HELP!! High Pitch Noise Coming from System

[Ben]

Hi all,

I've recently built a new system and out of the blue the last few weeks it developed this high pitch whining sound. It appears to be coming from the PSU, but I can't narrow it down 100%. Here are my specs:

ASUS P8Z68-V PRO LGA 1155 Intel Z68
Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz
CORSAIR XMS3 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
MSI GeForce GTX560 1 GB DDR5 2DVI/Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card N560GTX TI TWIN FROZR II OC
PC Power and Cooling S61EPS 610W

Here are the symptoms:

* No whine while in BIOS or booting
* Whining noise begins about when Windows fully loads
* Whining noise pursuits while using computer and is varied by typing and moving the mouse
* When I launch TF2, whining noise stops completley
* When I close TF2, whining noise comes back
* If I plug my headphones into my front HD Audio connector, whining noise comes through headphones as well.

I'm not certain WHAT the source of the problem is. Why does it not occur when in the BIOS or TF2? Could this be a driver problem? Hardware? PSU?

Thanks!!

 

[Kayden]

My exp with this kind of noise has been with the front audio cable connection for the case plugged into the audio card, when I took it out I never got the noise again, when I put it back same noise came through again.

Rob told me it may not be that simple because it isn't coming through on the speakers but I do not recall if my issue was through the speakers or not, so I am just putting the suggestion up just for something to try Ben, I REALLY hope this fixes it for you.

 

[Kougar]

Some quick questions:

1) Is either the CPU or GPU overclocked?

2) What happens when you use Prime95 (or LinX, or OCCT, any program that maxes out all cores)

3) What happens when you use Furmark, or any other program that load tests the GPU?

As of right now it sounds like a coil or choke coil, or possibly even a capacitor is simply vibrating and producing the resonance at a specific current draw. Changing the system power load to anything higher or lower should make it disappear. Most often this is seen during overclocking when the electrical components are under the most stress, but it does occur at stock frequencies with some motherboards and GPUs.

It could possibly be a poorly manufactured part or it might be perfectly fine, there's no real way to tell unless you find some sort of system instability. I personally have had at least three components do this, two of them were GPUs at factory overclocks and the third was a motherboard during extreme FSB frequencies + CPU loads. In all three situations everything was fully stable, I was just stuck with the highly irritating noise!

I'd suggest you remove the GPU and try a different card... and try the GPU in another computer to rule it out. It'd be my first suspect, I've never heard of a PSU as the culprit but I can tell you it WILL sound like the PSU is causing it, just because of how high frequency sound works. I have no idea why.

 

[Ben]

My exp with this kind of noise has been with the front audio cable connection for the case plugged into the audio card, when I took it out I never got the noise again, when I put it back same noise came through again.

Rob told me it may not be that simple because it isn't coming through on the speakers but I do not recall if my issue was through the speakers or not, so I am just putting the suggestion up just for something to try Ben, I REALLY hope this fixes it for you.

Thanks, I'll give this a shot.

Some quick questions:

1) Is either the CPU or GPU overclocked?

2) What happens when you use Prime95 (or LinX, or OCCT, any program that maxes out all cores)

3) What happens when you use Furmark, or any other program that load tests the GPU?

1.) The CPU is not, the GPU has a factory overclock I believe.

2.) Have not tried this yet, I'll give it a shot.

3.) Will try this as well tomorrow.

The GPU is brand new, as is everything else sans the PSU. I will switch to the onboard graphics and test some more.

Thanks all!

 

[GFreeman]

Thanks, I'll give this a shot.



1.) The CPU is not, the GPU has a factory overclock I believe.

2.) Have not tried this yet, I'll give it a shot.

3.) Will try this as well tomorrow.

The GPU is brand new, as is everything else sans the PSU. I will switch to the onboard graphics and test some more.

Thanks all!

Just a tought.. Is your power connection shielded? I once had a PC making such noise and I didn't realize I wasn't using a shielded connection. That was causing a whining noise for me as well. Good luck!

 

[Kougar]

The GPU is brand new, as is everything else sans the PSU. I will switch to the onboard graphics and test some more.

