odd sound when using mouse

[mikezel]

hi everyone
i have one quick question about my new build. i have a microsoft optical usb mouse that causes an odd "shhh" or scraping sound from inside my pc when i use it. its very faint when moving the mouse, but louder when using the scroll wheel. note that this does not bother me at all, i am just making sure that it is not something to worry about. my specs are in my sig.
thanks in advance
mike

[not important]

I've had 3 MS Optical mice and I've never heard one make a noise. Do you have, or can you borrow, another one to try?

[mikezel]

thanks for the fast reply
just to clarify, the sound comes from inside my pc (cant tell where from), not the mouse itself. i have tried the mouse in different usb ports, with the ps/2 adapter, and have tried a different ps/2 mouse, all with the same results. i think it must be a mobo problem, but i am willing to live with it unless it could lead to others.

[not important]

I understood that the noise comes from within the PC. I would still try a differnt one, if possible.

[mikezel]

yes, i have tried 2 different mice (both were non-optical and ps/2)

[mikezel]

I have found that the sound is much louder when using internet explorer than with mozilla firebird. also, it only happens when there is a scrollbar on the side of the page.

[ComputerNut]

I dont know if this would help in any way, but i remember long ago, when my AMD system had win98se (shudder), one time it crashed, and when I moved the mouse, a similar buzzing sound occured when using the mouse. You know, now that I think about it, that sound could be coming from the internal PC speaker.

One thing to consider is that when you use the mouse, or when the Hard drive is doing its processing thing, if you wear headphones on the speaker sound jack, and you listen VERY closely, you will hear very, very faint buzzing noises which seem to occur when such processing occurs, and also you hear that buzzing when moving the mouse. In your situation, I get this feeling that CPU load may have to do with that noise (since the sound is louder in IE)

[mikezel]

okay, now that i listen really closely, i can hear that i get a faint buzzing sound from inside my pc whenever it performs some action, which could match up with your idea of it having to do with cpu load. however, my cpu load is rarely over 5% when browsing the internet etc.
does anybody have any ideas about what i could do?
*EDIT* okay, i tried what computernut suggested and plugged in headphones to my pc, and was somewhat startled by the results. i do get quite loud buzzing/static when my cpu performs a task, especially scrolling. also, when i click on my minimized programs in the task bar, i hear a loud high-pitched whining buzzing sound. :S.

[tom1379]

i have exactly the same prob except it comes from my speakers, could be the internal speaker. Its probably the siganl inteferring with something

[mikezel]

that makes sense, it looks like we have very similar PCs too. i can hear it from my speakers too if i turn them up.
does anybody have any ideas as to how i can fix this!?! i am looking to get a set of 5.1 speakers and they would be pretty useless with this sound coming out of them. maybe it is the integrated sound in the p4p800? please help! any and all ideas are appreciated!

[Craig100]

I had a problem similar, i eventually pinpointed it down to the ELED , in the front of my thermaltake case, the lettering of thermaltake which lit up, it seemed there was a break in the cable and a voltage was running through the case, and causing some interference, once i disconnected power to this, it seemed ok. im not sure how much this helps. but u may be able to relate it in some way to your situation.

[mikezel]

alright, heres an update for you. i opened up my pc to take a listen, and i am now 90% sure that the sound is coming from the PSU. it may be coming from the CPU, since they are so close its hard to tell, but i am almost positive its the PSU.
i don't think that it is coming from the internal speaker, because i still heard it when i unpludded the speaker wire from the mobo, but i can still hear the noise from my external speakers when they are really turned up.
does this mean i have a bad PSU? i would really appreciate any help
thanks,
mike

[mikezel]

is it possible that the psu problem would cause me to hear it from my speakers? i.e. interference?

[ArtGeek]

Is the noise kinda like an odd static-like buzzing. If so, I had the same problem.

BTW, hi, I'm new.

