1-year old Seasonic PSU is chirping.

[Jeff7]

I've seen this mentioned with certain other pieces of hardware too, like motherboards that'll make squeaky noises when Prime95 is run. Is it necessarily a sign of outright defective hardware, or just something poorly made? I ask mainly because I'll need something concrete to say to Seasonic, in case they don't accept "squeaking noise that's not from the fan" as a reason to warrant a return.

I guess I'll try to scrounge up funds this summer for decent system upgrade to go along with an RMA'd PSU and a possibly flaky motherboard.
New motherboard, CPU, videocard. Probably going to go for an AMD X2 processor. Expect to see a "recommend me a motherboard" thread sometime in May.

 

[Operandi]

My PCP&C Silencer had coil whine that varied with GPU load (9500 Pro), I RMA'd it once but the replacement did the same thing. I knew the graphics card was ok since there was no whine with other PSUs. When I moved from my 9500 Pro to a 9800 the coil whine disappeared.

I don't think it means anything is necessarily defective, it seems certain components + certain PSUs cause it.

 

[Jeff7]

So I guess then the question would be - what would have happened to make it start doing this now? And why is it so intermittent? It can go more than a day with nothing, then suddenly start it for another day or two, then the cycle repeats. No specific activity seems to trigger it either. CPU load change, GPU load change, hard drive load change, it makes no difference in the sound.

 

[Operandi]

That I couldn't answer.... In my case it was only present in colder temps and the pitch changed depending on load.

Can you try the PSU in another machine? If it dose it dose the same thing in a different comp I'd say it most likely the PSU itself thats the cause.

Have you tried talking to Seasonic about it?

 

[Jeff7]

No, no other systems available, not until I come home from college in May.
And since I haven't really thoroughly tested it yet, I didn't contact Seasonic. That, and my luck contacting companies either results in no replies, or else some canned copy-and-paste response that's totally irrelevant.

 

[Jeff7]

Update: I've had the computer home since Saturday May 6th, and it's been running most of that time. It's not so much as made a single odd peep in all that time. Could it have been some kind of odd noise in the power lines at the college? Some kind of interference?

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Update: I've had the computer home since Saturday May 6th, and it's been running most of that time. It's not so much as made a single odd peep in all that time. Could it have been some kind of odd noise in the power lines at the college? Some kind of interference?

Sure, it's entirely possible.

 

[Jeff7]

Peachy. Anyone have an oscilloscope I can borrow?

 

[Operandi]

Maybe a UPS with AVR would help?

 

[GalvanizedYankee]

Use a decent UPS with your rig because dirty voltage with high ripple works the PSU's caps very hard=heat and poor voltage to the mainboard. This in turn works the mainboards filtering caps hard=heat and shorter service life. Not FUD, just facts.


...Galvanized

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Operandi
Maybe a UPS with AVR would help?

Such as my trusty Cyberpower 1250AVR UPS?

Got that covered.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: Operandi
Maybe a UPS with AVR would help?

Such as my trusty Cyberpower 1250AVR UPS?

Got that covered.

I?m not an expert on AVR and when it kicks in. Is it at all possible the UPS could cause it?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Operandi


I?m not an expert on AVR and when it kicks in. Is it at all possible the UPS could cause it?

I used the same UPS both at college and at home. If the UPS was the problem, I should still hear chirping at home.