CPU Whine

ColBackAgain

Any one every have this? I have a i7 2600 and today I was running the machine with the case door off and noticed a whining/squealing sound from something.

Disconnected the obvious things, usb devices, graphics card, front usb ports etc to isolate the noise and using the CPU cuttout on the back, I can isolate the noise to the CPU area of the motherboard.

Any idea what it could be? It stops under load, (eg run an intel processor diagnostics tool) and it comes back when idle, or just web browsing.
The cpu prime95's fine and it passes the intel diagnostic. So I don't think it's a hardware PROBLEM as such. Just an annoying 'electical' noise.

Any inputs on what it could be?

Squarewave

The cpu cooler fan maybe? The fan's changing speed would explain why the noise comes and goes.

ColBackAgain

Squarewave wrote: »

The cpu cooler fan maybe? The fan's changing speed would explain why the noise comes and goes.

No it happens even if i stop the fan for a second with my finger. so it's not fan related. its definitely 'electrical'.

Read in a few places it's due to some power saving thing intel cpus do. but i've never heard anyone mention it until i started googling around like.

Baked.noodle

Have this now and again. It's very subtle though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise

marco_polo

Could be speed step which downclocks the processor when idle.

Have something not dissimilar with my current AMD build except it manifests as annoying onboard audio electrical interferance so i turned it off in the BIOS.

deceit

High end graphics cards do this, I didnt realise cpu`s did it aswell? If you overclock a hd7970 or a gtx670/80/90 you would get coil whine easily and it can be annoying especially in a quiet computer.

Dubba

I had this problem since I got my new Fractal R4 case lately (don't know why I didn't notice it in my Dell case) and fixed it following these instructions to...Disable Idle in the Processor power management / Advanced Power Settings:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/29...se-coming-area (link not working, see post below for working link)

jesdanco's (post half way down the page)

Could be power management issue - try this - works a treat

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 - in the settings mode select power management processor. There will be an option disabling idle processor and high pitched noise immediately disappears.

ColBackAgain

Dubba wrote: »

I had this problem since I got my new Fractal R4 case lately (don't know why I didn't notice it in my Dell case) and fixed it following these instructions to...Disable Idle in the Processor power management / Advanced Power Settings:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/29...se-coming-area

jesdanco's (post half way down the page)

Could be power management issue - try this - works a treat

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 - in the settings mode select power management processor. There will be an option disabling idle processor and high pitched noise immediately disappears.

You are literally a genius! Thats perfect. It literally changes instantly.
Only problem is the fans ramp up a bit and the cpu runs hotter.

Probably will slap the case doors back on and turn back on the "idle" feature.

But once I know the cause of the noise, at least I know its not a 'BAD' noise as such.

Seriously, thanks again man.

Dubba

No problem. I know it was driving me nuts for weeks and with hours and hours of searching the net for a solution I finally found it in a tomshardware.co.uk thread.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/292915-12-high-pitched-noise-coming-area

nukemaster's post ( near the bottom of the first page)

The reason it runs hotter, is because it will never clock down at idle. Its like running a cpu before the days of power management. Power consumption also goes up a bit(about 40-45 watts for my media center with its i5 750, but lucky for me that thing does not buzz).

This so far has been the solution most people have been running.