Clicking/hissing noises

Re: Aspire 5733 laptop, Win 7 Home, Intel Core i3, Intel HD graphics adapter, Atheros ARSB95 Wireless Network Adapter. Three years old. Gets a fair amount of use.

Occasionally there is a hissing or clicking noise that seems to happen when many internet windows are open. It was really bad for a few days, then went away for a month or so, then showed up again a few days ago. Then went away again. The sound dramatically stops after closing browser. It seems to only happen when online, NOT when offline. I am suspecting the network adapter. I want to track this down before it gets worse. There is no problem connecting to internet or getting online. If not the network adapter, then perhaps the graphics adapter?

The sound seems to come from below the the number keypad on the right, more towards the screen area (away from me rather than towards me). If it was the fan, it should happen more frequently. The computer does not overheat, and the fan seems run an average amount. Nothing noticeably wrong there.

Anyone with any ideas on what is wrong. When the noise is happening it sounds like something is seriously wrong. But it is not continuous, so what is going on? This is not an emergency yet, but want to get it before it gets to that.

Any ideas?

Michon

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silizium

In most cases clicking sounds are generated by your harddisk or optical drives. But sometimes power related components on your mainboard oscillate to other electromagnetic frequencies. This may depend on temperature and/or air moisture and/or dust in your device.

Michon

Thanks Silizium.

The strange thing is the area where is sounds to be coming from is not the HD or fan. And the sound is not frequent. Several months ago it happened too, then went away.

I think it may be something electrical, like the mainboard oscillation, like you suggest as possible. It's almost like there is a static charge buildup, that gets released, then the noise goes away.

Looking at the fan blades from the outside, they look like new, so dust should not be that much of a problem. I don't smoke and the air is not very dusty to begin with. Although it does get fairly humid at times, so that may be the cause. hmmm.

I guess it still could be the HD or fan though. In any case, the problem is sure to return. Hope it is not the mainboard.

techy

two suggestions I would look at are since you say humidy is there try a cooling pad under the laptop, as for the sound feedback make sure your drivers are up to date, acers web page only provides for so long, manufacturers of the components often have newer drivers, Realtek for sure does this, not sure of your audio driver but you can check in the control panel and if it`s realtek then get a driver from them to install and see if that corrects your issue as I have seen this issue before with feedback coming through the speakers and a driver update fixed this issue.

Michon

Thanks Techy for the advice.

This is going to be something with no obvious answer, until the next "event. It is sporadic. Currently it has been quite dry for a couple of weeks. Next time it happens, I am going to pay close attention to humidity.

As far as drivers for Realtek. I checked in Device Manager and did the update driver thing, but it says the current driver is ok.

I went to the Realtek site and don't know what to download. The last update PC audio codec was 2009. My laptop was purchased in 2011.

That's all concerning this for now. I will wait to see what happens with humidity.

Michon

The cause of the intermittent hissing sounds looks to be caused by USB powered detachable speakers.

It started again a couple days ago and when the USB speakers were disconnected, it stopped. The sounds were NOT coming from the speakers. It was definitely under the keyboard. I don't think it is the driver software, since it is up to date.

The speakers are only 7 watt. I changed the usb port they were plugged into. That seems to have fixed the problem thus far.

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