Why is my Computer making Noise? Tips to Fix it

Do you want to know why is my computer making noise and how to fix it? You are on the right spot to know the answer of this question.

The noise of a computer is the most annoying for many people: many of us have our PC in a work environment, just as many people leave their computer on 24/7 or in a place where there are more people.

In all cases, noise can be very annoying and affect people’s productivity or sleep. Sometimes if your computer is making a lot of noise, it’s easier to fix than it sounds.

See Also: What happens when you Close the LID on your Laptop

We are going to give you some hardware and software tips to fix it with ease! Keep in mind that our tips are for desktops and laptops, and we want them to be understandable for everyone and valid for most computers.

Why is my Computer making Noise?

We can distinguish two types of noise in a computer, and it is very important to know which one you are suffering from:

• Abundant noise: The main problem is that the computer makes too much noise, there is a very noticeable “wind” noise, and you could even say that it sounds like a plane taking off. In this case, the solution is to lower the speed of the fans, which is what we are going to focus on.
• Annoying noise: Here the problem is not so much the amount of noise, but the type of noise, which distracts you or bothers you in a special way. Pay attention because it can be of two subtypes:
• Engine noise: This is a constant sound that somewhat resembles a running engine, and is caused precisely by the fan motor.
• Electrical noise: In this case it is a very, very high-pitched sound, in which you notice that there is a component of the computer “screeching” continuously. It is, without a doubt, the most annoying.

If you have “abundant noise”, consult our entire article, but if the noise is annoying, we recommend you focus on the point about poor quality fans (if it is motor noise), or on electrical noise.

1. Noise Problems Caused by Hardware

Let’s start by looking at what noise problems the physical components of the computer can present us with. Later we will see simpler solutions through changes in the software of the equipment.

2. Do you have Poor Quality Fans?

The annoying motor noises that we talked about earlier are usually caused by poor quality fans, whose inner bearings rub too much, which causes this problem. How to solve it? Well, we have two options:

• The easy option is to make the fans go slower. This may fix the problem, and is something the rest of the article focuses on.
• The most effective, but also expensive, is to buy silent fans like the ones we recommend on the web, and replace them with the ones from your computer case or heatsink. The latter applies if you have a piecemeal computer. You would have to check the size of each fan and change it for an equal one.

Be careful, because we may also be confusing a noise caused by the fans with one that comes from a mechanical hard disk (HDD), so keep reading.

3. Noise caused by HDD hard drives

Until a few years ago, mechanical hard drives, or HDDs, were the most used as a form of storage in computers.

But since they are slow and noisy, they are being replaced by SSDs and almost all new computers now include this new form of storage.

If you only have an SSD in your computer, there won’t be any noise caused by this component, but if you still have an HDD you will hear it spinning the disk and moving the head to find data.

See Also: May Laptop won’t TURN ON: What is the Solution

We have an article in which we teach you to know if your disk is HDD or SSD.  If you confirm that you have a HDD in your computer, you should know that the noise it makes is unavoidable, since it will always have to spin to find the data it needs. The interesting thing would be to change the hard drive for an SSD, but again it is an expensive solution.

For a “free fix”, we will give you software tips in this very article, so that you can “stop” the HDD and make it not spin or make noise when idle.

4. The Power Supply can also cause the Noise of your Computer

Have you noticed the noise of all the fans of your PC, but you have not located the main cause of the noise? The culprit fan may be “hidden” – it’s your power supply fan.

On almost all PCs, the power supply is at the bottom of the case, with the fan facing down, so you won’t see it with the naked eye, but it may be making more noise than you think.

Simply locate the source and put your ear close to it: if the noise is coming from there, you are to blame.

And what can we do in these cases? The supply fan is not something you can manually control, and if it is making a lot of noise, it is a possible indication that you have a bad supply that is having difficulty powering your computer. Our recommendation is to change it.

5. Check the internal cleanliness of your PC

Here it doesn’t matter if you have a laptop or a desktop PC: Over the months, the fans and aluminum heatsinks will accumulate dust that, if it reaches an excessive amount, will obstruct the passage of air.

Consequently, to keep temperatures at bay, the computer will force the speed of the fans causing noise problems.

How do I know if my computer is dirty? If it is a desktop PC, simply open the lid and check the cleanliness of the different aluminum parts. In the case of laptops, opening it is a bit more complicated, so you can just try to see it from the vents.