The sound may be generated by moving the mouse but my trouble was with my powered speakers. My current computer (a dumpy hp) didn't have a line-out, so I (being the retarded, non-computer-audio-savvy person that I am) plugged it into the only speaker jack available. That's when I got the feedback.

Once I found the source of the problem, I had to go to Circuit City and by a Creative Labs box that had the line-out for my speakers. Since then, I have had no problems

I dunno if this is your trouble, but make sure if you have powered speakers that you have them plugged into a line-out jack.

My 2 cents
Robyn

[njskatchmo]

could it possibly be a grounding issue in the I/O shield?

[mikezel]

thank you very much for the suggestions.
ArtGeek: firstly, welcome to PcMech :). secondly, i have the feeling that the sourse of the problem is not anything audio-related, because 1) the sound comes from inside my pc 2) this continued even with the internal speaker unplugged 3) it is only amplified through the speakers when i have it cranked up 4) the onboard sound on my motherboard has a feature that automatically detects what you have plugged into each audio socket, and configures it.
njskatchmo: i had thought it was a grounding issue originally, especially since i had some trouble getting the mobo ports to match up with the i/o shield, but i tried my mouse from my front panel connectors and the problem persisted. also i have determined that this does not happen only when the mouse is used, but seems to come from the PSU whenever the cpu gets any load. (i.e. even when scrolling through web pages with the keyboard).
i guess the title of the thread is now a little bit irrelevant.
thanks for the suggestions, and (please!) keep them coming. i really need help on this one!
mike

[Looneycooney]

hhmm very weird
i am sure it's not the cpu ...if it would make such noises then it was allready lost ...which i do not think is the problem here ...
i'm thinking indeed more in the way of the psu...have u got any chance of replacing that? even an older atx is good just for checking ..
otherwise
unplug all for a few minutes:your cddrives,maybe the hd and all your fans and all ..so the psu use as little power it can , then c if it still persists .
so let it run with mobo , cpu, mem , video , mouse , keyboard ...all the rest unplugged ..if u have onboard sound...disable it for now ...so u exclude this also ...
i guess this is the only way for u now to really be sure what it can be ...
if u have f.e. an aluminiumcase of the partially alu-chieftecs ..the noise can come from anywhere...the vibrations in those case can distort the noise..thats why u need to do this ...

[mikezel]

okay, today i replaced the power supply, and the noise still occurs. i have tried it with only the mobo and the hdd plugged in and i still hear it coming out of the psu? could it be a grounding issue even if its out of the psu? would that cause me to hear it out of my speakers too? please help!

[Looneycooney]

since it is still occurring with an other psu , i 'm practically sure it isn't that whats causing it ...
have u tried disabling the soundcard (onboard?) ...could still be that this onboard card is making the noises ...u need to be sure of this , cause when it is the soundcard u still can go to shop for waranty ...
ok, so unable the sound in the bios ..also unplug the casespeaker just to see if this helps finding where thye noise comes from ...
if after disabling the sound it still occurs i'm out of idea's ... :s
if u are not able to find it i would ask in the shop to test that mobo or even replace it for u :)

other things u can test :
are u monitoring your fans? are they on a healthy speed?
try maybe replacing your ide-cables ..dunno for sure but also a bad ide can cause weird probs ...most of them are crc-errors but maybe it causes also other things ..

[mikezel]

i am 100% sure its coming from the psu because i heard it coming from it even with it out of the case. i guess it must be the mobo. but i will still try it without the sound.

[spaceman20012001]

i am 100% sure its coming from the psu because i heard it coming from it even with it out of the case. i guess it must be the mobo. but i will still try it without the sound.

I've had the problem with my computer. Try using a ground loop isolator on the power cord. You may have the sound coming from you houses service panel through the ground line. If you don't want to get an isolator get an adaptor that will allow you to only use two prongs as a temporarry solution and wire the ground wire to the cable companies ground strap usually located outside of the building (this is only a temporarry solution and dosen't supply the correct amount of grounding).