constant buzzing from internal PC speaker

[iondrive]

hi all,

Recently I've been running things in dual core AMD instead of single core and I sometimes get a buzzing from my internal PC speaker. Googling this didn't help alot but it helped enough to give me the idea that it might be a power supply issue. Anyway if you have this problem, there may be two options for you.

For games:
If this is happening in a game, you can try turning on v-sync since this will create less demand on your system if you're playing an old game that results in too many frames per second because your system is too overpowered for that game. This approach should not work if your game's framerate is already below your hardware refresh rate.

Use single core mode:
I originally thought this was only a graphics demand issue but then I backed up a 5GB Steam game and got the buzzing near the end of the backup. When I redid the backup in single core mode, it took 13 minutes but I had no buzzing. When I redid the backup in dual core mode, it took 8 minutes but I had the buzzing near the end of the process.

Next I will check my BIOS. Maybe there's some settings there I should adjust such as an alarm temp set too low. This is not the normal high temperature alarm that is two-toned like a siren so that's why I didn't really think it was an over-temp condition. I thought it was a keyboard buffer overload alarm or something since it often happened when I was hitting the keyboard. Also GPU temp seems fine when this happens and I quickly Alt-Tab to the desktop and check temp in the nvidia control panel.

Advice? My power supply is 400W, but I have 4 hard-drives and a 3.2GHz CPU with 4GB ram so maybe it is not enough. Card is a 7800GTX or sometimes a 8800GTS (640MB).

--- iondrive ---

[The_Nephilim]

Hi Your Power supply is too low


Try this calculator from Antec VERY GOOD :


http://www.antec.outervision.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[cybereality]

Damn, that sucks dude. I hope you get to the bottom of it.

[The_Nephilim]

Hi, Can you post more about your driver experiments and running Dual core?? I want to get a core2Duo and try running 2 cores but I am afraid it will not work??

I also want to get 2 8800GTX Vid Cards??

[gisabun]

hi all,

Recently I've been running things in dual core AMD instead of single core and I sometimes get a buzzing from my internal PC speaker. Googling this didn't help alot but it helped enough to give me the idea that it might be a power supply issue. Anyway if you have this problem, there may be two options for you.

Advice? My power supply is 400W, but I have 4 hard-drives and a 3.2GHz CPU with 4GB ram so maybe it is not enough. Card is a 7800GTX or sometimes a 8800GTS (640MB).

--- iondrive ---

"Internal PC speaker"? Almost sounds like you either have a all-in-one PC or a laptop.

Buzzing can sometimes occur because of a bad power adapter [if external speakers] or maybe a [electrical] noisy power bar.

400W does sound a bit low. But whatever the "calculators" give as what you oare outputting, always add at least 100W to what you need.

If your power supply wattage was too low, your system would probably be shutting off on it's own.

4 hard disks?

[iondrive]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the tips and sympathy.

gisabun: it's the speaker that beeps when you turn on your computer. It can buzz too and even talk badly if your motherboard supports it but it's just a little piezo speaker so it's hard to understand... "your keyboard is not compatible" is what it's said in the past. It's an option in my bios whether it talks or not. The computer is a home-assembled standard desktop.

I upgraded my CPU just this year and I know the new one uses more power so yeah, that's it. I thought I had 4 hard drives but it's really 3. One for the OS, one archive and one backup archive. So anyway, I knew that if it was a power problem, then it might be borderline so I unplugged the backup archive drive and that fixed it. No more buzzing! YAY! The other upgrade I did was 4 GB ram instead of 2 since it was so cheap even though 32-bit XP only recognizes 3.5 GB. I thought I could save more power by going back to 2 GB but it looks like it's not needed. I can just plug in my backup archive drive when I do a backup and things will be fine. Maybe I will switch back to 2 GB ram since the games run the same as before. Other than that I will upgrade the power supply someday since that's the real answer. I post all this in case someone else can use the ideas for a similar problem.

Hi Nephilim, I didn't do that many tests so I've already posted the info I've got. I have not tested them with my 8800GTX yet and I'm not planning to use my 8800 card for nvidia s3d so that's why. I have much better success with iZ3D and TriDef when using my 8800.

Troubleshooting thoughts:
I'm using AMD's latest "dual core optimizer" program and I didn't really think that was a cause but I considered it.
I tried installing AMD Overdrive to get a look at some CPU info but it wouldn't install. I got a "cpu series 7 no detection error". Tried different versions with no luck but then I tried my motherboard's "EasyTune" program. Version 6 didn't work but version 5 did so now I can see my CPU's temperature and voltages. My motherboard is a GigaByte GA-M61P-S3 and normally I think of it as a pretty good motherboard. Anyway, the EasyTune5 program can overclock the CPU but I never overclock either CPU or GPU. I'll just use the program to monitor CPU temp and voltage and it's set to alarm when low. So far it's fine. I'll try some games again sometime with the 3rd drive plugged in to verify that the alarm works. All is well for now. I hope all this can help someone else someday. I googled "constant buzzing from internal PC speaker" but help was unclear.

