Weirdest mobo noise issue

[globalist]

So my Gigabyte P55a-UD4 (with an i5 CPU) has died and I've got it replaced with a P55-UD3R, upgrading to an i7 CPU along the way. I did not reinstall the OS as I would lose too many settings accumulated over the years, and it wasn't even necessary - the previous OS booted fine on the new mobo.

All the other components remain the same as well, but now there's an issue - weird noise coming from the mobo. I know it is the mobo because I have swapped out all the other components and it didn't make a difference.

Now the weird part - the noise is only present once booted into my Win7 x64. I've tried Ubuntu Live and the mobo was quiet. I've also accidentally used Acronis Universal Restore (which disabled/replaced a bunch of drivers in my OS, making it not really usable and I had to restore to a previous backup) upon which my Windows booted up and the mobo was quiet again.

I thought it could be some capacitors on the mobo, but now I'm leaning more towards a software issue.

Can anyone help me troubleshoot this? Many thanks!

 

[globalist]

Update: the noise is only present when the CPU is in low-power state.

If I do this (as per a tomshardware thread I found on this issue):

1. Execute: "regedit"
2 .Locate: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Power \ PowerSettings \ 54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b¬740d00 \ 5d76a2ca-e8c0-402f-a133-215849¬2d58ad
3. Change Attributes from 1 to 0.
4. Then, through the control panel - power options - "processor idle disable".

The noise is gone but the CPU is not "downclocking/downvolting".

Any ideas?

 

[Matthew Kane]

Disable speedstep and C1 in the bios - problem fixed.

Have had Gigabyte boards all the way to the original Socket 775 965 chipset with this problem.

 

[globalist]

Won't that prevent my CPU from entering low-power state, just as the power option setting does?

 

[timta2]

Won't that prevent my CPU from entering low-power state, just as the power option setting does?

Yep. You can always pull the board and RMA it and hope you get one that doesn't have the same problem.

 

[globalist]

I disabled C3/C6 power state in BIOS and it solved the issue, without affecting my CPU's ability to enter low-power state. Weird.

 

[Matthew Kane]

I disabled C3/C6 power state in BIOS and it solved the issue, without affecting my CPU's ability to enter low-power state. Weird.

Yeh it's all related with those power function settings in the BIOS but speedstep and C1 is the 2 things I always disable because I did not care for power saving and wanted my CPU at full speed.

Told ya your problem will be solved.