPU ID called hwmonitor that can track CPU temperature and voltages and GPU temperature and voltage. I’m not sure if it keeps a log though. Still, I can run the stress test while the case is open and report back visual observations as well as what the HW monitor is reporting. Maybe I can get enough data to help me diagnose this problem.
My co-worker also suggested that the q-tips only helped me clean the surface of the heat sink. That I should buy a can of compressed air to help me clean out the dirt that’s deeper in the heat sink, and that if I hold a vacuum attachment over the area while I spray the compressed air, it should take care of the dirt inside the heat sink.
You actually shouldn’t use prime95 on modern CPUs; it can cause damage. I suggest using the intel XTU instead.
Thanks for the heads up! XTU it is.
MSI Afterburner can log to a file. It also has an on-screen-display overlay utility, so that you can watch your CPU and GPU temperatures (among other stats) while you’re playing a game.
Also, a can of compressed air or something similar is a good idea. Hold the fan blades while you use it, to prevent them from overspinning.
CPUID HWMonitor Pro includes a graph generator that displays sensor data in as many graphs as there are sensors in the machine**. Each graph is saved as a bitmap file.**
Recording Options (requires version 1.08+)
Select Tools in the main menu, then Options to display recording options.
The graph generator can create two sets of graphs, in two different sizes. The program can also create .csv files, that you will easily open with a spreadsheet program. In order to avoid memory overflow, data are saved automatically every 250, 500, 1000, 1500 or 2000 samples. From version 1.20, HWMonitor PRO generates multi-curves graphs : for devices that contain more than one temperature, power, voltage, utilization or fan sensor, a graph is generated that displays all sensors.
Start Recording
Select Tools in the main menu, then Logs and Start Recording, or press F5 key. The Log Status indicator in the status bar changes to ON to indicate that the recording is in progress.
Graphs
The graphs are saved in the Logs directory. This directory is automatically created in the directory that contains HWMonitor Pro. In the Logs directory, each recording session is saved in a dedicated directory, named as following :
[DAY MONTH YEAR - HOUR MINUTE]. For example : [7 JUN 2008 - 15h10]
In case of several machines are monitored (remote), the data for all the machines are recorded. They are stored in a folder that has the same name as the machine. By default, graphs are sized 1280 x 960 pixels. You can optionally change the size through the Options dialog box (menu Tools, then Options). You can also change the curve thickness (version 1.20 and above).
Finally, check Automatically open folder after generation if you want that the folder opens by itself after the graphs are saved.
I didn’t have a chance to pick up compressed air yet.
But I did get home and run some tests.
First, podcast + Grim Dawn, with MSI Afterburner logging to a file.
After about 12 minutes of playing, the PC shut down and restarted. I looked in the log file. While I’m playing CPU1 is going 100% all the time, and the temperature is hovering around 62 or 63 degrees. CPU2 is hardly used at all, maybe in the low 20s at most, temp around 57. CPU3 gets used a little bit sometimes, around low 30%, temp around 55. CPU4 gets almost no use at all, temp around 59 C.
GPU use is all over the place, sometimes high sometimes low. The fan doesn’t let the temp get above 62.
Then I used the Intel Xtreme Tuning Utility to do some test. A benchmark test got the CPU temp to about 81C, that’s about a 3 minute test though.
I ran the memory stress test, which got the CPU temps to about 87 C for a while, that was a five minute test. Weirdly it only used a memory utilization of 4089 out of my 8 GB of RAM during the memory stress test. Is that normal?
I ran the CPU stress test, 5 minutes also. CPU temp got to about 83C for a while, and then hovered between 79 and 81.
So now I’m running a 10 minute CPU stress test, and the temp is staying between 79C and 81C, and it hasn’t shut down yet.
The fan on the CPU is definitely working fine, and making no noise whatsoever now.
I wonder what the hell could be causing the shutdown? Evidently it’s not CPU usage or temperature? Or maybe it’s sustained CPU1 usage? Or memory related? But memory problems would be causing blue screens or other symptoms, not a shut down, right? Maybe something motherboard related? But then, something, not triggered by CPU tests, only playing a game? What’s different during the game? That I’m using the GPU as well?
Could it be power related? My 650 W power supply is about 3 years old now. Maybe a problem there?
Hmmmm. CPU 10 minute stress just finished. And it did just fine.
Yep, it’s not CPU. My guess is it’s either your power or GPU.
Stress your GPU with Unigine Valley and see if it still shuts down.
If so, try underclocking and undervolting your GPU in Afterburner.
By default, Windows will automatically restart after a system failure like a blue-screen. You can disable this behavior. If it really is BSOD-ing, then disabling the auto-restart will give you an opportunity to read the error message.
Ooooh Thanks! I didn’t know about that. I’m doing it now so that I can have a more complete picture. And then I’ll try Uningine Valley, which just finished installing.