Another interesting idea I got from someone was to use a second power supply. That should work and there are cases built with that idea in mind but I'd rather just stick with a single power supply.

Summarizing workarounds if you have this problem:
run in single-processor mode - less power
turn on v-sync - less work for your system for some games
unplug unneeded drives
remove excess ram
remove internal PC speaker (kidding)
underclock? - probably not significant power savings.
unplug unneeded USB junk - maybe not worthwhile.
any other suggestions?

Later, guys.

--- iondrive ---

PS: I think one of my oldest computers has a 30W power supply. It's slowly fossilizing. LOL.

[cybereality]

Well power supplies are pretty cheap. Its just a PITA to have to swap it out.

[vrekks]

Not to cut myself with Occam's razor but couldn't you just disconnect the speaker from the motherboard. I haven't installed the speaker in some PCs I have built and it doesn't seem to affect anything.

[iondrive]

Cyber, yeah, I'll do it eventually but things are fine for now. Maybe if I get a new video card or an extra hard drive for videos but I'm not really planning anything like that yet.

vrekks, I just prefer to be able to have the warning sound when something's wrong like overheating or something. There's a different alarm for that but it still comes from the internal PC speaker. I remember assembling this PC and considering not installing that thing too.

Anyway, Later.

--- iondrive ---

PS: I googled "constant buzzing from internal PC speaker" and this thread came up. Now if anyone has that problem, they can find this thread. They just have to know enough to search for the right phrase. What are the chances of that? IDK.

[crim3]

So, are you completely sure it is the pc speaker which is buzzing and not the power supply? Are we talking of a constant and very high tone buzz?
I just can't understand why the speaker should do any noise at all because of power problems.

[iondrive]

Hi crim3,

Your instincts are good and it's my turn to feel stupid. It is definitely the internal PC speaker and I thought the motherboard could detect low voltage or current or something but I got fooled. In this case "constant" means that it doesn't beep beep beep like some other motherboard audio signal codes and it's not a two-toned siren like I've heard from it before when things got too hot but it is still a temperature issue. Thanks to Easytune-5-Pro, I could see that the noise was associated with CPU temp going over 60 Celsius. Yes, I feel stupid now but that's life eh? Sorry to bother you all about it. So now I'm thinking about if I should get a liquid-cooled heat sink. I'd like to keep the CPU cooler in order to make it last longer and that's why I never bother to overclock things. Anyway, thank you all for your concern and once again, sorry to bother you about something I should have been able to troubleshoot properly on my own. It's just that I thought the over-temp alarm was a two-toned siren alarm and so that's what threw me. Now I think that the system temp alarm is different from the CPU temp alarm. Oh well, live and learn.

--- iondrive ---

PS: so why did unplugging the extra backup hard drive seem to stop the buzzing? Probably 'cause I left the side panel off after I unplugged the drive and that gave me better cooling. I guess I could just use a big fan but I'd rather get a better heatsink/fan combo. Later.

[Dom]

Hi iondrive, Is your fan able to even spin anymore? I've had alot of problems with overheating cpu's even my videocards. All I can suggest is to resink and use thermal paste like arctic silver or simliar. I used to use the oem heatsink and fan on my gaming computer and did work real well. I still use them on 3 of my computers but on my gaming computer I now have this one.
http://www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It one of the best rated for heatpipe transfer and now I can overclock and my cpu stays at 33 to 47 celcius under full load. Just one thing is that it pops out of the side of your case a bit and my case is a mid tower with a fan on the side. Its huge!

[crim3]

No problem at all!! That's what forums are for.
I just wanted to exclude the power supply. These modern power supplies can do a lot of noise when they are at the limit of their power output capabilities (well, at least the cheap ones), and this noise can be described as a high pitch constant buzz. (I wrote high tone on my former post, but it seems that the right word is pitch. Well, to be sure you understand me, high frequency sound).

So, at the end, it wasn't a problem related to the power supply.

[Shelid]

I was having the same problem and realised that it was the fan fail warning in the BIOS. I wasn't using all the connectors so there was a fan at 0 RPMs. Maybe you should check your BIOS and disable the fan warnings for the ones that you aren't using. I actually tossed a perfectly good pc speaker over this problem.
Hope this helps anyone else with the problem.

[gisabun]

I had "noise" coming from mjy old speakers as well. Could hear it clearly when the computer was off but the speakers were left on.

I ended up getting a Xmas deal for a new set and no more noise.

[Of course my current UPS shuts off the speakers when my computer is shut off - but I heard no noise prior to getting the UPS.]

Could also be some type of electrical interference.

[bgnome]

you know, if it is really bothering you, you can just disconnect the internal speaker. it does not really do anything except beep at post or indicate some error.
I would throw in a vote for a new psu. I put one in to my new build that had been sitting barely used in a box for years and it caused me all sorts of problems until I replaced it a few weeks ago.
Another possibilty that is responsible for general speaker buzzing is ground noise. You can try a ground isolator like they use for home theater systems or a UPS and see if that helps.