Electric sounding crackling noise from CPU

[ZippyKiYay]

In the immediate vicinity of the cpu, I'm getting an electric sounding crackling noise. From afar, there's a high pitched whining noise. Neither noise is loud but the frequency of the tone is very annoying.   In order to reduce the variables, I've replaced the AIO cooler with a passive cooler (Noctua NH-P1); removed the GPU, and set all of the case fans to 0 RPM. The 2 storage devices are NVME M.2 SSDs. Additionally, I'm not hearing any sound coming from the power supply. With my CPU at 65W TDP (via bios) and without a GPU, there is so little power needed that the Corsair RM1000x's fan isn't even running.  Since I've taken all moving parts out of the equation, at this point, the only culprit I can think of is the motherboard. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

My system's components:

Motherboard:	MSI MAG B650 Tomahawk Wifi ATX (bios v E7D75AMS.131)
CPU:	AMD Ryzen 9 7900X
Cooler:	Noctua NH-P1
Memory:	G.Skill Trident Z5 RBG 32 GB (2x16) DDR5-6000 CL36
Storage #1:	Samsung 980 Pro 1TB 4.0 NVME M.2 SSD
Storage #2:	WD_BLACK 2TB NVME M.2 SSD
Video Card:	NA. Just AMD integrated graphics
PSU:	Corsair RM1000x 1000 W 80+ Gold ATX power supply
OS:	Windows 10 (64 bit)
Case Fans	Noctua NF-A12x25 & be quiet! Light Wings

[dnld]

Ok, so from years of experience I can tell you there is no way the sound is from the CPU. The only thing this reminds me off is the recent chrisfixDE video of dies cracking on wet GPUs but there is no way this happened to you, it would not work. Anything in the socket like high voltage sparks are also (at-least normally) impossible. 

 

Describe the sound more, is it crackling or consistent? Maybe its bad fan bearings? Very possibly coil whining? 

 

Try recording it as well as you can and upload it. 

[RONOTHAN##]

Motherboards can have coil whine. With a 65W TDP set, it's very unlikely since whining gets significantly worse as power goes up, but still technically possible.

 

The place I think is most likely though is the RAM. Because DDR5 moved the power management to the DIMMs themselves, they can actually get some minor coil whine, and it doesn't require heavy use to start whining. You can try each stick individually to confirm, it's uncommon enough that I'd expect both sticks to have whining problems. 

[ZippyKiYay]

8 hours ago, dnld said:

Describe the sound more, is it crackling or consistent? Maybe its bad fan bearings? Very possibly coil whining? 

 

Try recording it as well as you can and upload it. 

Thanks dnld.  The best way I could describe the sound is that it sounds very much like what a high voltage wires sound like on above ground electrical poles.  So, yeah, it could be coil whining.  I'm 100% confident that it's not fan bearings as there is no fan anywhere near the motherboard.  The CPU is cooled passively by a Noctua NH-P1, the PSU is at 0 RPM and the case fans are all at 0 RPM.

 

Unfortunately, I'm unable to get a helpful recording of it.  I've recorded it with the pc running and also with it completely shut down and both recordings sound the same on playback.  

 

 

[ZippyKiYay]

9 hours ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Motherboards can have coil whine. With a 65W TDP set, it's very unlikely since whining gets significantly worse as power goes up, but still technically possible.

 

The place I think is most likely though is the RAM. Because DDR5 moved the power management to the DIMMs themselves, they can actually get some minor coil whine, and it doesn't require heavy use to start whining. You can try each stick individually to confirm, it's uncommon enough that I'd expect both sticks to have whining problems. 

Thanks RONOTHAN##.  I'm not hearing any noise from the RAM but I did go ahead with your suggestion of trying each stick individually... no change.  

 

Can one expect less to no motherboard coil whine from a higher quality board?  Any suggestions on what motherboard I should try?  

 

Could it possibly be the RGB on the RAM?  Are there any RAM options for my setup that would be considered to be higher quality than what I'm using now?

 

Thank you.

[ZippyKiYay]

Update: I spoke with MSI tech support about the B650 motherboard.  He suggested that upgrading to their X670E CARBON WIFI board because it has higher quality VRM.  Of course, this board costs almost 2x what my current board did.

[RONOTHAN##]

2 hours ago, ZippyKiYay said:

Can one expect less to no motherboard coil whine from a higher quality board?

