Corsair VX 450w Making Noises?

R

Rockstar

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 24, 2007
Messages
474
Alright, if this makes any sense, my corsair has been making a quiet but annoying scratching noise, like whenever the computer is busy. even when the pc is idling, it will make the noise about every 3 seconds, but when im playing a game its sooo annoying and consistent. this has been a problem for probably about six months already. my computer has also been feeling very unstable, reboots on its own at startup. random quick lockups, games freezing about every couple seconds. i feel like im only able to do basic internet things on it, but whenever i need to use my pc for any real work, such as video editing or gaming, its the biggest hassle ever. and my front usb & mic jack doesnt always work, i have to plug and unplug my headphones in a couple times before my pc actually recognizes the headphones in and then i can actually hear. can all these problems somehow relate to it being a bad psu? i dont have any others to test it yet. but im hoping it has a lifetime warranty so i can rma it. please let me know!

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None of that seems like typical power supply issues. scratching ??? Normally they squeal or hum. /shrug.

reboots on its own at startup. random quick lockups, games freezing about every couple seconds.
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Normally I would attribute that to bios settings, your temps are OK, not great but OK.

Looks like you are at stock 200 FSB x 11 so the board should have set a 4:1 memory multiplier to run the ram at 800MHz . If you have not yet I would increase the memory voltage from 1.8 to 1.9V. Better yet look up you exact memory on the Adata web site and set the memory voltage to the upper limit of the manuf recommendations and see if that helps. (or manually set the memory multiplier/speed lower and see if that helps eliminate some of your issue) I think the sound/USB thing is a problem in itself, not related directly to other issues except maybe game freezing if its a driver/software issue. I would work on getting the reboots on startup fixed, thats a dead on clue that the board does not like the current bios settings and is reconfiguring itself during POST. Then start working on the other issues.

So not saying it could not be the Power Supply but from your post I do not think so. WAIT , WAIT a minute, whats this.....


WOAH +12 @ 6.34 !!!!! LOL ignore the above for a minute. Sneaky you not mentioning in your text. Trying to make me look stupid are we ? (Not difficult ! )

Go into the bios and find the PC Health or whatever Abit calls it, there should be a screen that reports voltages in the bios, what does it give for values ???? While speedfan is reporting a way out of spec +12 I don't trust it enough but would most definitely want to follow up. If you have a voltmeter or can borrow one of any kind set ti to DC voltage, a lower range (20V would be good) and test a 4 pin molex, + to yellow wire in molex connector and - to Black and see what you get.
 
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Definitely sounds like power issues... follow Bill's advice and use a DMM to ensure you're not killing the hardware with a faulty PSU. I would probably RMA this PSU anyway, though.
 
BillParrish said:
WOAH +12 @ 6.34 !!!!! LOL ignore the above for a minute. Sneaky you not mentioning in your text. Trying to make me look stupid are we ? (Not difficult ! )

Go into the bios and find the PC Health or whatever Abit calls it, there should be a screen that reports voltages in the bios, what does it give for values ???? While speedfan is reporting a way out of spec +12 I don't trust it enough but would most definitely want to follow up. If you have a voltmeter or can borrow one of any kind set ti to DC voltage, a lower range (20V would be good) and test a 4 pin molex, + to yellow wire in molex connector and - to Black and see what you get.
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Bill, if the PSU was really outputting 6V on the +12V rail, the computer wouldn't be running. That's just the crappy monitoring chip in action. The BIOS would most likely report the same thing.

With that said, it certainly wouldn't hurt to check the voltages with a DMM.
 
You need to swap that PSU ASAP!!!

Based on what you wrote mainly about the USB and mic cutting out sounds like you have a low voltage or even grounding problem. This will slowly cook your hardware.

If it's under warranty swap it out.
 
I had a Corsair HX-520 PSU make noise a while back. This was during the first day I had it. Turned out to be the fan inside it. The fan was of horrible quality. The blades were made of really thin plastic and were slightly warped. Well I noticed this problem about 4AM and said screw it, I'll fix it myself. So I did what any good hardware guy would do and voided the warranty. I ripped the thing opened and ripped out that crappy fan. I dropped in a Yate Loon or something like that in it's place. That was about a year ago and that PSU is still going strong today.
 
ok well theres the picture of the bios, i dont think its the fan cause the noise isnt the same the whole time. like pattern changes when im using the computer, and its almost non stop noise when cpu is 100% load. not sure if that makes sense, even if it was the fan, why would i have all these other problems? faulty mobo maybe? or chip?

Edit: any by the way, i just tried a different hard drive and another pair of gskill 2 gb ram and still same problem. i really apreciate all the help, i do have an extra pc that has a 500w antec basiq power supply but im worried it wont be abble to run my 8800gt?
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Well the good news is that it was a speedfan glitch. Voltage there looks good. Perhaps it is just semantics on the "scratching" noise (meaning what you describe as scratching I might describe as something else - something I would recognize as a PSU sound).

But I still think that unless this issue just started happening out of the blue (Hmm should have asked that earlier) . Yep lets stop and see about that.

Was the machine stable and this just started happening recently ? And about the time it started happening had anything changed about the machine/software ? Power outage ? Thunderstorms ? New software installed ? Anything ?


As an aside you should probably set the cpu warning temp lower than the shutdown temp, I would just swap those values you have in that screen shot and you will be good.
 
Rockstar said:
ok well theres the picture of the bios, i dont think its the fan cause the noise isnt the same the whole time. like pattern changes when im using the computer, and its almost non stop noise when cpu is 100% load. not sure if that makes sense, even if it was the fan, why would i have all these other problems? faulty mobo maybe? or chip?
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It could still be the fan. The PSU has a fan controller that adjusts the fan speed depending on how much load it's under, so it's possible that when the fan spins up to compensate for your PC being under more load, the higher speed exacerbates the problem. Are you sure that it's a scratching noise, or could it be a high-pitched whining instead? Also, see if you can stop the PSU fan from spinning which will tell you if that is the source of the noise or not.
 
