• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

darn enermax noises!

neach

n00b
Joined
Apr 2, 2003
Messages
26
i've seen a lot of people with these problems, but since search is turned off.....

its a high-pitched whine/screech that starts as soon as the pc is turned on, and seems to lessen depending on if i'm in a game (it dies down) or on the desktop (gets louder).

any idea what might be causing it?

its a brand spanking new 350 watt. had it 2 days.
 
no ideas?

seems to be linked to the video card for some reason - ATI R9700 pro AIW.

just seems that it makes noises that go along with cursor movement, etc - but goes away during heavy duty 3d apps.
 
oh c'mon. Don't be sayin that. I just bought a new 350w Enermax and I already voided the warentee with out testing it first.:(
 
If it isn't from the fans, it is probably one of the clils making a qhining noise.
 
Originally posted by Xeese
If it isn't from the fans, it is probably one of the clils making a qhining noise.

Clil? Do you care to elaborate? How can this be stopped?
 
er, coils. Typed it rightbefore I left. if it is new and doing it, i would recommend just to RMA.
 
Holy crap.. Im having the EXACT same prob.. this thread is a godsend to me.. I was about to go get a new psu cause this noise is so annoying. Let us disscuss this! (Mine is also a 350W)
 
well, its not the fans - opened up the casing, unplugged both of them, and the whine was still there.

the only way i can get it to stop, is by unplugging my AIW 9700

my AIW uses a floppy connector for power, instead of a standard molex - any idea if the noise would go away if i used a molex-floppy adaptor? long shot, but you never know.

any clue why my vid card would send so much noise (or whatever it is) back to the PS? my antec True380 never made this noise..

and no go on the RMA ;)

word to the wise - test before cracking open the hood!
 
Well today I (And my pets) got fed up with that high pitched noise.. went out and bought a cheap 330W antec PSU.. Runs silent and doesnt make a peep.. darn you enermax! I trusted you! :p
 
On the 5 and 12V lines going to your 9700 try putting a choke on the wires. Wrap each one about 5 times on its own choke. You will need to disconnect the line from the molex to do this. This may stop the coil whine. Other methods that have been known to work include putting a drop of hot glue on the annoying coil. I have only tried the choke thing myself. Some FSP power supplies had issues with a series of Seagate Barracudas which is where I ran into the coil whine.
 
My Asus A7N8X-X coils in the power regulation section of the MB are causing a VERY similar sort of squealing.
When I touch/press on them, it goes away.

It has been noted that sometimes Seagate Barracuda IV, V and 7200.7's can cause a similar noise to happen in the PS.
 
Wow, I'd never heard of this problem before... good thing I got an Antec and not an Enermax, as I'm running a 7200.7 (and have another one coming in)...
 
A choke is also called a ferrite or a ferrite ring. It you get them from Radioshack ask for a choke otherwise you will confuse them terribly.
 
Originally posted by Elepsis
Wow, I'd never heard of this problem before... good thing I got an Antec and not an Enermax, as I'm running a 7200.7 (and have another one coming in)...

Antec's are known for making the noise as well ;)

Sometimes your system is too loud to actually notice the noise: I know if I had my WD 80gig SE in my system not in a silentdrive, I wouldn't hear the squealing either.
 
with regards to gluing the coils - anything special i should keep in mind?

i noticed my antec PS had a ton of glue on the coils, compared to my enermax.
 
Usually you use hot glue, but I'm guessing silicone would work too. Typically the coils don't ever get hot. You want something that's absorbant and that will cling to the pretty well. I've seen coils that were wrapped with heat shrink tubing in many a PS.
 
well, have lots of hot glue here, so i'll give that a shot next chance i get.

i should just load it up i suppose, eh?

hopefully that solves the problem, and its not a capacitor thats being stressed too much on the 3.3/5v line.
 
