So my PC sometimes makes strange clicking noises while running, almost like something is knocking against the fans. I tried placing my PC on my desk next to me (it lives under my desk) to see if I can pinpoint the location but I am not sure where. I was thinking my graphics card might be the culprit but the sound happens even while not under load. While under load the clicking does ramp up which is why I initially thought it was my graphics card. When I get out of work tonight I can record it happening and find some place to upload it so you guys can hear as well. I was thinking of just trying to return items but some of the stuff I purchased almost a year ago as I bought parts when I could afford them and lost receipts. :(
nothing in my system is overclocked as well (although with the parts I got, I should had)
Here is my internals Intel i7 6700k Gigabye z170x-gaming gt mobo Corsair h100i-v2 MSI GTX 1070 32 gigs of EVGA DDR4-2400 (2 kits of the 2x8GB) Corsair RM750 PSU Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD WD 1TB HDD
edit: added a photo i could find with most of my parts
Hard Disk Drives make clicking sounds when they are about to die but I doubt that is the case as I've literally only had one hard drive die myself under normal use (It was proprietary drive from a really really old laptop) and I have some really old drives but it might be worth checking just to make sure.
Check your wires, personally i'm lazy as F... when assembling a PC, and it happens the wires sortta dangles in there inside the cabinet. Nothing happens unless your let it happens for a while, but both for safety, and your own sanity just make sure some wire doesn't occasionally hit a fan, it's a relatively easy excuse my french "tug job", just push your wires away from your fans in there. Other then that just make sure your screws are tightened, the rattling sound can drive you crazy over time. If the sound continues, it may be a fan which is skewed, in that case you'll have to find the sound manually, and exchange the fan. The sound is then caused by the fan occasionally hitting the side of it's casing, and we're talking millimeters here so don't bother trying to fix it if that's the case, But use your ears in a open cabinet first, you'll look dumb ass up, ears inside your cabinet while finding the error, but that's the life of a techie. Should the clicking sound(it's kind of hard to imagine from text) come from a hard drive. Stop saving data to it immediately, and exchange it, that's a death rattle.
Sorry for the dark video, comp is back under my desk without much lighting ATM
Comp isn't making many sounds. At time of noticing first click I just loaded into WoW but my comp was barely on 5 minutes. I will try for a better recording
That's loud as hell if that was a hard drive it would be dead. Has to be a fan. Go through each fan individually and stop them (press on the center with your finger, won't hurt anything) until the noise stops
I wonder does the psu have an issue? make sure the fan is spinning on the psu and if it's an auto fan put the system under heavy load. No harm to just rule it out.
I thought it would be some kind of plastic or a cord knocking into the fan but after a visual inspection it wasn't anything i could see. It is kind of hard to predict when the noise will happen and that video was cut down from about 2 minutes of filming with only one click. loaded a game, got to what I would figure would be heavy on the system then started recording on my phone. What I really wanted to capture is when I notice it click multiple times, but no luck this time around.
Tomorrow is my first day off and I will check out the PSU along with each fan. Most likely a tear down of my system is in order if i can not find the culprit. Any recommendations for a program to put my system under a heavy load?
In a way I hope it is just my graphics card because I bought coverage when I picked it up from Micro Center. So that would be an easy exchange.
I've got an H100i cooler. The stock fans were really loud, so I swapped them out for two Noctua Noctua NF-P12 Vortex-Control 120mm Quiet Case Fan - 3 Pin units. Totally silent.
Do you have onboard video? Remove all moving parts one at a time and test it, including the gpu if you can use integrated video. You can download the 3dmark demo for free for a stress test, run one of the firestrike tests.
I have had sounds way worse than that and my pcs still go on. As for what that click noise is well it sounds like a noise I heard when my ex-fiancee's hard drive was damaged/not working. I did some testing of her pc one time and it clearly was the hard drive doing this.
I would believe the sound is coming from my HDD but it currently has nothing on it. Would the system spin the HDD randomly even with nothing saved to it?
It would depend on the motherboard. I would recommend unplugging the hard drive and running the system with it out to see if you can get it to click with that removed. The other thing you could do is try placing a large file on the hard drive and see how it fairs. If it was the hard drive, then it would either be the loudest hard drive ever or the drive is dead as a rock.
There's a possibility of pump noise, but as it's a new unit I would of thought it was unlikely. I might be your HDD. I had one once, that sound like a team of tap dancing mice. Could try temporarily disconnecting it, just to see.
