PC Speaker Screaming

Hey all,

I am the IT Tech at a company that has a small office, about 7 Desktops and 3 Laptops. Recently, we built 4 new computers, 2 sets of Identical PCs. One of the computers PC Speaker (The one you connect to the MOBO) seems to Scream under certain conditions.

Specifically, when we install something, or do something SUPER CPU intensive.

Thing is, under Heaven Benchmark at maximum settings, there is not a peep from the speaker.

We know it is the PC Speaker because we unplugged it to get it to stop.

I am running the matching PC and there has never been any sounds from the PC Speaker at all, save Post messages.

The PC Specs are as follows:

CPU: AMD FX-8120
RAM: 16 GB Corsair Vengeance
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-990XA-UD3
VIDEO CARD: nVidia GTX 550 Ti - 2GB Edition
HDD: Western Digital Caviar - 2 TB

I do not remember the model of the PSU but again, I Confirmed that it is coming from the PC Speaker under CPU loads and I cannot figure out why...

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

 

It may be a temperature warning. Does the BIOS have any temp settings that will give a warning? You can monitor the CPU temp with Core Temp or HWMonitor.

Can be downloaded from Majorgeeks.

http://majorgeeks.com/Core_Temp_d5665.html

http://majorgeeks.com/HWMonitor_d5842.html

 

We checked all the temps multiple times. It is definitely NOT a temp issue.

I forgot to mention that we have 3 120 MM Fans and an aftermarket CPU fan/heatsink.

 

hmm that sounds like a odd issue have you checked your bios settings.

 

We have Speccy running almost all the time monitoring temps, the highest is about 55 C or so, well under the limit.

and @Goldenskull, yes, multiple times.

 

In BIOS are there any settings for fan speed alarms?

 

I'd imagine you have already tried this - but did you attach a different speaker to the motherboard? Could be the speaker itself is faulty, maybe?

 

All are turned off, however this happened even before we added the aftermarket fans and cooler.

In fact, the reason we installed the fans in the first place is because of the noise.

No, I have not tried this, but I don't believe this to be the case because it posts properly and it only happens in certain circumstances. It is not a random sound, but a very specific sound and it does not fluctuate from that frequency.

 

Front speakers are very sensitive to current change and there are lots of places inside a computer where large currents pass sensitive small current wires and devices,you will notice the ferrite rings around certain wires,these must be installed as they protect against electromagnetic induction so double check they are installed,make sure your speaker wire is routed away from all high current wires as these wires can conduct large currents when the cpu is under load,make sure all preamp wires such as CDrom audio cables are also routed away from other wires,if they have to cross each other try and do it at 90 degree's and not parallel,the longer they are next to each other the easier power is inducted.

Other than manufacture defects this would explain why you have the symptom in identical computers.

Ideally to test you want a front speaker that is disconnected from the front panel and the wire routed away from all other devices or manually held outside the case while testing.

There is also another problem that can make this noise and that's noisy VRM's and MOSFETS,when the computer is under load the constant switching on and off of the semiconductors makes an audible hum,my GTX 590 suffers from this although I can only hear it with my case open and my ear near the computer,so check for this by disconnecting the front speaker obviously.

 

The Speaker is a 2 inch long plug basically, It has the positive and negative wires from a 1/2" speaker and it sticks straight out from the MOBO, it is not a speaker mounted inside the front of the case.

And if that was the issue, why is my PC, which is an IDENTICAL build, not making the same sound?

 

I'm not sure what you mean I only know of two speakers,the built in motherboard speaker and the front panel speaker,it's either soldered directly to the mobo or connected to the front panel header.

If you can unplug the speaker that's problem solved:confused There's absolutely no need to have any speaker connected as they're only for fault codes when the computer malfunctions

You could also check the bios version's of the the computers to see of there's any difference.

 

Well, That only covers the problem of the noise, but the noise could be a sign of a deeper issue. The speaker is a small speaker that plugs into the "Case Speaker" port on the Mobo.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3741/pcloft203694992016jj2.jpg

 

We did, no such luck. Our temporary solution is to simply pull the speaker until we need it. We have it in the desk drawer in case the PC decides not to boot we can plug it back in.