Troubleshooting Single Click sound Dell XPS 8700 SE (2013) NVIDIA 750 Ti

[edub4k]

Hi guys. I've been trying to troubleshoot this noise that occasionally comes from my desktop. I have a 2013 Special Edition Dell XPS 8700 SE. Stock everything, except I added a 2nd internal drive and upgraded to Windows 10 Home; running the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti GPU. Basically, I'll be doing my thing, working/gaming, whatever, and I will hear a quick single click. That's it. No grinding, no click click click, nothing. Just the occasional single click. No obvious graphics/video tearing on the screen immediately before and/or after, no audio cutting out. Nothing that I'd consider symptomatic of some sort of hardware failure. I keep all my drivers updated.

I think I've narrowed it down to a fan noise, but I can never seem to actually "see" anything happen when I hear the noise. I think something is somehow hitting a fan blade, or a ball bearing is wonky, or something along those lines, even tho I've checked and re-checked to make sure nothing is hitting any of the fans.

Normal, everyday desktop use, with 1-2 hrs Photoshop: I hear it maybe once a day.
Gaming (WoW and/or STO, not at the same time) with max NVIDIA-recommended settings: 2-3, maybe 4 times an hour.

I haven't been able to determine if heat is part of the equation, but, its computer crap and possibly cooling related, so I'm assuming it is.


Anyway, long post short: Does anyone have experience with something like this? Am I way off target thinking its a fan clicking; I've had hard drives fail before, and while the click is similar, its not exactly the same, nor is it repetitive.

If you need more detail, please let me know.

Thanks again!

 

[StanMen]

Yha this sound very familiar to me, I just finished building my system and I did it very cearful as always, and is not my first build, just don't know what and exactly where but in my case it sounds like the click is coming from top somewhere in CPU area or ram area I know that sound is in that part, and is all brand new! Also in my case it's only doing that click on startup's sometimes it happens right after showing rog logo on start, sometimes is when booting up to windows.

In my case I think is a cpu power cable, as when I was doing cable management I had to bend it to be able to pass on the back, I will redo that and add an sleeved cable and see if that change the situation!

My friend keep me posted here about your problem, so I can know more about this.


Thank you so much best regards Stanley and hope you solve your problem soon!

 

[edub4k]

Oh! One of the things I forgot to mention was that I came across an older thread somewhere about heat and fans. The theory is: heat can make the CPU/GPU fan expand just enough to dink something nearby in a setup with a tighter enclosure... and, when you open things up to check, you can't see anything in direct contact, because the fan has cooled, and shrunk, back down. End result? Slow, confusing insanity... lol ... But, I think I ruled out this possibility. Even though my setup is "compact," I can't really see anything that the fan could hit, even if it expanded, considering the expansion would probably only be millimeters in size. It also occurs to me that it would be more than one click, since the fan wouldn't immediately shrink back down after having hit something just once.

@StanMen thanks for the comment! Good news is, you have a specific (or relatively specific), repeatable time that the click happens. One of the things I'd been rolling around in my head was setting up a camera to record inside my case, but the problem always was, I never knew when to hit record! So, either i just record random chunks of time, or I wade through 8-12hrs of footage, or sit down for a gaming session, hit record, and hope I get lucky.

--- And, if I didn't explain earlier ... I came up with watching/recording because I think I'm looking for a moment when (for whatever reason: heat, mechanical breakdown, obstruction) something stops a fan from spinning for a split second.

Do you know what you're looking for? If you think its a cable, do you think the cable is hitting something, or is some electrical noise?

Good luck to you, too! I look forward to hearing your eventual solution!

 

[xorbe]

My computer case "clicks" from temperature change. What'cha gonna do about it?

 

[R-T-B]

A click on startup is normal, and are usually a relay in your PSU. It's actually a sign of a quality PSU efficiency wise to have such a relay.

 

[StanMen]

Oh! One of the things I forgot to mention was that I came across an older thread somewhere about heat and fans. The theory is: heat can make the CPU/GPU fan expand just enough to dink something nearby in a setup with a tighter enclosure... and, when you open things up to check, you can't see anything in direct contact, because the fan has cooled, and shrunk, back down. End result? Slow, confusing insanity... lol ... But, I think I ruled out this possibility. Even though my setup is "compact," I can't really see anything that the fan could hit, even if it expanded, considering the expansion would probably only be millimeters in size. It also occurs to me that it would be more than one click, since the fan wouldn't immediately shrink back down after having hit something just once.

@StanMen thanks for the comment! Good news is, you have a specific (or relatively specific), repeatable time that the click happens. One of the things I'd been rolling around in my head was setting up a camera to record inside my case, but the problem always was, I never knew when to hit record! So, either i just record random chunks of time, or I wade through 8-12hrs of footage, or sit down for a gaming session, hit record, and hope I get lucky.

--- And, if I didn't explain earlier ... I came up with watching/recording because I think I'm looking for a moment when (for whatever reason: heat, mechanical breakdown, obstruction) something stops a fan from spinning for a split second.

Do you know what you're looking for? If you think its a cable, do you think the cable is hitting something, or is some electrical noise?

Good luck to you, too! I look forward to hearing your eventual solution!

Hey guys and everyone that have same board as I do Asus MAXIMUS VIII HERO so I spend some good time in looking and finde the cause of my problem with click sound coming from my motherboard it sound like a mechanical sound switch on boot up and shoot down, and I found that is a normal click sound as its because of what Asus use on the new sound system card supreme FX the NEC relay, so nothing to worry about. See here: http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/727...ew/index4.html;