sporadic PC dying, weird "whining" noise - but it's NOT th..

walter wrote:
> my PC has been dying every few hours the last couple of weeks.
> running XPsp2HOME. it's not a BSOD.
>
> when i come back to it, the screen is frozen and everything is
> locked. i do a hard reboot, and it comes up saying "the system has
> recovered from a serious error". there's some XML dump that i cant
> really interpret.
>
> i thought a HD was failing. but i tried running linux from a CDROM,
> and the same thing happens. it freezes up.
>
> there is a high-pitched whining sound, which i thought was coming from
> the failing HD. but it's not. when i boot to the CDROM, i completely
> disconnected all of the HDs. the high pitched whining sound is still
> there.
>
> so i started thinking it might be the power-supply that's failing.
>
> however, the pitch of the whining seems to rise/fall with movements of
> various things across the screen...i.e., when the CPU/video-chip is
> doing some "work" to render the visuals.
>
> might that be some sort of failure of a component on the motherboard?
> it's a compaq s3100nx with an AMD Athlon. the video subsystem is on
> the motherboard (VIA ProSavageDDR) with one of those shared video ram
> UMA architectures.

It might be a fan that's failing. You can localize the sound by using a
paper towel tube against your ear--move it around until you find the
source of the noise.

Also, the nature of your failure suggest it's a heat-related problem.
Open up your case and aim a box fan at it. If your lockups go away it's
likely that your original failures are from the system getting too hot.
You can probably remedy that by cleaning dust out of the system,
dressing components to improve air flow, and/or adding a fan or two.
 >> Stay informed about: sporadic PC dying, weird "whining" noise - but it's NOT th.. 

On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:35:13 -0700, walter
<wamanning.DeleteThis@gmail.com> wrote:

>my PC has been dying every few hours the last couple of weeks.
>running XPsp2HOME. it's not a BSOD.

You didn't list all major components, incl. PSU make and
model.

>
>when i come back to it, the screen is frozen and everything is
>locked. i do a hard reboot, and it comes up saying "the system has
>recovered from a serious error". there's some XML dump that i cant
>really interpret.
>
>i thought a HD was failing. but i tried running linux from a CDROM,
>and the same thing happens. it freezes up.
>
>there is a high-pitched whining sound, which i thought was coming from
>the failing HD. but it's not. when i boot to the CDROM, i completely
>disconnected all of the HDs. the high pitched whining sound is still
>there.
>
>so i started thinking it might be the power-supply that's failing.

Whining can come from fan bearings but prior to there being
a sort of grinding noise instead of just high pitched whine,
the fan is usually still running fine... it's when you cease
hearing the fan noise that the fan has locked up and since
it isn't spinning would potentially cause overheating... but
a failed fan is easily spotted by visual examination.

>
>however, the pitch of the whining seems to rise/fall with movements of
>various things across the screen...i.e., when the CPU/video-chip is
>doing some "work" to render the visuals.


Some PSU whine even when new, as do some motherboards.
While it is a poor/defective inductor causing it in the case
where it otherwise works fine, a degradation in function can
also cause it. Similarly the video card may have inductors
prone to it but having the pitch change from rendering load
is not necessarily a sign it is the video card as this also
causes a change in current delivery to the video card, and
CPU.


>
>might that be some sort of failure of a component on the motherboard?
>it's a compaq s3100nx with an AMD Athlon. the video subsystem is on
>the motherboard (VIA ProSavageDDR) with one of those shared video ram
>UMA architectures.

If you can get your fingers around each inductor safely,
while system is running, you might see if applying a bit of
pressure to them changes the pitch or eliminates the sound.
Putting a straw to your ear and directing it around the
system might also help in pinpointing the sound but be very
careful as accidentally putting it in contact with a fan
blade could be bad for your ear, and such high pitched
sounds are often more difficult to determine directionally.

Regardless of the above I would tend to suspect the PSU
first since the noise did not occur previously? You might
unplug AC power from it for a few minutes then open and
inspect it... most likely failing capacitors near the
output, the larger ones around the exiting wiring harness.
 >> Stay informed about: sporadic PC dying, weird "whining" noise - but it's NOT th..