Myxomatosis

I figured maybe stunna or whiskers could help. When I turn my netbook on, it starts humming, but not like a fan hum; more like it's coming from the speakers. As it boots up the sound gets louder and louder. It reminds me of the sound of night vision goggle being turned on in video games. It gets so loud that I just pull the battery since after 30 seconds it literally sounds like it's armed and about to straight up explode its so loud.

I started taking it apart, but was wondering if anyone knows where to start. Honestly I havent even once let it get all the way into windows, because I'm afraid I'll kill it.

1ogan

Isolate it to the speakers. Can it operate plugged in without a battery? If so, try. The only thing in that laptop that could "blow up" would be the battery, and you didn't say whether it was getting stupid hot.

It's prob just something wrong with your speakers.

#1 STUNNA

It could be the ball bearings in your hard drive going bad or could be the DVD drive? Is there a disc in the dvd drive? If you disconnect the battery does the sound go away?

1ogan

^ It'd have clicking a shitload if it were the HDD, no? The DVD drive would have that thing rumbling like a dildo set to turbo - it'd be obvious.

STL+3.0CL

1st off I would plug headphones into the speaker jack. Does your laptop have a built in microphone? That could be providing nasty feedback, but shouldn't start until windows starts to load. If it starts to happen immediately during boot, then its probably an alarm of some type. Its definitely a weird problem and one that I've never seen, but thats where I would start...

Myxomatosis

It's gets really high frequency. Isn't on long enough to get hot. Doesnt have any type of optical drive. I'll try plugging it in without the batt, but at the moment I'm at work. I know it wont explode, but when it gets loud, its like a primal instinct thing to get away from the damn thing, it's just plain scary. Now that being said, must be the speakers, just because it's THAT loud. I think I may try plugging headphones in and then start it up, perhaps the speakers would shut up then.

none-the-less I cant test anything till like 6pm, but just looking for ideas. I'm good with pc's, but I've never fixed a netbook/laptop.

CocheseUGA

Call Warren...

STL+3.0CL

I forgot to add... if you hear the noise with the headphones plugged in, then its your HD. If so, did you drop it recently? Another test. Let it load windows completely, does it stop when windows loads?

EDIT: OH, i betcha its a stuck key on your keyboard

Myxomatosis

I'll try that, I had decided to take it apart just in case there was something obvious. Looks fine. The headphone test sounds like the ticket. My wife had let it completely startup before I knew about it, it fully loaded and the tray icon said muted. but I wont know till I try.

rza49311

iTrader: (1)

The first question should be, is it still under warranty?

WILLDOGS

we have this issue with HP n610c's at my job.

Usually it is the power pin gone bad. Eventually the power pin will cease to work. At this point (if it is anything like the n610c problem) the power pin is starting to come loose from the motherboard.

To Test:
While plugged in and booting up and making the loud noise, wiggle the power plug at the rear of the laptop (when the plug meets the laptop)

It the frequency of the noise starts to change then its a power issue and you have to get the power pin soldered or replaced.

EL19

iTrader: (4)

Sounds like the HD. I've seen a few go bad and make some pretty crazy noises. Good luck

#1 STUNNA

Not necessarily. That's the most common sound a failing drive makes but that's a different part failing than what I was talking about. I'm talking about the ball bearings in the spin-y turn-y thing failing. Which causes the drive to emit a loud whine when it spins and this increases friction and eventually causes the drive's spin-y turn-y motor to fail and stop spinning.

The drive starts spinning at POST and then starts spinning at full speed when the laptop starts to load Windows from the drive which would mean even louder whining, that's why I think it's the hard drive. CPU Fans don't start spinning until the CPU reaches a certain temp so they don't usually start right away when the laptop starts because the CPU is still cold so no need for the fan to cool it down.

#1 STUNNA

OP if you put your hands over the speakers to muffle them does the sound get much quieter or stay about the same?

stogie1020

Bearing in cooling fan.

Myxomatosis

all very good ideas. Again I've got to wait till I get home to test these out. Dont want toy uguys to think I'm ignoring you

stogie1020

We do.

stogie1020

Myxomatosis

I finally have started working on it, this time it def was the speakers, it went quickly to an error screen and in attempting to repair itself. btw, it's running 7 starter ed, atom processor, and 1gb ram. It's been attempting the repair now for a good 10 minutes.

On another note I didn't get to look at it till now, since upstate new york is like the rapture right now, had a micro-burst hit my house, tore some shingles and knocked down a very big oak about 5 ft from my porch. Than in the middle of that shit my friend texts me that his tractor fell on him and is in hospital.

pretty much doing this to kill time.

oh and since it took me so long to write this post, the netbook actually just started up. now to find out if anything was damaged.

Myxomatosis

it would appear to function mostly. Speakers dont work at all and the headphones dont work either. believe this is a hardware failure

but its online and can take a charge

#1 STUNNA

hhmmm, if it's under warranty then get it fixed. Otherwise you're probably SOL unless you want to buy a new motherboard for it. If speakers and headphone jack don't work then something's wrong on the mobo audio related.

lancer

Probably voided any warranty by opening it up. If it was under warranty he shouldnt have touched it and just sent it in for repair. Now he gets a netbook with blown speakers.

#1 STUNNA

if they can prove he opened it....

Myxomatosis

It's at least 2yrs old, I dont ever use warranties. Honestly It's not a huge deal. I'm just glad it still works and technically I broke no seals opening it, so if there is a warranty I dont think I voided it. If I get the time and it's a big if, I'll take it fully apart and see if I can fix it, I'm pretty handy with solder and electronics in general.

Again thank you guys for all the help, more help here than any real tech forum.

#1 STUNNA

If it's 2yrs old then there's no warranty

Myxomatosis

I figure for $300 it's done pretty well. My aim in life is to always buy stuff that's pretty reliable in the first place and fixable by me. Hence my 7yr old frankenstein pc im typing on now that runs flawlessly....knock wood, my old water cooled xbox and my 3 cars that are over 10yrs old. I feel, when metaphorically speaking somethings heart gives up then its dead.

btw your tips have really helped this pc a lot between various software anti-virus programs and that nifty host file, you've probably saved me a bit of money. Time to go smokea fatty with my friend who had the tractor removed from his leg and go to bed.

thanks again guys

stogie1020

Can you let it boot and then disable all physical audio devices in Device Manager?

#1 STUNNA

You're welcome! I talk out of my ass a lot but every once in a while I strike gold! Glad I could help you when I did!

Gfaze

Don't forget to leave him some feedback.

http://www.supportspace.com/support/expert/danielsmith#