So, is this my PSU or what's up?

[Mondozei]

Okay, so I've been getting these weird sounds lately.

Here I've managed to record a (pretty amateurish) clip and uploaded it to Soundcloud:

www.soundcloud.com/testingstudio/my-recording-2

It's this spinning sound about 4 seconds in. At about 17 seconds in I am alt-tabbing from the game and the sound calms down.

It's important to stress something. I only get it when the computer is doing heavy work, such as during a game. So I'm guessing it's either my GPU fan or maybe my PSU. I am using a 500 watt bronze-plated PSU for an i5, Radeon 290 Tri-X system. I have been using it for a few months but never had any issues. I don't get any blackscreens or sudden reboots.

But that spinning sound is new. It's only been like that for maybe a few days. And since it only occurs when the computer is under load, I'm thinking it is probably not a stray cable or something in a fan.

So is it my PSU? Is it my GPU? What could it be?

 

[stinger608]

It could be a coil whine in the power supply for sure. 500 watt bronze seems a little low for a 290 actually.

What brand and model power supply are you running?

 

[Virgorising]

It could be a coil whine in the power supply for sure. 500 watt bronze seems a little low for a 290 actually.

What brand and model power supply are you running?

Could it even be coil whine in his GPU itself? At my end, the sound is overwhelming.....sounds like an ominous tornado approaching.

If it's his PSU, I hope he replaces it before it kills the whole system.
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I just delved and found this:

http://hardware.forumsee.com/a/m/s/p12-29275-0314407--radeon-290-and-coil-whine.html

Since I've never actually heard coil whine myself, I could not identify it.

 

[Mondozei]

Well, a question about coilwhine, doesn't that typically manifest itself right away?
I've had the card for three months now, the sounds only began 2-3 days ago as I previously wrote.

My PSU is a CX500M from Corsair.

 

[Mondozei]

At my end, the sound is overwhelming.....sounds like an ominous tornado approaching.

Just want to stress that I used my smartphone to record the sounds about 5 cm away from the PC fan, and that creates the impression that it is much louder than it is.

The sound to listen carefully to is the "spinning" sound, for a lack of a better word. It starts at 0:04. During the actual gaming that sound is much louder than the PC in general even if the whole system is louder than it used to be under load as well. My 290 Tri-X used to be much more quiet. Or maybe it is the PSU?

 

[stinger608]

I have to wonder if the fan in the power supply is spinning up to 100% during these times and that is what your hearing. Bearing may be going out of the fan and at 100% it is very loud.

 

[Drummerdude]

I have to wonder if the fan in the power supply is spinning up to 100% during these times and that is what your hearing. Bearing may be going out of the fan and at 100% it is very loud.

Agreed. It sounds like a struggling fan to me. Not uncommon in most power supplies. I once had a psu who's fan I had to clean and lube ever 4 months. It would bind up and quit otherwise.

 

[Virgorising]

Just want to stress that I used my smartphone to record the sounds about 5 cm away from the PC fan, and that creates the impression that it is much louder than it is.

I got that, no need to apologize! The loudness was just unexpected, was all.

 

[sm625]

Run prime95 torture test. That will tell you if its the gpu or not. If you still hear the sound under prime95 load, then it is not the video card.

 

[Virgorising]

I have to wonder if the fan in the power supply is spinning up to 100% during these times and that is what your hearing. Bearing may be going out of the fan and at 100% it is very loud.

Humm. Bearings startin to go on my fav variable speed drill. Yes, loud and terrible sound.

Do we know how old his PSU is????? He said he's been using it for only a few mos. Does that mean it's only few mos old?

 

[Mondozei]

Run prime95 torture test. That will tell you if its the gpu or not. If you still hear the sound under prime95 load, then it is not the video card.

Okay, so I did the 'torture test' for my CPU. Sounds were actually surprisingly quiet. No "spinning sound" at all. I should say that I got a good custom CPU cooler(I threw out Intel's stock cooler right away when I built the PC).

So I assume this is something with the GPU. But can it still be the PSU? I haven't cleaned the PC for 4 months now, so it could have a lot of dust.

And if it isn't the PSU, what on the GPU could it be? Are there more tests I could make to get a more precise idea of what the issue is?

