help! sonata power supply emitting high pitched wine

grenadier · Post by **grenadier** » Sun Feb 08, 2004 8:44 pm

I just finished building a new computer in an antec sonata case and the rear 120mm case fan is wonderfully quiet (plugged into one of the fan only power connectors), but the psu fan itself starts emitting a high pitched whine the moment I turn the computer on.

It's just slightly audible, but of a much higher pitch than any fan I've ever owned before. After spending this much $ on a case known for being one of the quietest around I'm assumming I did something wrong. Any idea what that would be?

Juha · Post by **Juha** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 8:57 am

Do you have any Seagate Barracudas in that computer? If yes, try unplugging the drives - they're notorious for causing some PSU's to whine annoyingly. Don't know if the Sonata is one of those, though.

I think in another thread some time ago someone reported PSU whine that was caused by the motherboard power connector not being seated properly, so you may want to check that too.

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:19 am

I have to say that I have exactly the same problem - and it didn't seem to occur when I first got the Sonata. The sound is more like a really high pitched / high frequency ringing. It's not loud but its noticeable.

What's really peculiar is that I hear it when the Sonata is under the desk. When I stick my head under the desk (in an attempt to isolate where the noise is coming from I can't hear the ringing). Bizarre. Maybe the noise is being drowned out by the airrush from the 120mm fan? I don't have any Seagates - the only components that are in my Sonata rig and not my previous is the Seagate Diamond Max 9 HDD.

Would welcome suggestions.

grenadier · Post by **grenadier** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 11:37 am

My video card doesn't have a fan, my cnps7000aclu is on low, I have a hitachi deskstar 160gb, and the rear 120mm fan is impressively quiet. The chipset fan sure as hell isn't quiet, but it definitely isn't generating the noise, because my old system has exactly the same nb fan and it was never a problem before. It has to be the goddam power supply. This is a build for someone else so I don't want to do a psu fan mod. Any ideas on how I can get this taken care of before I deliver the machine (thursday)?

Juha · Post by **Juha** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:16 pm

Oops sorry, I misread your original posting, didn't realize you had already pinpointed the problem to the PSU fan (instead of just the PSU in general).

Edit: Reading your above reply again - have you really made sure that it is the fan ("it has to be" doesn't sound like you have actually powered on the computer with something jamming the fan)?

grenadier · Post by **grenadier** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:26 pm

I'll try jamming the fan when I get home (an hour or two) and post again then. The noise is definitely coming from the psu and I can't think of anything other than the psu fan that could generate that kind of noise. I'll post again after I try jamming the fan.

johnjkr · Post by **johnjkr** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 1:44 pm

I had the same problem with my Sonata. I had a shuttle an35n motherboard with the atx 4plug connector, and i was sure it was the power supply making the whine, but it turned out it was the coils on the motherboard...i got a new board (without the atx 4pin plug) and now the whine is gone. Not sure if your situation is the same or not

Juha · Post by **Juha** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 2:04 pm

If it's not the fan, next I would try to narrow it down as much as possible by trying different combinations of components. Remove the hard disk and video card, does it still whine? If yes, see if the psu can be started without the motherboard (I don't remember off hand which pin you have to ground to switch it on, but google ought to find it...) Or disconnect all other fans, try it with a different motherboard if you can, etc. The noise may still be coming from the power supply but it may be caused by something connected to it (for some reading, try searching these forums for coil whine).

aston · Post by **aston** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 2:19 pm

I second Juha's suggestion. In my config, it was the Radeon that was causing the coil whine in my Enermax PSU. Unplugging the Radeon's power got rid of the whine (but also rendered my video card useless). The remedy was to get a new PSU.

grenadier · Post by **grenadier** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:06 pm

I jammed the psu fan and the whine is still there. I guess it must be coil whine after all.

Is it the general concensus that coil whine in the psu is caused by one of the system components powered by it?

If so, the only things hooked up to it right now are the motherboard, the cd-rw, and the hard drive. After booting up the system three times, unplugging a different component each time, I am still unable to get rid of the coil whine. Any suggestions?

johnjkr · Post by **johnjkr** » Tue Feb 10, 2004 7:28 pm

Generally, from what ive read, its usuallya combo of the ps, hard drive, vid card, or motherboard. In my case it was the motherboard whining. But in other posts its the seagate hard drive. It can be really hard to narrow it down, but a new power supply almost always fixes it...or so i'm led to believe..I finally got my sonata to stop the whining with its original 380 ps..but it took a different motherboard

aston · Post by **aston** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 1:00 pm

Yeah, I agree with johnjkr... a new (good) PSU usually fixes the problem.

For me, it was the combination of nForce2 motherboard, Radeon video card and Enermax PSU.

Do you have another PSU you can try? That'll narrow it down for sure.

If so, the only things hooked up to it right now are the motherboard, the cd-rw, and the hard drive. After booting up the system three times, unplugging a different component each time, I am still unable to get rid of the coil whine. Any suggestions?

I'm curious, how did you power up the PSU without plugging it into the motherboard?

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Sat Feb 14, 2004 2:53 pm

grenadier -- try varying your CPU and AGP voltages. Probably a long shot, but changing the voltages may change the dynamics that cause the vibration. I happen to have a Radeon 9700pro and I get a loud whine if the AGP voltage is set to anything less than 1.6V. I believe I invented a few new swear words before I figured that out (my mobo defaults to 1.55V).

davidstone28 · Post by **davidstone28** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 9:26 am

I found out where the high pitched whine / ringing was coming from. It wasn't the PC at all. It was coming from *cough* the fridge on the on the other side of the wall where by PC is located.....

Inexplicable · Post by **Inexplicable** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 10:00 am

You think you've got problems? I've discovered that my breath wheezes.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Mon Feb 16, 2004 11:20 am

davidstone28 wrote:I found out where the high pitched whine / ringing was coming from. It wasn't the PC at all. It was coming from *cough* the fridge on the on the other side of the wall where by PC is located.....

Ah yes...

I suspect many of us have encountered this and similar situations, I know I have. The compressor in my fridge isn't very loud but it tends to set up a sort of high-pitched resonance that actually sounds worse in my computer room than it does right in the kitchen.

WannaOC · Post by **WannaOC** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 12:53 am

Well I have the high pitch sound and it only started coming from my computer after installing a second cd-rom. Makes me think its just a psu workign harder. For people that are still hearing this try removing some parts that draw power from the psu (extra cdrom, fan, etc) to see if that helps.

aston · Post by **aston** » Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:18 pm

davidstone28 wrote:I found out where the high pitched whine / ringing was coming from. It wasn't the PC at all. It was coming from *cough* the fridge on the on the other side of the wall where by PC is located.....

Hahahaha!

I had a similar problem once... I was wondering why my monitor suddenly developed a discolouration problem after I had moved to my new place. I thought it must've been something in the room causing interference, like my speakers or something.... After much hair-pulling trying to find the source of the interference, it turns out the building's elevator was on the other side of the wall.