Is there a PSU "Coil Whine" fix?

Gamer Bhoy 89

I have a brand new custom-built PC I won't stop fussing over - I absolutely love it. The fact I'm able to upgrade my RAM and Graphics card at any time is such a blissful feeling, having owned a very limited and dated piece of muck for 7 years, this is a breath of fresh air.

HOWEVER. My PSU has begun making this strange, sometimes irritating, noise. Mostly when pushing to play high-end games. It's very hard to describe, but it makes a light (and fast) buzzing noise. I realized it was my PSU fan when I just touched the PSU box and the noise suppressed itself, then when I let go, the noise resumed.

The noise has been nicknamed "Coil Whine" and I looked everywhere to try and find an easy solution, but I can't find one.

Fortunately I forget the noise is there if I'm wearing headphones, but it's not always the case if I just want to use the PC without needing to wear them. It can become rather annoying to listen to and it has given me a headache on more than one occasion (constant, sharp noises make me dizzy to the point of frustration).

Sorry for the extremely long article about this, but it's new to me and I have no idea what I can possibly do to fix it or at least shut the noise down.

My last resort is buying a new PSU, but I don't know much about them and which ones to get that are good.

Thanks in advance

(PS. If I hear it again, I'll record it and post it up if nobody knows what I'm on about)

Baked.noodle

Coil whine probably isn't responsible for the noise from your PSU because touching the PSU probably wouldn't stop coil whine. I'll just quote a post on another forum:

"Coil whine is mechanical resonance of the coil with the frequency of the signal passing through it. Physically, a coil is just loops of wire, sometimes with a core other than air. If the frequency of the signal is in resonance with the physical wires of the coil, the coil may vibrate. Oft times, the vibration is beyond human hearing (yokes in TV's can do this), other times it's in the range of human hearing.

There are many electrical parts/circuits which can cause whining noises, so don't just assume you are hearing coils. "Annoying buzzing/electrical sound" are unlikely to eminate from a coil - you have something else making noise. Whining is caused by a part (or parts) physically vibrating.

Unto itself, voltage is not going to cause a whining sound. Voltage is electrical potential (actually, EMF); current through a device is dependent on the voltage across it. With a CPU, changing the voltage probably changes the operating frequency of various components within the processor (I really don't know what is changed), however something is probably in resonance with the signal. If you can narrow down the source of the noise, you may be able to reduce or eliminate it. Try using the paper tube from a roll of paper towels to "listen" to various parts of your system to locate the source."

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=233094

I would check to see if your PSU is tightly secured in the case and all the screws are snug. If it persists and you can't live with it contact the guys who sold it to you and RMA (get it replaced).

Overheal

New build woes. You DEFINITELY want to discover what the issue is. A PSU, when it goes bad, can be an ASSHOLE and take all your other components out with it.

yoyo

My Corsair PSU suffers from Coil Whine only when in games where the framerate is running high (no V Sync). I have heard putting a drop of superglue on the coil can prevent it occurring but not sure if this is effective, potentially damaging. If in doubt about the PSU I'd send it back,

Nick

ED E

I've a corsair builder series unit, it whines but only at a very specific load level, usually during boot before the os loads. Doubt it'd warrant an RMA.

If touching it stops it though its the fan, which means RMA. What model is it?