Power Supply is Clicking and Grinding

[Davidh373]

Hi Guys!

I have a question about what might be causing this, but I'll give you a few details first.

First off, this will be my fourth Corsair power supply four months. The first I purchased as an upgrade in reliability (or so I thought) from a BP430. I purchased a CX500, but as soon as I got around to playing really high end games it started screeching and screaming after about five to ten minutes. Just so happens I gave away my Antec BP430 to a friend who had a CX430 die after 2-3 months as well. So I returned that for a refund from Amazon and in it's place I ordered a TX650. I figured it had plenty of headroom, so it shouldn't have a problem. It came DOA. I had Amazon replace it, figuring it was a fluke. Then about a week or so later I start hearing clicking and grinding. I figured maybe an HDD was going bad, because they are all between four and five years old. So I shrugged it off and told myself within the next few months I'd replace them all with a three or four TB drive and went on with life.

Around a couple weeks later I ordered a new case, coolers for both my builds, and fans to quiet the system down. When I was test booting, the back of the case was facing me and I heard the noise even louder with the case open. I put my ear right next to the HDDs and they were quiet as could be. I followed the noise back to the corner opposite the AC plug on the PSU. It doesn't seem to be coming from the fan, but from a red box or green cable just behind the grating on the back of the PSU. Since that was the third PSU I'd had from them, I was mad and went right straight to request RMA.

Tonight, I had to redo all of my cable management for the third time to install the fourth PSU. The same problem exists with this one. It grinds and pops on startup, loading web pages, and playing games. It seems anything that alters the load on the PSU makes it sound like rice krispies on 'roids.

Another problem I've had with both is when I shutdown the PSU or unplug it and of course plug it back in, it turns every fan on full blast and then instantly cuts the power. About two to three seconds later it kicks back on and everything (except the grinding noise) is fine and dandy.

Keep in mind I have tried a six year old TX650 both times, which works like a charm with little but fan noise. Of course the BP430 still works like a charm too I'm sure. My friend still has it in Indiana.

After all that, what do you guys think the problem is? Is it another component failing I'm unaware of? I know with one hundred percent certainty the sound is coming from the PSU, but that doesn't necessarily mean the PSU is causing the problem...

EDIT:

-Gaming Rig Specs-

Antec Sonata Solo II
i5 760
Gigabyte p55 UD3
8GB GSkill ValueRAM 1333MHz
Gigabyte GTX660Ti 2GB
Samsung 840 120GB SSD
3 x 1TB Samsung F3
Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM

 

[Zap]

Do you still have the 4th PSU? I see from your sig that you have two rigs and you are probably borrowing the old TX650 from the second rig. Can you try the "new" 4th PSU on the other rig that the "old" PSU was from? This way you can see if the problem follows the PSU.

 

[Davidh373]

Do you still have the 4th PSU? I see from your sig that you have two rigs and you are probably borrowing the old TX650 from the second rig. Can you try the "new" 4th PSU on the other rig that the "old" PSU was from? This way you can see if the problem follows the PSU.

I did that on the 3rd psu I had before I put in the RMA. It persisted.

 

[Deders]

It tends to be a combination of either the Graphics card and the PSU, or the Motherboard and the PSU or maybe all three (or maybe the MB and GFX) that causes whine due to components resonating in an undesired way.

Whichever way it is usually the frequencey the VRM's on whichever combination of components that clash, although this is the first i've heard of pops and clicks.

the fans spinning up at full at startup may just be a motherboard feature to ensure components are cooled as quickly as possible in case they are overheated at startup.

 

[dma0991]

This was the complaint I had a while back with my Corsair CX500. There are no moving parts besides the PSU fan, so the only culprit is the fan. It does an annoying clicking noise but mine happens randomly sometimes. I am fairly certain that the fan is the problem, I've tested by jamming it to prevent it from moving and no clicking noise.

The problem is caused by the use of a Yate Loon fan, a sleeve bearing fan. Sleeve bearing fans prefers to be vertical rather than horizontal, like in a normal PSU position. You can either send it for RMA as a defective unit, replace the fan yourself (I'm doing this) or buy a new PSU that comes with ball bearing fans (typically found in more expensive PSUs).

 

[Davidh373]

This was the complaint I had a while back with my Corsair CX500. There are no moving parts besides the PSU fan, so the only culprit is the fan. It does an annoying clicking noise but mine happens randomly sometimes. I am fairly certain that the fan is the problem, I've tested by jamming it to prevent it from moving and no clicking noise.

I don't know if it's the fan or not, but I'm pretty sure it's not, unless it only spins when something is loading or I move my mouse on certain webpages. It has to be some kind of interference or fault. For example, I've just started testing this (or seeing it, rather). I visit Kotaku, or cracked, and whenever I move the mouse it grinds like crazy... probably once for every pixel it moves, or maybe the refresh rate. In any case, it's clicking at a fast rate. I visit Anandtech forums, it doesn't click *much*. It seems to only affect the power supply when the state of an image changes, or when a button gets highlighted.

Whichever way it is usually the frequencey the VRM's on whichever combination of components that clash, although this is the first i've heard of pops and clicks

I don't know exactly what to call the sound. I can compare it to a failing HDD. It's pretty darn close, anyway.

the fans spinning up at full at startup may just be a motherboard feature to ensure components are cooled as quickly as possible in case they are overheated at startup.

This is not a case of just the fans spinning though. It starts to boot bios, and then fans spin, then power gets completely cut, then everything starts up again.

 

[Torn Mind]

For any given line of PSUs, the population of all units can be divided up into two categories:manufactured defect-free and manufactured defective ones. You got "unlucky" and have received a defective one, although it is still functional. I would expect manufacturers target a certain percentage of non-defective units(basic quality control). I would not be surprised if the target is a bit lower than higher end units. Then again, it could be that there are so many CX PSUs that there are just more defective units out there.

Noise is due to the fan, as electrical whine does not grind or click. But there are other problems present that are there that is better having the unit sent back to Corsair so some technician can dig up their proprietary service manual and test it(if that even happens when you RMA a unit). PSUs should not be automatically doing anything the moment you plus anything in unless it is an LED indicator light telling you it is connected to the wall outlet. The way to isolate the noise issue is find a way to stop the fan while the noise is occuring. If it stops when the fan stops, then it is just the fan. If it keeps on making noise after the fan is stopped, then something really odd is going on.