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Power Supply buzzing

NoSoup4You

Golden Member
Feb 12, 2007
1,253
6
81
I'm looking for advice on my power supply (pc is in sig below). My Enermax 600W Noisetaker II is four years old now and has had a perfect track record until recently when it began emitting a buzzing sound which fluctuates rather noticeably. Using the mouse wheel to scroll up/down a webpage causes the buzzing to grow significantly louder and change in pitch. Playing games causes it to get louder too but oddly enough, I've noticed that pausing a game (hitting Esc...etc.) can make the buzzing stop entirely, until I unpause it again.

The buzzing is there when the pc is first powered on, so it's not a software thing (nvidia drivers...etc.). It's not a "Cool n' Quiet" issue (EIST or C1E) because I've disabled both those and it's as loud as ever. It's not the APC UPS I have it plugged into because I carreid the pc into another room and plugged it directly into several wall outlets, buzzing is still ever present. I swapped out my new GTX460 and put my old GTX260 back in but it still buzzed like crazy. The buzzing is not constant although it is frequent. More often than not it's there, and it's getting worse.

I'm at a loss, the only thing different is I moved into a new apartment and I'm thinking the AC power at the wall (I'm no electrician) is "dirty" and causing some issues.

Most alarming is the fact that my buddy's pc was completely fried by a power supply surge in June of this year. Literally every component in his pc was destroyed, cpu/mobo/ram/hdd/dvd drive/videocard...etc. Everything got zapped. AND, he said his power supply had been buzzing for a couple months prior and that the buzzing fluctuated when he used the mouse scroll wheel (just like I'm noticing). I'm not even joking! Needless to say I'm concerned.

I went ahead and bought a Corsair VX550 yesterday from Newegg for $55 (on sale from $89!). I'm hoping that fixes it.

I'm wondering a couple things - does anyone have any experience with this and what might be happening? I guess I can't trust this Enermax anymore in another pc, right? I'd love to pass this down to my nephew if the only problem was it being overly sensitive to what I presume to be old, crappy AC power in my new apartment.

But I just can't really trust it after my friend describing identical symptoms which lead to a totally dead pc. Ugh...

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. Peace out peoples!
 
Last edited:

Meghan54

Lifer
Oct 18, 2009
11,684
5,228
136
The buzzing is most likely a coil vibrating because the caulk/glue used to fix it in place has let go. Really presents no electrical problems typically but it is annoying.

The buzzing of your friend's power supply and his subsequent computer problems are more than likely unrelated.
 

xd_1771

Member
Sep 19, 2010
72
0
0
www.youtube.com
Buzzing could indeed be a sign of failure. And when a power supply fails--well, you really never want one to fail on you for that reason you outlined.