The board I've used with the worst coil whine is a Z170 OC Formula. It was at the time a $500 board, ASRock's top of the line option, and one of the best VRMs on Z170. If that board is terrible, price point really means nothing. 

 

Board coil whine is very much a per unit thing, you could buy 2 of the same exact board and one whines and another doesn't. It's not something you can just spend extra to avoid. 

[ZippyKiYay]

Another update: I turned off the RGB on the RAM... no improvement.  Next, I'm going to try a new power supply unit.

[ZippyKiYay]

Ok, I'm still grappling with this electrical sounding cracking / buzzing noise from my CPU (AMD 7900x @ 65W TDP). So far, I've replaced the AIO with a passive cooler (Noctua NH-P1); removed the GPU, turned off all of the case fans, turned off all rgb lighting, including the RAM's rgb, and installed a new power supply. Next, I'm going to try restoring the bios to default. Any other suggestions?  Thanks!

[ZippyKiYay]

UPDATE: Restoring the BIOS to default didn't do it.  Next, I replaced the motherboard and the power supply (twice)... still no improvement.  The only thing that does anything is going into BIOS.  I've noticed that, in BIOS, the noise stops!!  At this point, the only other thing I can come up with is to dump the AMD platform entirely and go with a 13th gen Intel setup.  Any thoughts????

 

For reference, here's a list of everything I've tried so far:

 

• Replaced the AIO cooler with a passive cooler (Noctua NH-P1)
• Removed the GPU
• Set all fans to 0 RPM
• Replaced the boot SSD
• Turned off all RGB lighting
• Reseated the RAM
• Tried running just one stick of RAM at a time
• Replaced the first Corsair RM1000x PSU with another RM1000x
• Replaced the Corsair PSU with a Be Quiet Dark Power 13 850W
• Restored BIOS to default
• Switched from 65W TDP in bios to default TDP settings
• Swapped the first motherboard for a new MSI B650 Tomahawk board
• Added EMI filter to the power outlet the PSU is using

 

[DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly]

Have you tried running your system outside the case?

[ZippyKiYay]

10 hours ago, DontBeSillyWrapYourWilly said:

Have you tried running your system outside the case?

I have not tried that.  Is your theory that the case is causing the coil whine?  I could see a case causing or amplifying vibrational noise, but I've eliminated that possibility by removing all fans and/or setting all fans to full stop.  

[ZippyKiYay]

On 4/16/2023 at 10:28 PM, RONOTHAN## said:

Motherboards can have coil whine. With a 65W TDP set, it's very unlikely since whining gets significantly worse as power goes up, but still technically possible.

 

The place I think is most likely though is the RAM. Because DDR5 moved the power management to the DIMMs themselves, they can actually get some minor coil whine, and it doesn't require heavy use to start whining. You can try each stick individually to confirm, it's uncommon enough that I'd expect both sticks to have whining problems. 

RONOTHAN##, The further I work on this issue, the more I think you're on to something here.  The only 2 components have not yet replaced or eliminated from my setup are the RAM and CPU.  With all of the issues (overheating and bios problems) we're now hearing about Ryzen's 7000 series chips, I'm wondering if indeed it's something that AMD and the board manufacturers haven't quite worked out yet.  

 

The only clue I've found is that the noise stops when the system is in BIOS.

 

Assuming it is the RAM, it sounds like the only solution is to switch to a new chip / mobo configuration whereby I can run DDR4 RAM, right?

 

Thanks for your help!!

[RONOTHAN##]

2 hours ago, ZippyKiYay said:

With all of the issues (overheating and bios problems) we're now hearing about Ryzen's 7000 series chips, I'm wondering if indeed it's something that AMD and the board manufacturers haven't quite worked out yet.  

Motherboard coil whine is not related to the Ryzen 7000 issues, those are because AMD miscommunicated the safe limits of the SOC voltage and therefore motherboard vendors would set it too high by default, eventually killing the CPU. The BIOS issues are because board vendors rushed a fix for this and didn't fully beta test the fixes, so we're stuck in limbo where the stable BIOSes aren't safe to use and the safe BIOSes likely aren't stable. This should be worked out within the next week or so though. 

 

2 hours ago, ZippyKiYay said:

Assuming it is the RAM, it sounds like the only solution is to switch to a new chip / mobo configuration whereby I can run DDR4 RAM, right?

If it's the RAM, you just replace the RAM sticks and it should in theory go away. If it's the motherboard's RAM power rail that's whining (some Gigabyte boards are known to do this, for instance), you'd have to replace the board. 

