Sonata III 500, very noisy?

[jaemes]

Update; Sept/7/2009
Even with the side panel off, it's still making noises.
I've been playing some batman on the ps3, and I hear noises while the PC's doing it's routine anti-virus scanning.

Probably a fan?
It's idling, but scanning for viruses



I got a Sonata III 500 recently, one of those "quiet" cases.
Had everything installed, and after a month or so I bought a video card and installed it.
After installing the card, the computer's been making a weird noise.
I've plastic tied all the loose wires down, the only time when the noise is completely gone is when I take off the door of the case.
A friend told me it was probably the 120mm fan from the back not mounted properly, so I remounted it and it's still making the same noise.

I guess the noise is really noticeable whenever I have something loaded, like a movie or something. Not really overloading anything either.. It's kind of weird, it'll be okay idling, but whenever I do something small it'll start making that noise again.

If I do have a lot of things loaded up, and have the door taken off completely I won't hear any noise at all.

Could it be something with the door panel of the case that's making some type of "rattling" noise? I don't even know how to describe the noise.

[flyz]

Door vibrations would be my guess.

[Silver Bullet]

Could be the hard drive vibration getting to a loose door. Check your HD to see if it's vibrating strangely.

I had a HD once that was unbalanced and made the case very loud.

[stormy13]

Sonata III here and no noise like you are describing. I'm with Silver here, check your drive, both hard drives and optical. I had an old DVD drive that would cause the vibrating noise you are describing; drive was replaced and the noise went with it.

[Brewmeanie]

sonata III here as well, the noise level is relatively low, only time it get a bit louder is probably when I up the speed of the hsf or case fan, or when I'm gaming and my videocard is not on idle.

[jaemes]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Everything I got for this computer have all been brand new, so I think something might be a bit unbalanced.

I'll check it out whenever I have some free time.
Much appreciated!

[jaemes]

I finally had some time to open it up and rescrew the screws on the HDD trays and it still makes noises.

But I think it's the door vibrating, I do use those 2 screws that screws in the back of the door.. so I'm not exactly sure where the vibrating is

[Amourek]

But I think it's the door vibrating, I do use those 2 screws that screws in the back of the door.. so I'm not exactly sure where the vibrating is

Do you mean the side panel? I had a problem with the side panel in my Solo passing on vibrations. I fixed it by wrapping a piece of foam around the cross beam that supports the power supply so that the side panel would fit tighter. Worked like a charm.

[jaemes]

Do you mean the side panel? I had a problem with the side panel in my Solo passing on vibrations. I fixed it by wrapping a piece of foam around the cross beam that supports the power supply so that the side panel would fit tighter. Worked like a charm.

Thanks Amourek!
I'll give it a go whenever I have some free time

If it still vibrates, should I try putting foam all over the side panel thing? lol

[flyz]

If you put your hands against the side panel, is the noise gone?

[Amourek]

If it still vibrates, should I try putting foam all over the side panel thing? lol

You want to make something that pushes outward so the side panel doesn't have as much slack. I wrapped foam (you could use anything thick enough) around the cross beam like a jelly roll to the point where it was thick enough that I had to exert some force on the panel to keep the screw holes aligned when screwing it down. Blanketing the panel with foam won't help.

[jaemes]

If you put your hands against the side panel, is the noise gone?

There's still a vibration noise :(
I have no idea what to do other then try the foam+tape or whatever. Which I'll give a shot next week

[Oversized Rooster]

Is the vibration noise metallic in nature or more of a buzzing-type noise? The reason I ask is because Antec likes to bundle their TriCool fans with all their cases and those fans very quickly develop noises.

It can also be your CPU fan or video card fan. Open your computer while it's running and press gently on the center of each of your fans so it stops. See if the noise goes away when you stop a certain fan with your finger or the eraser end of a pencil.

I really think it's your fans because you say it happens when u load the machine.

[jaemes]

When I take the side panel off of the computer, it doesn't make any noises at all.

Should I try cutting the power to the 120 fan on the back to see if it makes noises?

Maybe even take out the video card and start loading up everything to see if it's the video card making noises?

[jaemes]

Update;
Even with the side panel off, it's still making noises.
I've been playing some batman on the ps3, and I hear noises while the PC's doing it's routine anti-virus scanning.

Probably a fan?
It's idling, but scanning for viruses

[mingyang]

Update;
Even with the side panel off, it's still making noises.
I've been playing some batman on the ps3, and I hear noises while the PC's doing it's routine anti-virus scanning.

Probably a fan?
It's idling, but scanning for viruses

hard drives access noise

[jaemes]

How do I make it silent? Is it the casing or is it a problem with the actual HDD itself?
Anyone have any idea? will I have to send it back to WD?

[azn_dan]

if its somewhat of a rattling noise, i would take a look at the exhaust fan you have that comes from antec. I have the sonata 3 also and my fan just crapped about a bit ago. It started off by making this huge rattling noise, which was taken away by setting the fan from high to low. Then a few weeks ago, i just replaced the fan with a scythe and the computer is back to quiet.

Try to confirm it isn't that exhaust fan, and then you can move on to all your other parts.