The hell is this noise?!

[GasCanGerry]

Whenever i start Empire Total War, my rig starts making a very weird scratching/chirping noise (i can't really define it) and after 2-3 minutes my PC shuts down completely on it's own... No blue screen, no crashing, nothing (like i have pulled the plug) and then reboots. The noise is barely heard when the movie intros are played, gets louder when i am in the main menu and is the loudest when i actually load a campaign. There is no problem when i stay still on the campaign map (i don't move my camera), but once it stays like that for 1-2 minutes and i move somewhere my PC shuts down. The restart only happens with Empire Total War, but i can hear the noise while playing other games as well. I can even hear it while scrolling down a webpage... dafuq is going on?!?

PC Specs are:
Intel Core i5-2320 CPU @3.00 GHz
Nvidia GTS 250 GPU
ASRock H77M Motherboard
4 GB RAM
Fortron ATX-350PNF PSU

[Jaketh]

Sounds like a heat issue. The noise could be your video card or CPU fan getting louder and louder to deal with the increasing heat until it can't handle it anymore and shuts your entire computer down.

[GasCanGerry]

Sounds like a heat issue. The noise could be your video card or CPU fan getting louder and louder to deal with the increasing heat until it can't handle it anymore and shuts your entire computer down.

My CPU cores stay at a stable 50 C and below when i play, while my GPU jumps to 85 C. The CPU fan can go up to 2600 RPM, so i know my CPU is not overheating. Could be my graphics card, but i am not sure...

[Jaketh]

85C is quite hot, blow all of the dust out of the inside of your case using compressed air and see if that helps. Also download a program like EVGA precision and take it off auto fan control and have set at 75% fan at all times. Always keeps my card below 60c.

[abbews]

Do you have a CPU cooler?

[Jaketh]

Do you have a CPU cooler?

He would have heard a loud pop the first time he started it up if he didn't have one.

[abbews]

He would have heard a loud pop the first time he started it up if he didn't have one.

Well I mean if he's using the stock Intel one or a proper cooler Should have clarified that.

[GasCanGerry]

I have a stock cooler for my CPU, since my temps don't go very high. I am also thinking it could be the graphics card overheating, but all the programs i use that show you your temperatures of your CPU, GPU, HDD etc. show that my card doesn't go over 85 C.

[abbews]

85C when loading Empire:TW?

[GasCanGerry]

Most of the time, it's the same with other games as well, but ETW is the only one that causes such an issue. I did a test today and have managed to somewhat locate the source of the noise: it is coming from around the corner of my motherboard near my PSU. In that test i also saw that my GPU only got to about 80 C this time and yet my PC still restarted. It could be my CPU.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

sounds more like a power issue aka Power supply

[GasCanGerry]

I think i will buy a can of compressed air and gently clean everything... could be dust or maybe it is time to get a different PSU.

[GasCanGerry]

Ok, i believe it may be a broken capacitor... i am taking it for repairs and will mention the results. Since the sound is coming from my motherboard near the USB ports, i really can't think of anything else.

[GasCanGerry]

Bought a new PSU which provides me with 500W and now my GPU causes my HDD to shut down and boot up again a few times before my system locks up and i get a bluescreen... talk about getting "out of the frying pan and into the fire" ... Windows seems fine when i start it, but once i start up a game (anything that requires some effort from my GPU) HDD fails, blue screen shown. I can save/edit/delete data from my HDD, but starting anything that wants GPU effort crashes my PC. Any ideas? I am currently using my motherboard card.

[Crazyeyesreaper]

depends on the 500w you bought if you bought a piece of thats why not all PSUs are created equal many cheap 500w psus are weaker than the one you had