MOBO Clicking sound

cubbybear46 · 29 May 2016

Alright so here's the deal. This afternoon I was attempting to add a 2.5 inch drive to my rig to store my steam games on. I couldn't get it to work, and I came to the realization that it was a bad SATA cable. I took the drive, cables, etc out and set it aside for later until I could get a new cable. I closed everything up and rebooted my machine and several things started to happen. I would get a beep code consisting of multiple short beeps for 8 seconds at a time. Come to find out this is the code for a bad PSU on a gigabyte board. Well darn how does that happen?! I concluded that I must have short circuited the PSU while trying to use a molex to sata converter cable for the drive as I was out of sata connections on my PSU. I couldn't get my machine to POST no matter what I did. Then, other times I'd boot the machine I would get a clicking sound once every second coming from the motherboard speaker. I unplugged all my hard drives to confirm that it was in fact the motherboard speaker. My fans would just run at low idle and it would just keep clicking again with no POST or boot, and this blasted clicking sound would just keep emitting from the mobo speaker! So, off to Best Buy I went to buy a new PSU. I figured I needed a new SATA cable anyways and my current 500 watt PSU could use a bump up to a 650 watt as I just added a gaming graphics card, so I wasn't too upset to be honest. Skip ahead and I've got everything swapped out and ready to go. The beep code for a bad PSU is gone at this point, but that infernal clicking was still clicking away. I've been around computers for a long time and I had never seen anything like this. I conclude that I likely didn't short out my old PSU but rather knocked the 24 pin power cable loose just enough to cause issue. I read somewhere online that it could possibly be the processor not seated right. I don't see how the processor could have come unseated but at this point I was ready to try anything. While I had my machine open, I re-seated my new graphics card, all 4 sticks of RAM, as well as the processor and replaced the thermal past seeing as I had the processor and cooler off, and once again cleared CMOS just for good measure. Next, I plugged in ONLY my SSD, which is my C drive. TA-DA! It booted. So, one by one I started adding my components back to see if I could isolate a culprit. Eventually, I get to the end and it's still booting just fine now despite all my hard drives and my eSATA connection card being plugged in. I'm still scratching my head at what this could of been and that's where I'd like the community's help. What in the world happened to my machine? I should note that this all occurred after a blue screen. I don't think that's relevant but I figured I'd mention it.

My rig:
Gagabyte Z97-MD3H
Intel Core i5 4590 w/ stock cooler
EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX 750 Ti SC w/ stock cooler
12GB DDR3 Ram (ADATA & Kingston combo)
3 HDD (4.5 TB Total)
1 SSD (120GB)
Blu Ray burner
Multi card reader

ICIT2LOL · 29 May 2016

Hello and welcome cubbybear now mate if you think you have wrecked the PSU then any clicking noise would be coming from within that unit. The other thing you mention is the multiple beeping sounds and that is usually a BIOS warning system thing ie one beep is the norm for a RAM that is ok two for whatever the problem may be - see this for an example
Computer POST and beep codes

Now I have to tell you I have not been in 10 for that long and the system may be a lot different to 7 which I have been using for the last few years and when any problems are suspected with the PSU I get folks to use this ditty of mine so lets get this out of the way first because PSU problems are far more prevealant than is often thought of.
Using HW Info
PART A:
You can test the volts on the PSU with HW Info HWiNFO, HWiNFO32/64 - Download < download the right bit version and close the right hand window select Sensors and scroll down to the power section where you will see what the volts are doing see my pic. In my pic the section (Nuvoton) with VBATT is a dead give away you are in the section for the rail voltages. There are other section titles and one that pops up often is ITE
Now the voltage on the different rails have to be within 5% =+/- of what is required or the machine will not work properly if at all.
Limits +/-
12v = 11.4 – 12.6v
5v = 4.74 – 5.25v
3.3v = 3.135 – 3.465v
The Power good signal voltage at pin 8 on the 24 pin plug (grey cable) should be the same as the 5v rail reading/s
See this for the rail voltage info
Power Supply 101: A Reference Of Specifications - Power Supplies (Section 2.)
The original right hand window shows the machine running and is handy for that but for looking at the components in some detail close it and use the main left hand side panel
FOR OTHER COMPONENTS
PART B:
Open each small square with + in it on the section the components are in and then click on the individual component/s (it will highlight in blue) - in the right hand side will appear all sorts of details including brands speeds and other essential info that particular device. See pic for example.

Edit I meant to ask as you have just a stock cooler can we see the temps on the machine especially that CPU.

Archie123 · 30 May 2016

On a gigabyte board PSU failiure is 2 short beeps the number of beeps in that 8 seconds will have given a clue

Real Time Clock malfunction 5 short beeps , CPU error 6 short beeps, Keyboard error 7 short beeps , CPU interruption error 8 short beeps, Graphic card error 9 short beeps , Memory error 10 short beeps , CMOS error 11 short beeps , CPU cache memory malfunctions

Archie123 · 30 May 2016

oh and the only time ive heard a bios speaker click is when it was plugged in wrong way

Mystere · 30 May 2016

I didn't read your message, because it's just a huge wall of text with no formatting. I would serious consider learning to use your enter key now and then, and creating paragraphs so it's easier to read for people that want to help you.

Having said that, there are really only a few things that can cause noises coming from your computer.

1) Power Supply fan - Might just be dirty, but also might be failing.
2) CPU And/or GPU fan - same thing.
3) Speaker - something going on in your system might cause strange sounds to come from it
4) hard drive (if you have a spinner) - this is usually not good and indicates a failing drive if that is where it's coming from.
5) CD/DVD-Rom (if you have one). Sometimes people have left a CD/DVD in it, and it might be bad, check to make sure.

Beyond these things, there isn't really much of anything that could cause a noise. You can eliminate things though, to track it down. Disconnect your speak, remove components until you have isolated it, or use something that allows you to focus in on the sound (stethoscope, microphone, etc..)

ICIT2LOL · 30 May 2016

Sorry late reply but have you run that test on the PSU? because I was going to suggest what Mystere has referred to and that is a dead or very dry fan bearing especially the PSU cooler one. Plus what he has said about the other drives.

Now I have to warn you not to try any dis-assembly of the PSU to find out unless you are experienced in dealing with those devices because there are some seriously (and extremely dangerous) high voltages that are stored in the inverter circuit capacitors which can stay charged for some considerable time and I mean days and even weeks after the power has been switched off to the unit. If the test of that unit comes back looking anything like some obviously out of whack rail voltages then it is best to just replace the device. Just keep in mind the tolerances I quoted in that ditty because a 5% difference either plus or minus of the required voltage will cause the machine either not to run or run erratically.