Weird noise coming out of the motherboard when downloading or loading programs : coil whine of vrm?

Elric82

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 15, 2017
Messages
164
Hi,

I have this weird little noise coming out of my PC, it's not loud but sometimes annoying and I can't figure out where it comes from :

On the video the fans are off to hear it better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62GCC0W9CV0


It feels it's more audible when there are some loadings and it sounds like an HDD but.. i don't have any HDD in my rig, only 2 sata SSD and an M2,

I was wondering if it can come from the motherboard capacitors somehow and that's a bit worrying

If it's just coil whine, I read that tweakingthe setting vrm switch frequency can fix it

I never touched this setting i don't really know if i should put like 300 / 500 or 100?

if it's just coil whine I guess I should leave it as it is since Asus won't RMa it for coil whine


Mine is actually on auto in my bios
maximus hero XI
9900k
EK AIO 360
Strix 3090
Thanks
 
Hello,

I wrote last week about something looking like coil whine coming from motherboard.

I've received another one and same thing. Its very obvious when I open some browser tab for instance?

Could it be ram related? I don't know if ram can make noise
Also in the bios should i use xmp 1 or 2?

Thanks
 
For xmp I have no idea which one is faster.

And yeah so i was wondering if it can be something else than the motherboard knowing that I'm sure that

It's not the gpu
The pump
The fans
 
Hi,

I have this weird little noise coming out of my PC, it's not loud but sometimes annoying and I can't figure out where it comes from :

On the video the fans are off to hear it better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62GCC0W9CV0


It feels it's more audible when there are some loadings and it sounds like an HDD but.. i don't have any HDD in my rig, only 2 sata SSD and an M2,

I was wondering if it can come from the motherboard capacitors somehow and that's a bit worrying

If it's just coil whine, I read that tweakingthe setting vrm switch frequency can fix it

I never touched this setting i don't really know if i should put like 300 / 500 or 100?

if it's just coil whine I guess I should leave it as it is since Asus won't RMa it for coil whine


Mine is actually on auto in my bios
maximus hero XI
9900k
EK AIO 360
Strix 3090
Thanks

I don’t know your mobo but on my Trx40 Designare there is hidden a little tiny fan in the I/o cover
It made a similar noise
Maybe worth checking
3C241548-41B9-48D2-848D-5C6438504ADB.jpeg
 
I'm surprised you havent tried to locate the noise properly, otherwise you can only guess, which is pointless.
With a fat straw or thin pipe touching (not in) your ear, move the other end around to locate where the noise comes from.

A paper straw is no use, it will absorb high freq, you want sound to bounce up the straw.
Plug your other ear with tissue or someone elses finger lol.

Alternatively, if you have a very small microphone, use that.
 
Seems it does it too when i move the mouse, tried to switch usb of it no changes.
 
Here's the noise I'm talking about and this one is constant


i cant hear it over the hum from my plasma :) i'd guess that its coil whine. ive heard it on lots of mobos. at work almost every single dell workstation we have does it.
 
I've asked seasonic about it and they will send me cpu cables with condensators to reduce interference, maybe that will help?
 
Sounds like coil whine, my 1080Ti makes a similar sound when it hits certain types of loads (but weirdly, not others.)
 
it's annoying, it's all the time, high pith whistle and even worse when i move the mouse
 
it's annoying, it's all the time, high pith whistle and even worse when i move the mouse
guy at work just had that prob with a new dell usb-c docking station. he swapped it 3 times until he got one that was quiet.
have you tried moving the mouse to another port? is your system on the floor or next to your head on the desk?
 
Try lowering clocks/voltage and seeing if anything changes. This is a tough issue if you don't have spares to swap out.
 
I tried all usb without success, it's on the desk i can't put it elsewhere..

I had a similar issue with another board a while ago and it was fixed by disabling c state but on this one it won't work
 
Which sucks is that i could send back the board, i sold the former one to someone who didn"t cared about coil whine and ended up getting a worse one.. But there are no other one in stock and i can't stay without PC even for few days

However i just saw that "BCLK Aware Adaptative Voltage " was enabled and now it's disabled, the mouse noise issue seems less present, is it in my head or can it be relevant?
 
If there is a spread spectrum setting in the BIOS you could try turning that on. Might not make any difference but worth a try to see.
 
