High Pitched intermittent tone from 2008 Imac

Hi all,
Am looking for some help. I have a 2008 imac which is making a very annoying high pitched tone intermittently. when the tone 8 sounds, 8 times out of 10 the program I am running or working in hangs. Has anybody else had this issue - I saw in a search that some others have mentioned this or something similar but no resolutions had been found.
Appreciate any help.

Try just running one application like iMovie and see if tone comes back. Does this sound like a fan by chance?
Turn Time Machine off and see if the tones come back. System Preferences/Time Machine.
Also, open the Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities) select the CPU tab. If the tone comes back, keep an eye on the CPU. Might be a specific process you can quit.
Is this iMac still under the one year limited warranty by chance?
Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

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