I just built a rig with 9700 pro and enermax 350w and its dead silent. My other rig with an antec on the other hand started making the noise when i swapped in this DFI infinity. I guess its the component mix you have.
 
http://www.electronicaarcer.com/english_version/productos/bobinatoroidal/bobinatoroidal.htm

These are inductive noise suppressor coils (these particular parts are splined into a circuit in series), you'd need to find an old PSU or something and liberate a ferrite ring from it's wire wrapping, and thread the black ground plane wires through and around it a couple of times (yes, remove the molex connector first). If you have enough rings then wrap each wire individually.
 
Originally posted by jpnelson83
So is this the same problem I have inside my monitor or is it a transformer?

No, that's usually a transformer going bad.


As for dampening the coil, I would just take a the glue gun, and something in my left hand to spread the glue around with, and first fill up the inside of the coil, then go around the outside.
 
I have owned both Enermax and Antec (currently an Antec true power 550. Enermax makes excellent supplies if you purchase the correct model line.

Dont forget the 9700 draws over 50 wats by itself. Make sure your 350 is enough power for your rig.
 
Well, I'm still getting that Enermax 550W in about 2 weeks, so here's hoping it doesn't make a lot of noise. Maybe you're kinda close to the limit of power needed or something, but maybe not if the sound goes away in games.:eek:
 
i doubt i'm near the power cap of the PSU - not really much in there besides the AIW and a cd burner... maybe if i had 2 opticals, some ccfl's - i'm not even running a case fan atm, till i recieve my fanbus.

i'm getting a vga silencer, so when that arrives, i'll salvage a ferrite ring and wrap the molex.
 
Originally posted by Viperoni
No, that's usually a transformer going bad.

Ok, but its been doing this since day one and it still works like it did when it came out of the box. FYI its a referb viewsonic A90f that i got at fry's.
 
I too have a Viewsonic A90fl, and it makes an awful high-pitched noise as well -- even when the darn thing's off! I assumed that was normal for this monitor and I didn't take it back. I figured it was too much trouble to send it back, but now I'm having second thoughts.

And recently my power supply has been making a headache-inducing high pitched squeal. It's a Thermaltake 420w PSU with active PFC. I also have a 120GB Seagate Barraccuda, which until now I had no idea that could cause the problem. Man, do I have some bad luck. :D My ears have never been the same since I built this computer.

So how do I fix this? Exactly what coil needs to be hot glued? Should I just throw out my power supply all together and go with something better? What exactly is done with the inductive noise surpressor coils PhyberOptik linked to?

Any help is greatly appreciated. And my ears will certainly thank you! :D
 
The coils I linked to are designed to be put in series in a circuit on a circuit board - you will need to find a couple biggish ones, and remove the copper coil around the ring (the ring is usually made of plastic filled with fine ferrite powder).

You only need the rings if a device in your computer is throwing feedback noise back into the power circuit - for this thread it was supposedly the video card putting noise back into the power lines connected to it.

If this is the case, then seperate the pins from the molex connector going to the offending device, and coil the wires through the rings a few times.

As to the coils that need to be hot glued, well, glue them shotgun style. You could pinch them with forefinger and thumb while in operation to find the offender, but often all of them are busy squealing.
 
Personally, I don't believe that the noise is caused by any noisy peripheral devices in the computer.

Remember, we are using switch-mode power supplies in our computers, internally they switch very fast to provide DC current - the higher the load required, the faster they need to switch. The PSU is ALWAYS radiating sound waves, it's just that sometimes the load on it is such that the frequency it emanates happens to fall inside our auditory range.

As I see it, the only way to remedy this is to add more capacitance accross the DC circuit, to try keep the load on the PSU more constant (this will have the added benefit of filtering noise).

To do this, connect a 3000uf electrolytic cap between 12V and ground. MAKE SURE THE NEGATIVE SIDE OF THE CAP IS CONNECTED TO GROUND! To filter some high-frequency noise, also connect a small, nonpolarised cap, say, about 100uf, in the same way between 12V and GND. The polarity does not matter if it's a non-polarised cap.

You should do the same with the 5V line. I can't guarantee that it will work, though, as the PSU already has some bad-ass caps conencted like this, so do this at your own risk.
 
My new antec380 makes a very annoying sound. It sounds like the fan is dying already. Only 2 months old. But after a few hours, it goes away.
 
Back
Top