[sunsetter]

My computer emits a high pitch steady whistling sound. This sound occurs usually during web searches or game playing. The sound does not always present itself at the same time. The only way I have been able to stop it is to restart the computer. i am trying to find out what causes this whistling to occur.

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Inductors (chokes, coils) found in the power supply, video card or motherboard can sing. In the case of a video card sometimes changing the driver can lessen or eliminate the singing.

I will stop short of recommending a soda straw or rubber hose held to the ear to pin point such noises.

http://arstechnica.c...hp?f=7&t=224612

"My experience with capacitors making noise is that they'll do so for about half a second right before they blow out. If you're hearing something long term it almost certainly isn't a capacitor. It's usually an inductor that wasn't wound tightly enough. They should be using some kind of epoxy to hold the windings in place but they don't. Pennies, I guess. It's not easy to wind an inductor tightly around some of the thinner axial cores without cracking them.

You can add a drop of cyanoacrylate or Loctite (blue) to the coil through one of the holes inthe topof the core. Give it a day to set up and then it should be quiet forever. I've never had any luck with hot melt glue as it doesn't seem to want to wick into the coils.

Toroidal cores are rarely a problem as the field is contained more in the core itself and the stray field is not oriented well for moving conductors. It can happen, though, if you have a lot of turns and/or multiple windings. Same solution - a few drops of cyanoacrylate."

[DaffyKantReed]

Inductors (chokes, coils) found in the power supply, video card or motherboard can sing. In the case of a video card sometimes changing the driver can lessen or eliminate the singing.

I will stop short of recommending a soda straw or rubber hose held to the ear to pin point such noises.

http://arstechnica.c...hp?f=7&t=224612

"My experience with capacitors making noise is that they'll do so for about half a second right before they blow out. If you're hearing something long term it almost certainly isn't a capacitor. It's usually an inductor that wasn't wound tightly enough. They should be using some kind of epoxy to hold the windings in place but they don't. Pennies, I guess. It's not easy to wind an inductor tightly around some of the thinner axial cores without cracking them.

You can add a drop of cyanoacrylate or Loctite (blue) to the coil through one of the holes inthe topof the core. Give it a day to set up and then it should be quiet forever. I've never had any luck with hot melt glue as it doesn't seem to want to wick into the coils.

Toroidal cores are rarely a problem as the field is contained more in the core itself and the stray field is not oriented well for moving conductors. It can happen, though, if you have a lot of turns and/or multiple windings. Same solution - a few drops of cyanoacrylate."

[rshaffer61]

Most logical place is the fans in the system.
Is this a laptop or desktop?
How long since you opened it and cleaned out the inside using a can of compressed air?