 

[Mondozei]

Update:

So, I read this article from Tom's Hardware about fan issues after the newest driver for 290X: source

I thought to myself, worth a try. I downloaded their driver uninstall program and re-installed the old stable driver from dec. 2013, almost 6 months old. I've tried to play more intensive games now and there's no real spinning sound that I can discern.

However, I should caution that the temperature in my room has dropped from 25 C to about 10-15 C(I actually like playing in these lower temperatures, I got very warm blood plus I got a scarf on me, too), in large part because the temperature outside has dropped to a mere 4 C and I'm keeping my window open and my PC is just next to my window.

But even so, once the temperature starts to normalize, we'll see if this is a one-off occurence. If it isn't, then it'll be known that it was a driver issue. If it was, then the plot thickens even further.

 

[stinger608]

Good info Mondozei!

Hopefully that is all it was.......Um, even though its been a week long diagnosis LOL

 

[Virgorising]

So, I read this article from Tom's Hardware about fan issues after the newest driver for 290X: source

Fascinating. Different from the Tom's link I put up! I do learn a lot on Tom's Hardware.

I hope this has now been put right, I don think the drop in room temp is to be given credit--- good job!!!!!:biggrin:

 

[Mondozei]

Update:

It seems that lower temperature had some part to play. The spinning sound is back, however, it isn't back with the same regularity, but it is there for heavier games and visually demanding computing.

I'm still unsure about the drivers, did they have anything to do with it?
Well, even if they did, I still get the spinning on the old drivers, so even if the older drivers have helped, they haven't eliminated the problem.

So the question persists: is it my GPU or my PSU? And nobody here seems to know

I guess I should just go to real pros, i.e. a specialized computer store.

 

[Virgorising]

It seems that lower temperature had some part to play. The spinning sound is back, however, it isn't back with the same regularity, but it is there for heavier games and visually demanding computing.

Very sorry to hear this. My first take was heat, but yr temps seem normal. Wonder what the result would be if you had another card to try?

I guess I should just go to real pros, i.e. a specialized computer store.

That might be a good thing at this juncture.....but this community is SINGULAR & worldclass.....amazing number of very smart/savvy, educated, generous humans moved to help, and my take is, many ARE, literally.... REAL PROS. It's a huge BLESSING.

Sometimes, there are inherent limitations to troubleshooting complex issues remotely. In person and with equipment and hardware to switch out.... is a whole other reality. In the latter case, even a decent apprentice could prolly nail the problem.

 

[Mondozei]

Okay, this is starting to get confusing. So I went to a specialist computer store. The guy who I talked to was crazily knowledgeable, but he also had an anti-AMD/pro-Nvidia slant, which he at least had the insight to admit. I say this because he seemed to rule that it was the GPU right off the bat "because AMD has had a lot of problems with coil whine". I was unconvinced, since I still wasn't sure if it was the GPU.

I shut off a fan in the case and only have one left spinning, aside from the CPU/GPU coolers. Well, I just ran Unigine Valley at Extreme settings for 30 minutes straight. No spinning sound. So that sort of indicates that it wasn't the GPU. Maybe it was the fan all along. Either way, since I've opened the case, there is also a lot better air circulation. So that could also play a part. I've made sure to keep the windows closed in order to have a more consistent test environment.

So basically, yeah, back to the drawing board. The spinning sound is gone, for now, but it's too early to say it's all resolved. I'll try to install the new drivers again and see if I see any new activity on the sounds. If not, we could rule that one out.

 

[Virgorising]

Okay, this is starting to get confusing. So I went to a specialist computer store. The guy who I talked to was crazily knowledgeable, but he also had an anti-AMD/pro-Nvidia slant, which he at least had the insight to admit. I say this because he seemed to rule that it was the GPU right off the bat "because AMD has had a lot of problems with coil whine". I was unconvinced, since I still wasn't sure if it was the GPU.

What precisely did this crazy knowledgeable guy you paid....... DO? Not what he pronounced, what did he DO????
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Late Edit: Our brains work wondrously and invisibly in the background. It just struck me, you just went into some puter place and asked, like hoping to get more free feedback......you did not take the machine, right?

At this point, a REAL commitment might be in order. And the outlay of some money. And, some minor LIFTING and TRANSPORTING.

 

[denis280]

Did you try with another psu.