One of the GPUs I mentioned above was a GTX 285, it was also brand new. It made a high pitched whine under ANY load conditions, and was the most irritating sound I have yet to hear from a PC. Not only that but the high-pitched sound would change pitch higher/lower depending on which game or application I used to load the GPU. Changing the factory overclock didn't stop the noise unless I underclocked the card severely, to around 500MHz.

Good luck

 

[Synesthesia]

Coil whine? My last PSU had that issue

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[Kougar]

Wow, that's pretty bad Synesthesia. It sounds like it might be the fan though, possibly?? That said I owned one of those PSUs and it was leaking stray voltages across the primary heatsink and some of the power cables, which could cause just about anything depending where they ended up. Quite a long story, that was.

The high-pitched sound I'm thinking of doesn't have the mechanical whine to it and is a much higher pitch, almost a chirping sound.

 

[Ben]

Hi all,

I've removed the GPU and am now using the CPU video and the noise still occurs. All previous conditions are the same with the GPU now removed.

Tomorrow I will buy a paperclip and remove the PSU from the system and hotwire it and test it independently.

Ciao

 

[Ben]

UPDATE:

I hot wired the PSU and let it run for about 20 minutes and it made no noise at all.

I also ran LinX and as soon I started running the benchmark, the noise stopped, so I'm thinking that it is probably the motherboard at this point unless anyone has any objections.

What do you think the best course of action at this point? RMA?

 

[Kayden]

UPDATE:

I hot wired the PSU and let it run for about 20 minutes and it made no noise at all.

I also ran LinX and as soon I started running the benchmark, the noise stopped, so I'm thinking that it is probably the motherboard at this point unless anyone has any objections.

What do you think the best course of action at this point? RMA?

This is sounding more and more to me like a grounding issue, do you have a speaker hooked up to the MB for post beeps? If you do it could be running through that speaker try disconnecting it. If it does not return try disabling your onboard audio and putting the speaker back to see if it comes back, if it does we know it isn't audio related and if it doesn't we know the onboard is fubar and that means RMA or 3rd party sound card. At that point if it doesn't go away I got nothing.

I take it removing the front panel audio cable from your onboard sound card didn't work?

 

[Ben]

This is sounding more and more to me like a grounding issue, do you have a speaker hooked up to the MB for post beeps? If you do it could be running through that speaker try disconnecting it. If it does not return try disabling your onboard audio and putting the speaker back to see if it comes back, if it does we know it isn't audio related and if it doesn't we know the onboard is fubar and that means RMA or 3rd party sound card. At that point if it doesn't go away I got nothing.

I take it removing the front panel audio cable from your onboard sound card didn't work?

I have a speaker hooked up, but that connector uses the Asus Q-Connector to hook all the leads into the mobo through one connector.

I did remove the front panel audio hookup and that mode no difference. I think tonight I will remove the entire motherboard tray and try running it outside of the case to see if I can narrow down the location.

 

[Kayden]

I have a speaker hooked up, but that connector uses the Asus Q-Connector to hook all the leads into the mobo through one connector.

I did remove the front panel audio hookup and that mode no difference. I think tonight I will remove the entire motherboard tray and try running it outside of the case to see if I can narrow down the location.

Hopefully you will find some answers, this just boggles the mind. /c:

 

[Ben]

UPDATE:

I've removed all components from the case and hooked up on the table. Using a cardboard sheet I separated the components and listened in on each to determine if the noise was coming from it. After several minutes, I've concluded that the component making the high pitch whine is indeed the PSU.

I think I will have to order another.

Thanks all for your help!

 

[Kougar]

Sorry to hear that it was the PSU Ben. PCP&C shouldn't give ya any trouble with the RMA process, hopefully the replacement won't exhibit the same issue.

 

[Kayden]

Well at least you got your answer, sorry to hear it wasn't something simple for but hopefully it will be quick and not longer be a problem for you. Hope everything goes better for you dude.

 

[Ben]

Thanks all.

The PSU was made before 2008 and back then it only had a 3 year warranty, so I had to buy a new one. Will be here next week. Hopefully this is the end of the issues.

 

[Rob Williams]

Good luck, man! I don't envy PC problems like this at all. It helps that I tend to deal with a handful of them each year, though. Looking forward to seeing how the rig runs once the new PSU gets in.

 

[Ben]

Got the new PSU installed, running great! Looks like the case, is closed.

 

[Rob Williams]

Wicked! Must feel nice, huh?