BillParrish said:
Well the good news is that it was a speedfan glitch. Voltage there looks good. Perhaps it is just semantics on the "scratching" noise (meaning what you describe as scratching I might describe as something else - something I would recognize as a PSU sound).

But I still think that unless this issue just started happening out of the blue (Hmm should have asked that earlier) . Yep lets stop and see about that.

Was the machine stable and this just started happening recently ? And about the time it started happening had anything changed about the machine/software ? Power outage ? Thunderstorms ? New software installed ? Anything ?


As an aside you should probably set the cpu warning temp lower than the shutdown temp, I would just swap those values you have in that screen shot and you will be good.
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my pc has been feeling very unstable for a very long time, i have just been to lazy to actually take a lookat it because i do most my gaming on an xbox now. but now that you remind me of it, i do have a problem where whenever i install my linksys wireless adapter via usb, the pc because very slow and unstable a couple mins later, just doing basic internet tasks like watching youtube videos. all of this doesnt make sense to me, i have never had these problems before in any other pc. i always thought it was my motherboard because of the sound issue. but for the first couple months i built this pc i have never had these problems and it ran every game wonderful. i have a feeling that if i replace the psu, the sound will go away but ill still have my same problem? thanks again
 
Rockstar said:
my pc has been feeling very unstable for a very long time, i have just been to lazy to actually take a lookat it because i do most my gaming on an xbox now. but now that you remind me of it, i do have a problem where whenever i install my linksys wireless adapter via usb, the pc because very slow and unstable a couple mins later, just doing basic internet tasks like watching youtube videos. all of this doesnt make sense to me, i have never had these problems before in any other pc. i always thought it was my motherboard because of the sound issue. but for the first couple months i built this pc i have never had these problems and it ran every game wonderful. i have a feeling that if i replace the psu, the sound will go away but ill still have my same problem? thanks again
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Your issue with the wireless adapter does sound like a motherboard problem and not a PSU issue.
 
Zero82z said:
Your issue with the wireless adapter does sound like a motherboard problem and not a PSU issue.
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well, i have connected it to my sisters pc before and she has told me her pc was freazing with it also, is this possible? we get the latest drivers from linksys's site too. i may try to make a video of the sound the power supply is making.
 
If the same thing is happening on two PCs with the same wireless adapter, then it's probably the adapter. If you could record the sound the PSU is making, that would be very helpful in identifying the problem.
 
alright, ill go get my camera real quick and upload it to youtube. hopefully u will be able to hear it with the sound from the camera
 
even if it is the fan, what could i be having all these other problems from?
 
It could be several different things, including the PSU, RAM, or even the motherboard. In any case, you should RMA the PSU to deal with the fan issue, so once you get a replacement back you'll be able to determine whether or not it was the cause.
 
in the meantime do you think that antec basiq 500w will work as a replacement without damaging anything
 
Corsair PSU's are just noisy, just search for terms like "noise", squeel, whine, etc. on their forum for proof. Last year I tried two different 450vx's and they both made the same electrical sounds as in your youtube video.

Zero82z said:
It could be several different things, including the PSU, RAM, or even the motherboard. In any case, you should RMA the PSU to deal with the fan issue, so once you get a replacement back you'll be able to determine whether or not it was the cause.
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If it was the fan, starting the computer briefly with a pen or other object blocking the fan from spinning would easily tell you if it's causing the noise or not (computer turned off first obviously). I tried that, again having the same electrical noise, and it was definitely not the fan.
 
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i dont understand, majority of the newegg reviews on the power supply say its super quiet. and i end up with a noisy one?
 
ok, well i just swapped and put the antec in, still same problem with the audio jack :/, sigh... what else can it possibly be. atleast the annoying noise is gone.
 
drleospaceman said:
If it was the fan, starting the computer briefly with a pen or other object blocking the fan from spinning would easily tell you if it's causing the noise or not (computer turned off first obviously). I tried that, again having the same electrical noise, and it was definitely not the fan.
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I've heard both coil whine and fan rattling many times before, and the noise in that video definitely sounded like a bad fan to me. With that said, you're right that stopping the fan will indicate whether or not it is the source of the noise, and I've already suggested that myself.
 
Your call, its a very good supply and unfortunate you had a problem, it is fairly rare. Since you still have a couple of years on the warranty I think it would be worth the shipping if nothing else to have a good working spare back in a couple of weeks.

Gigabytes have an unfortunate dislike of some devices in the USB ports on boot. But you said it ran wonderful for a couple of months so I have to guess some software update borked it. If you have ever updated a driver (hardware update) from windows update, that is where I would start. Uninstall the current driver from add/remove programs , then remove it from device manager and have the old or from the manuf web site driver handy, on startup cancel any "found new hardware and install the other driver. That is sorta the XP method, cant help with vista sorry.

The front panel jacks like to fail, espically if they are "tugged" on in the heat of battle. Not much you can do about that. Radio shack should have a short extension you could plug in the back sound jack if you dont have speakers hooked up, It could be repaired but would likely cost as much as replacing the MB to have it done by a shop, fairly time an labor intensive job. Kill an hour at least. Radio shack / online etc - there should be some kind of simple switch box you could plug into the back speaker jack and then plug your speakers and the headphones into with a switch to choose which you listen too. At least there used to be those kinds of things avaialble.

http://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Speaker-Headset-Switching-Hub/dp/B000K8PH8C/ref=dp_cp_ob_e_title_1
 
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