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A friend working at a photocopy shop could hear a paper jam from one high-speed copier when taking a break across the street. They'd be in the shop, opening the machine covers, before it came to a complete stop.

Well-running equipment almost always has a characteristic sound and rhythm. Variations from that become quite apparent.

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I hear my computer’s processor when it’s processing. It’s like a modem sound, but high-pitch.

All of us used to rely on the HDD distinct sound to know when the games were finished loading ;)

ahah same. I think we hear the coils that are used to lower the voltage for the CPU. They are modulated based on the current demand.

My Dell XPS13 does that and it’s super annoying. It’s some kind of cross talk with the speaker amplifier because when I mute the sound or use headphones it goes away.

When I was a kid our BBC Micro used to do the same, you could “hear it thinking”.

Yep, my XPS does too. I believe it's called "coil whine" and is caused by surface-mount inductors whose windings aren't fully encased in resin or whatever material they use.

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