Coil whine while off?

[Vasllo]

So, I just noticed my PSU is making a noticeable coil whine, which it didn't before, and not only that, but it doesn't stop while the PC is off, neither while the PSU is off, it only stops when I pull the cable. I thought coil whine was only during load? Is this something else? My PC is on my signature, and it's just over 3yo, but:

 

I've been mining mostly non-stop for 2,5 months so far with my rig. At the third week, I added a GTX 1070, which is using a normal PCI-E power cable and a 2 molex to 8 pin adapter (pulling just 25~35w from it). I tried taking the adapter out to see if it would do anything, it didn't. Both GPUs draw 200~245w total depending on the algorithm (mostly 200~210w), so power isn't an issue, the PC is not pushing a whole lot of power. I turned it off for the night and will clean out the PSU tomorrow and see if I can find anything.

 

@Edit: Saw something about coil whine in the line filter of the PSU, could this be it? And could this have been caused by an electricity fluctuation? There have been some  past week.

[TrigrH]

3 minutes ago, Vasllo said:

I turned it off for the night and will clean out the PSU tomorrow and see if I can find anything.

Make sure you do not open the power supply, touching the wrong stuff inside could kill you.

 

Consider PSU RMA if within warranty.

 

 

[Vasllo]

Just now, TrigrH said:

Make sure you do not open the power supply, touching the wrong stuff inside could kill you.

 

Consider PSU RMA if within warranty.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up, I won't be opening the PSU so I don't risk losing the warranty, I just plan on freeing the fan (since it can't be taken out without taking the PSU apart) and cleaning inside the best I can with my trusty brush, obviously after turning it off, taking out the cable and draining the power in the caps, like I did last year.

I'm considering RMA, but I'm not sure if it is necessary or even if it'll be accepted. Also, I don't want possibly a couple weeks of downtime in my mining, ideally.

[TrigrH]

3 minutes ago, Vasllo said:

Thanks for the heads up, I won't be opening the PSU so I don't risk losing the warranty, I just plan on freeing the fan (since it can't be taken out without taking the PSU apart) and cleaning inside the best I can with my trusty brush, obviously after turning it off, taking out the cable and draining the power in the caps, like I did last year.

I'm considering RMA, but I'm not sure if it is necessary or even if it'll be accepted. Also, I don't want possibly a couple weeks of downtime in my mining, ideally.

They should be able to accept the RMA before you send it off, you could also ask for an advanced replacement.

[Vasllo]

4 hours ago, TrigrH said:

They should be able to accept the RMA before you send it off, you could also ask for an advanced replacement.

True that, I'll see if they do it. Thanks.

[Vasllo]

5 hours ago, TrigrH said:

They should be able to accept the RMA before you send it off, you could also ask for an advanced replacement.

Update: So, I left I off of the wall for the night and now it isn't making that noise anymore, except for a very quiet coil while during load that doesn't worry me. I'll keep an eye on that and send it to RMA if it comes back. Thanks bud, have a good one.

[Guest]

10 hours ago, Vasllo said:

So, I just noticed my PSU is making a noticeable coil whine, which it didn't before, and not only that, but it doesn't stop while the PC is off, neither while the PSU is off, it only stops when I pull the cable. I thought coil whine was only during load? Is this something else? My PC is on my signature, and it's just over 3yo, but:

 

I've been mining mostly non-stop for 2,5 months so far with my rig. At the third week, I added a GTX 1070, which is using a normal PCI-E power cable and a 2 molex to 8 pin adapter (pulling just 25~35w from it). I tried taking the adapter out to see if it would do anything, it didn't. Both GPUs draw 200~245w total depending on the algorithm (mostly 200~210w), so power isn't an issue, the PC is not pushing a whole lot of power. I turned it off for the night and will clean out the PSU tomorrow and see if I can find anything.

 

@Edit: Saw something about coil whine in the line filter of the PSU, could this be it? And could this have been caused by an electricity fluctuation? There have been some  past week.

What do you have plugged into your USB ports?  Including any USB hubs that you might have.  If you could just list it all out.

 

 

[Vasllo]

1 hour ago, jonnyGURU said:

What do you have plugged into your USB ports?  Including any USB hubs that you might have.  If you could just list it all out.

 

 

USB connections:

Corsair M65 Pro RGB mouse

Corsair K70 mk.2 keyboard (which has 2 cables, one for a USB passthrough)

USB Cable that I use for my Xbox One controller, to recharge my TWS earphones or my phone sometimes

 

3.5mm jack connections:

Beyerdynamic DT770-Pro headphone

A lapel microphone

 

And an ethernet cable

 

After 5~6h unplugged from the wall, the loud whine stopped, but I didn't change a thing in the PC, so I'm guessing it'll come back at some point.

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, Vasllo said:

USB connections:

Corsair M65 Pro RGB mouse

Corsair K70 mk.2 keyboard (which has 2 cables, one for a USB passthrough)

USB Cable that I use for my Xbox One controller, to recharge my TWS earphones or my phone sometimes

 

3.5mm jack connections:

Beyerdynamic DT770-Pro headphone

A lapel microphone

 

And an ethernet cable

 

After 5~6h unplugged from the wall, the loud whine stopped, but I didn't change a thing in the PC, so I'm guessing it'll come back at some point.