If you see a substantial amount of dust, or you think it may be dirty (because you haven’t cleaned your PC for years), there is no other option but to do internal maintenance on the computer, that is, open it and clean the dust with the help of a brush, rags, compressed air, etc.

If you don’t know how to do it, we’ve got you covered, thanks to our tutorial on how to clean a PC from the inside.

6. Electrical noise, the key to the most Annoying Computer Noise

We talked before about annoying noises and, among them, the famous electrical noise or coil whine. If this is what bothers you, especially when you are playing games, then the first thing is to identify if it is coming from the graphics card or the power supply.

It is most likely caused by the graphics, you should know that this annoying noise is not synonymous with poor quality or that there is a problem, moreover, it is totally normal.

Generally there is no way around electrical noise as it is just a matter of “bad luck”. Components such as the coils of graphics cards and power supplies always vibrate at a certain frequency, and if the vibration is in a range that we can hear, we will have this annoying sound.

Tips to reduce the Noise of your Computer

We have already seen the possible causes of noise in terms of the hardware of the equipment, that is, what has to do with its physical components.

See Also: Computer without Operating System: Pros and Cons

We will now see how we can influence noise reduction by software means, that is, by making changes to the operating system and programs. The good thing about this part is that it does not require opening the computer, or buying anything.

1. Change the Power Mode

Our computer has several power modes that are used by the operating system to communicate with the hardware, indicating to the different components if they should manage their energy in search of maximum performance or in search of maximum energy efficiency.

If we have a high-performance power mode, then the priority will be to make the computer run faster at the cost of consuming more electricity, heating up more and may make the noise higher. On the other hand, with an efficient or saving mode, the fans should be quieter.

In both Windows 11 and Windows 10, the process to change the mode is very simple. In the search engine / start menu, search for “Choose a power plan”.

You will enter a part of the Control Panel in which several energy modes should appear: High performance, Balanced, Economizer…

If you’re on High Performance mode, choose Balanced or Energy Saver. But if you only get one power mode, or you’re already in Energy Saver mode, we’ll manually change the settings to try and make your PC quieter.

On the plan you’ve chosen, go to “Change plan settings,” and then click “Change advanced power settings.”

Now, let’s make two changes:

• Processor power management → Processor minimum state → put 0%, if you get “On battery” and “On alternating current” put it in both.
• You could also lower the “Maximum Processor State”, but it can significantly worsen the performance, we do not recommend it.
• Be careful, this does not appear on all computers: Processor power management → System cooling policy → Choose the “Passive” option

With this, the PC will prioritize energy efficiency and will be quieter.

2. Turn off your HDD and Avoid its Noise

In a previous point we talked about the noise caused by HDD hard drives. If you have confirmed that your computer has one of these noisy mechanical disks, you should know that you can turn it off while it is idle.

This is interesting only if your HDD is a secondary disk, and you have an SSD as a primary disk. If the HDD is the main disk, there is no point in turning it off, because in the end it will be even more annoying.

See Also: How to Choose a Laptop Processor

For this, we must return to the advanced power settings, as we indicated in the previous point. Go to Hard disk → Turn off hard disk after, and reduce the number of minutes that appear, you could even leave the minimum (1 minute).

3. Adjust the fans in the BIOS or by Software

Most computers allow you to change the fan curve through the BIOS, or sometimes through dedicated software.

This curve defines at what speed the fans should turn according to the temperature of the processor or another component.

So simply by modifying and lowering the curve we can make the fans turn more slowly, but without going too far to avoid overheating.

4. Check that there are no Programs abusing the Resources of your PC

Sometimes what is really causing our noise problem is a program that is abusing our PC, without us knowing it.

This is much more common than usual: It could be a virus or malware, or simply a program that is very demanding on computer resources, even an antivirus.

To do this check in Windows, enter the Task Manager with the keyboard shortcut Control + Shift + Esc, or by searching for it in the start menu.

Once you enter, make sure you are in the “Processes” tab and all the details are visible (click on “More details”).

You should see a table like this, showing all the system processes and their consumption of computer resources.

If you click on CPU (if the arrow looks up, click again to look down) you will see the programs with the highest consumption of processor resources in the first rows.

See Also: How much does an Apple Laptop Cost

Are any of them 100%? Are any of them red? Take a good look at the CPU column and if that’s the case, consider uninstalling or closing it.

We hope that you have managed to reduce the noise of your computer with these tips! We have given you the key tricks to achieve it in most cases.