 

I'm not aware of any DDR4 boards that have coil whine on the memory rail, but at the same time that doesn't prevent the VCore VRM from whining. 

 

2 hours ago, ZippyKiYay said:

The only clue I've found is that the noise stops when the system is in BIOS.

That is pretty weird. It still might be the memory whining, since whine should come and go with load and in the BIOS should put no/almost no load on the memory sticks, though RAM is so low power any way that I'd expect it to whine if power is going through it in general. That is a weird situation.

[ZippyKiYay]

24 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

If it's the RAM, you just replace the RAM sticks and it should in theory go away. If it's the motherboard's RAM power rail that's whining (some Gigabyte boards are known to do this, for instance), you'd have to replace the board. 

Ok, before I go through the hassle of switching from AMD to Intel and down to DDR4, I'm giving my setup once last chance by trying out a new set of RAM.  I just ordered some Kingston Furry Beast DDR5 - 32GB (2x16GB) 5200 / CL36.  I'll have it by EOD tomorrow and will report back then.

 

I have already swapped out the mobo, as well as literally everything else except for the CPU.  So, if this doesn't do it, I can only assume either all DDR5 on my setup will cause coil whine or that it has to be the CPU.

[ZippyKiYay]

On 5/8/2023 at 12:18 PM, ZippyKiYay said:

Ok, before I go through the hassle of switching from AMD to Intel and down to DDR4, I'm giving my setup once last chance by trying out a new set of RAM.  I just ordered some Kingston Furry Beast DDR5 - 32GB (2x16GB) 5200 / CL36.  I'll have it by EOD tomorrow and will report back then.

 

I have already swapped out the mobo, as well as literally everything else except for the CPU.  So, if this doesn't do it, I can only assume either all DDR5 on my setup will cause coil whine or that it has to be the CPU.

New RAM... no change.  

 

I do now feel like I've got a better understanding of exactly where the electrical buzzing noise is coming from.  It seems to be coming directly from the VRM above the CPU.  

 

Interestingly, in addition to when the machine is in BIOS, the noise is reduced when running Cinebench

 

 

[Whatisthis]

Different power loads cause different frequencies of vibration. The whine is still likely there, but in a less audible part of the sound spectrum.

 

You could try yet another motherboard, or try an intel setup. There is no practical way to remove coil whine.

 

you could also run the computer in a soundproofed location with extension cords for display and usb.

[ZippyKiYay]

8 hours ago, Whatisthis said:

Different power loads cause different frequencies of vibration. The whine is still likely there, but in a less audible part of the sound spectrum.

 

You could try yet another motherboard, or try an intel setup. There is no practical way to remove coil whine.

 

you could also run the computer in a soundproofed location with extension cords for display and usb. 

Thanks, Whatisthis.  I did try a like for like replacement of my mobo, but not a completely different one.  

 

I called AMD today.  After hearing that I had replaced or removed every single component, other than the CPU itself, the AMD rep was thinking it had to be a bad CPU.  Then, when I explained that the noise went away while in BIOS, he said he was 100% confident that it's a bad processor.  

[AndreX86]

On 5/10/2023 at 1:06 PM, ZippyKiYay said:

Thanks, Whatisthis.  I did try a like for like replacement of my mobo, but not a completely different one.  

 

I called AMD today.  After hearing that I had replaced or removed every single component, other than the CPU itself, the AMD rep was thinking it had to be a bad CPU.  Then, when I explained that the noise went away while in BIOS, he said he was 100% confident that it's a bad processor.  

It was likely not a bad processor and I'm sure the next one you got did the same thing. You can resolve this issue more than likely by simply disabling core performance boost within the BIOS. This whining noise has been known to present itself on Intel and AMD chips when they are boosting, likely due to the VRM on the motherboard. Disable boost and the noise may goes away.

[ZippyKiYay]

On 10/22/2023 at 3:21 PM, AndreX86 said:

It was likely not a bad processor and I'm sure the next one you got did the same thing. You can resolve this issue more than likely by simply disabling core performance boost within the BIOS. This whining noise has been known to present itself on Intel and AMD chips when they are boosting, likely due to the VRM on the motherboard. Disable boost and the noise may goes away.

You are correct, the next one did the same thing.  That computer is offline right now, but I do recall that disabling core performance boost did help a bit.  I'm currently working on one with a Ryzen 7 3700X and it has the same issue.  With this one, still getting a high pitched whine with CPB disabled.