The +5VSB is going to be live as long as the bulk cap is charged.  So if the load on the +5VSB is low, it's going to take a long time to discharge and that will keep the noise going.

 

So you only have the KBD, mouse and a USB charging cable plugged into the USB?  Hmmm... We'll you could try unplugging those one at a time to see if the noise changes/goes away.  My kid has a USB hub that, when plugged in, makes the PSU whine at standby.  

 

Is the noise a sign of a defective PSU?  Absolutely not.  Honestly, ALL magnetic components vibrate when energized.  Just sometimes that vibration falls within an audible frequency.  

[Vasllo]

29 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

The +5VSB is going to be live as long as the bulk cap is charged.  So if the load on the +5VSB is low, it's going to take a long time to discharge and that will keep the noise going.

 

So you only have the KBD, mouse and a USB charging cable plugged into the USB?  Hmmm... We'll you could try unplugging those one at a time to see if the noise changes/goes away.  My kid has a USB hub that, when plugged in, makes the PSU whine at standby.  

 

Is the noise a sign of a defective PSU?  Absolutely not.  Honestly, ALL magnetic components vibrate when energized.  Just sometimes that vibration falls within an audible frequency.  

Thanks a lot for all the info, if the noise comes back, I'll try and remove the USB devices to see if it solves it, because it's not making any noticeable noise anymore, even with load, just a very quiet whine that is even quieter than my modem's whine, which is fine.

 

What really worried me about this one is that it came from nowhere, was quite loud (I've experienced some level of coil whine before in other hardware and this one was louder), kept going even with the PSU switched off, and would immediately stop and come back when removing/plugging in the cable, but thanks for letting me know I shouldn't worry about it, I'll only consider RMA if it becomes annoying.

 

The only weird thing is that the USB devices connected have been working without problems for a long time so far, how would they start causing this now?

[Guest]

Just now, Vasllo said:

Thanks a lot for all the info, if the noise comes back, I'll try and remove the USB devices to see if it solves it, because it's not making any noise anymore, even with load.

 

What really worried me about this one is that it came from nowhere, was quite loud (I've experienced some level of coil whine before in other hardware and this one was louder), kept going even with the PSU switched off, and would immediately stop and come back when removing/plugging in the cable, but thanks for letting me know I shouldn't worry about it, I'll only consider RMA if it becomes annoying.

 

The only weird thing is that the USB devices connected have been working without problems for a long time so far, how would they start causing this now?

Another possibility is something on the same mains feeding noise back to the PSU.  For example:  I once talked to a guy who's PSU started making coil whine when his dad bought an EV and installed a charger in the garage (which was on the same circuit as his computer).

 

[Vasllo]

On 4/14/2021 at 3:53 PM, jonnyGURU said:

Another possibility is something on the same mains feeding noise back to the PSU.  For example:  I once talked to a guy who's PSU started making coil whine when his dad bought an EV and installed a charger in the garage (which was on the same circuit as his computer).

 

Damn, the causes can vary wildly. The only thing that changed recently here is the shower, that is now a 7800w 220v one, instead of 5500w 127v, but it's in a different circuit altogether. The PSU is running at 110v with a 20A cable (I went overkill because I felt my 10A cable a bit warm and didn't like it), there's some low power stuff in it's circuit, but nothing changed recently. I was away from home for a week and left the PC mining, and we had some stormy days here, so the PSU had to deal with some fluctuations while on load (~50%), but didn't power off at all, so maybe these fluctuations could have caused this behavior? I have no idea, it's the only thing that comes to mind.

[Vasllo]

On 4/14/2021 at 3:53 PM, jonnyGURU said:

Another possibility is something on the same mains feeding noise back to the PSU.  For example:  I once talked to a guy who's PSU started making coil whine when his dad bought an EV and installed a charger in the garage (which was on the same circuit as his computer).

 

Update: It is the new electric shower. I just noticed the noise and noticed that someone was taking a shower, and when they turned it off, the whine stopped. The electric shower is in a circuit breaker of it's own, so is it causing such a high electrical noise that it's going all the way back to the electricity box and distributing to all the circuits or something like that? The one we had before was 5500w @127v with a single phase, this one is 7800w @220v with two phases.

[Guest]

While the circuits may be separate, the grounds are common.

 

[Vasllo]

8 hours ago, jonnyGURU said:

While the circuits may be separate, the grounds are common.

 

Umm, what if the electric shower doesn't have a ground (yet)? And I'm not even sure if there's anything grounded here, not even my PC now that I think of it. It may be, though, I'll look into that soon.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Vasllo said:

Umm, what if the electric shower doesn't have a ground (yet)? And I'm not even sure if there's anything grounded here, not even my PC now that I think of it. It may be, though, I'll look into that soon.

That would be odd.

 

LOL!

[Vasllo]

 

29 minutes ago, jonnyGURU said:

That would be odd.

 

LOL!

And when I thought I had an answer to it, nope, lol! I'm not sure if the PC is grounded or not, but the electric shower isn't. Weird stuff.

But thanks for the info anyways, I won't bother with the whine and will look into grounding stuff, lol. Have a good one!

[zfi]

AFAIK this might be caused by C-states and might be fixable by tweaking the BIOS settings. I fixed a similar problem - I had noise under low load. But in theory it might cause also whining under standby.