Crackling sounds coming from my PSU

[Vlaad]

My brand new PC started making noises while playing Battlefield 1. A short while after I closed the game they stopped. However, the next day the sounds started again while gaming. They seem to come from the power supply, an Aerocool AE-550W. I have an AMD Ryzen 3500X and a GTX 1660S, if that matters - both don't exceed 70% usage in Battlefield 1.

Are those sounds anything to worry about?

crackling 2.m4a

[Bombastinator]

Sound file won’t run on iPhone with firefox.  Might just be iPhone or firefox

[Latvian Video]

10 minutes ago, Vlaad said:

My brand new PC started making noises while playing Battlefield 1. A short while after I closed the game they stopped. However, the next day the sounds started again while gaming. They seem to come from the power supply, an Aerocool AE-550W. I have an AMD Ryzen 3500X and a GTX 1660S, if that matters - both don't exceed 70% usage in Battlefield 1.

Are those sounds anything to worry about?

crackling 2.m4a 336.41 kB · 4 downloads

For me it sounds like a bad fan.

[wONKEyeYEs]

10 minutes ago, Vlaad said:

noises

At first I thought you were describing electrical shorts.

That sounds like a fan with the blades hitting something.

[Latvian Video]

Just now, wONKEyeYEs said:

At first I thought you were describing electrical shorts.

That sounds like a fan with the blades hitting something.

Yeah, I was thinking a bad fan or it hitting something

[xyro27]

My first thought is that the fan is scraping on something in the power supply. You could try to look at the PSU's fan if you can. However, I have also experienced similar sounds from a couple of my own units which are not fan related. I am still not sure what the clicking sound from my previous units was, but was confident it was electrical.

 

The fan would only ramp up while gaming, but an electrical issue could also be load-dependent. The easiest thing to do now would be to make sure the fan is not being blocked.

 

If you're sure it's not the fan, I would RMA the unit as, to my knowledge, it's not the most known brand.

[Alex Atkin UK]

I'd say a fan going bad (its rattling in the bearing), scraping on something doesn't usually sound like that.

[_Velociraptor_]

It sounds like a bad Bearing in the fan motor that cuase the fan to wiggle around then it will scrape ageist things but a bad bearing it’s self will make a sound like that as well also just get a fixed before it gets bad we’re the bearings will wear out the fan and the motor will have more stress on it it could break and decrease the the air flow in the psu

that will cuase it to over heat and if the psu doesn’t have a auto shut off that makes it turn off when it’s over heating it could make it explode,catch fire or make the capacitors to pop and that will make most of the electronics in the system to break if they don’t have safety protocols for that.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

7 minutes ago, Lucasgrady12 said:

It sounds like a bad Bearing in the fan motor that cuase the fan to wiggle around then it will scrape ageist things but a bad bearing it’s self will make a sound like that as well also just get a fixed before it gets bad we’re the bearings will wear out the fan and the motor will have more stress on it it could break and decrease the the air flow in the psu

that will cuase it to over heat and if the psu doesn’t have a auto shut off that makes it turn off when it’s over heating it could make it explode,catch fire or make the capacitors to pop and that will make most of the electronics in the system to break if they don’t have safety protocols for that.

 

In my experience it will annoyingly loud long before that becomes a problem.  Although even a quiet rattle like this would drive me insane.

[_Velociraptor_]

Same if a hear a little bit of a clicking sound that u have be completely silent to hear will drive me insane 

[Vlaad]

Thanks for the quick replies! Since the fan of my power supply is also spinning when idling, wouldn't it make the sound all the time if the issue is a bad bearing or my fan hitting somehing?

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Vlaad said:

Thanks for the quick replies! Since the fan of my power supply is also spinning when idling, wouldn't it make the sound all the time if the issue is a bad bearing or my fan hitting somehing?

Depends on how much noise it makes.  Can you hear it?

[Vlaad]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Depends on how much noise it makes.  Can you hear it?

No, the noise only starts when I play games, about half an hour in, usually. While surfing the web etc. there's absolutely no noise.

[xyro27]

4 minutes ago, Vlaad said:

No, the noise only starts when I play games, about half an hour in, usually. While surfing the web etc. there's absolutely no noise.

If it is an electrical issue, it might not necessarily be a cause for concern. I have had two power supplies that make noises like this and the computers they are supplying are still running to this day.

 

You could try contacting the manufacturer to see if they'd offer a replacement or know anything about this problem with their unit.

[Vlaad]

12 minutes ago, xyro27 said:

If it is an electrical issue, it might not necessarily be a cause for concern. I have had two power supplies that make noises like this and the computers they are supplying are still running to this day.

 

You could try contacting the manufacturer to see if they'd offer a replacement or know anything about this problem with their unit.

Ok, I will ignore the sounds for now and hope it's harmless.

 

Thanks to everybody who took the time to answer! Much appreciated!

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Vlaad said:

No, the noise only starts when I play games, about half an hour in, usually. While surfing the web etc. there's absolutely no noise.

Was a brain fart anyway.  All that stuff was about desktop 11xxx