That didn't help but the BCLK Aware Adaptative Voltage disable seemed to have solved the mouse issue which was actually the most annoying one.
 
That didn't help but the BCLK Aware Adaptative Voltage disable seemed to have solved the mouse issue which was actually the most annoying one.
Try going into advanced power settings and turning on (or off?) the "usb selective suspend" option. See if that does anything.
 
If there is a spread spectrum setting in the BIOS you could try turning that on. Might not make any difference but worth a try to see.
Spread Spectrum has nothing to do with audible noise.
Its a tool used to pass EM regulations and for use in EM noise sensitive environments.

A maximum strength of EM radiation at each frequency is permitted (from high KHz ... MHz ... GHz).
In normal use, some frequencies are emitted at much higher power than others, they can exceed the permitted level.
Spread spectrum alters the frequency of operation to make EM noise spread over a larger frequency range so there are less peaks at particular frequencies.
This can make the computer run slightly slower but when I checked I didnt notice the difference.
It is electromagnetic radiation noise, not audible noise.
 
Last edited:
Spread Spectrum has nothing to do with audible noise.
Its a tool used to pass EM regulations.

A maximum strength of EM radiation at each frequency is permitted (from high KHz ... MHz ... GHz).
In normal use, some frequencies are emitted at much higher power than others, they can exceed the permitted level.
Spread spectrum alters the frequency of operation to make EM noise spread over a larger frequency range so there are less peaks at particular frequencies.
This can make the computer run slightly slower but when I checked I didnt notice the difference.
It is electromagnetic radiation noise, not audible noise.
So there is no way for there to be some change to the sub-harmonic frequencies experienced by the ceramic capacitors or inductors that result in some sort of audible noise change by enabling Spread Spectrum?
Absolutely no way that power circuits in charge of driving those circuits generating EM radiation could be influenced by the varying power draw due to the wider spread of frequencies by enabling Spread Spectrum?
 
So there is no way for there to be some change to the sub-harmonic frequencies experienced by the ceramic capacitors or inductors that result in some sort of audible noise change by enabling Spread Spectrum?
Absolutely no way that power circuits in charge of driving those circuits generating EM radiation could be influenced by the varying power draw due to the wider spread of frequencies by enabling Spread Spectrum?
Spread spectrum doesnt affect power circuits, it affects the frequency of operation of processing devices that use the power.
Power is provided as noise free as possible, DC not AC.
 
CMS settingsturn it off its a 3090 / 3080 issue
Hi,

I have this weird little noise coming out of my PC, it's not loud but sometimes annoying and I can't figure out where it comes from :

On the video the fans are off to hear it better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62GCC0W9CV0


It feels it's more audible when there are some loadings and it sounds like an HDD but.. i don't have any HDD in my rig, only 2 sata SSD and an M2,

I was wondering if it can come from the motherboard capacitors somehow and that's a bit worrying

If it's just coil whine, I read that tweakingthe setting vrm switch frequency can fix it

I never touched this setting i don't really know if i should put like 300 / 500 or 100?

if it's just coil whine I guess I should leave it as it is since Asus won't RMa it for coil whine


Mine is actually on auto in my bios
maximus hero XI
9900k
EK AIO 360
Strix 3090
Thanks
 
I just tried another PSU, Asus Thor 1200W, same issue. It's not the PSU then I guess. I might be extremely unlucky with the motherbards? What else could it be?

I can send back either the Seasonic Prime 1000W or the Asus thor 1200w, which one should I keep they are the same price but the Seasonic is titanium and the asus is platinum?
 
If it gets worse with mouse movement it could be related to the CPU dynamically adjusting frequency.

In my experience if there is whine, it's usually at idle and low loads. At full load it usually goes away.

Try running a CPU stress test to see if the noise is there. If it's not there at 100% load, manually fixing the CPU frequency like in a static overclock should solve the issue.
 
I m sure it's not the gpu,

I've not noticed it at load but when there is load the fans covers all noise i should try to launch something heavier for a instant without fans like cinebench? It's not risky?

Édit :I've tried the chirp is just more regular than on idle

I will try another board if it doesn't solve it I'll live with it..

For the psu i don't know which one i should keep
 
Try manually fixing the CPU frequency in the BIOS.

You will be able to hear it better at idle.
 
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