Seasonic S12 & Radio interference

[43st]

I have a Seasonic S12, I think 550 watts or thereabouts. I can't get a radio within 8' of my PC without all but the strongest FM stations being drowned out by hum. I also have a problem with my receiver, on the other end of the house, picking up stations when my PC is on.

I've tried isolating the power but nothing seems to help. Is this a bad PSU or do I have some other wiring issue in my home perhaps?

 

[BassBomb]

wireless mice or internet?

 

[43st]

We have a wifi router and this PC is hooked up to it via Cat5 and I don't have the problem when the PC is off (router stays on all the time).

 

[43st]

Anyone?

 

[beray]

Originally posted by: 43st
Anyone?

It's unlikely to be your PSU causing problem, the most likely origin is your mobo or graphic card.

Try using a hand held radio as your RF sniffer, start out with a channel having strongest hum at minimum volume, waving it around localizing the direction, source of the hum when it get louder.

As you get closer to the source and the hum signal became stronger you may have to select different radio chanels having weaker RF hum at different volume settings for fine tune discrimination.

If you can use an AM radio it would be better, you can shorten or lengthen the antenna for much better fine tune discrimination sensitivity. FM radio usually only have a non adjustable internal antenna.

 

[43st]

Interesting.. I've had three graphics cards over the past year with the motherboard remaining the same. The issue persists so perhaps it's the motherboard. Can this be isolated with either a ferrite or toroid choke?

 

[beray]

Originally posted by: 43st
Interesting.. I've had three graphics cards over the past year with the motherboard remaining the same. The issue persists so perhaps it's the motherboard. Can this be isolated with either a ferrite or toroid choke?

For the motherboard as origin usually no, but the problem at times can be extremely simple.

For example, it can be as simple as a badly grounded IHS on your processor, the heatsink then became an antenna and radiate spurious craps over all creations.

A short ground strap from the heatsink to your case would be a simple quickfix hack.

 

[Zap]

Try enabling (or disabling if already enabled) spread spectrum in BIOS. It may be present in various parts, such as for CPU, PCIe bus, etc.

 

[43st]

I tried the AM radio and pretty much everything is loud (modem, router, PC). The worst is my LCD monitor, which just howls. So I'm at a loss. My house does have some grounding issues and perhaps that's where it starts. I'll look into it a bit more. thanks for the ideas.

 

[RallyMaster]

you actually listen to the radio at home?

 

[43st]

Originally posted by: RallyMaster
you actually listen to the radio at home?

I'm near NYC, so yeah. We have a lot of non-Clear Channel type stuff. We also have a mess of public radio stations to choose from, all with different music, or just news.