Whistling/Chirping due to C1E, Idling

[Hogan773]

I've detected a high pitched whistling/chirping sound. I've spent all afternoon searching threads and what it appears is the following:

1) the sound definitely comes from the PSU, but I DON'T believe it is just a "bad PSU" (it is a brand new Antec 380D)

2) sound is there when system is idling. Under Prime95 it goes away as system is being fully loaded (and therefore voltage is stable).

3) you can hear the sound when scrolling the mouse or dragging around a window. It is NOT fixed by disabling "smooth scrolling" in IE, nor is it fixed by disabling VSync in Catalyst Control Ctr.

3) others have said it is a byproduct of the various Intel C1E states etc....as the voltage is fluctuating up and down during the idle. This creates some little whistling interference in the PSU. It is a symptom many others have had. TURNING OFF C1E and the various C-states DOES INDEED fix the problem (for me and for others apparently).

So my QUESTION is.....beyond the minor nuisance factor of the whistling sound, is there anything bad with leaving it whistle? I would MUCH PREFER not to turn off all the C1E stuff and force my PC to run 24/7 at 42x and 1.22 Vcore, when it now happily idles back to 16x and .86 Vcore much of the time (when I'm surfing Anandtech). Its a little annoying, this whistle, but its probably only cause I've been focusing on it so much today.

Anyone else find any different fixes to this? Is it worth the extra all-the-time voltage to eliminate this whistle (if its doing any damage)?

 

[C1]

I read about this issue sometime back. Mainly that it was due to one of the component types, but I cant remember if its a choke, capacitor or transistor. The solution is to put a glob of silicon sealant over the offending component sufficient enough that it is a fixed to the PCB (acts as dampener or at least changes resonant frequency). Im sure someone here will know about this & chime in.

 

[Hogan773]

When I get my head down in there, it is definitely audible in the PSU, but perhaps it is something in the mobo or voltage regulation that is then being amplified back in the PSU. Amazing how many gazillions of posts I found over the past years, and how many theories there are (and maybe there ARE a variety of different possible causes). In my case, since I know it goes away under steady CPU load and then comes back as soon as I shut down Prime95, and also can be fixed by shutting off the C-states in BIOS, then it is something to do with the fluttering ups and downs of voltage when the PC is just lolling along........it definitely happens when scrolling a window or dragging Windows too....maybe that is the GPU making quick grabs of voltage.

 

[drizek]

It isnt doing any damage, at least not to the CPU. I can't stand that sort of noise though.

Had it in three of my laptops with three different intel chips(dothan, atom and arrandale) and couldn't do anything about it other than running folding@home. It was incredibly annoying and is my biggest deal breaker issue in a computer at this point.

The solution for me was to buy a mac.

Well, i just checked my macbook and it chirps too when scrolling through windows if I hold my ear up to it. Somehow, Apple managed to get it to be a lot quieter than HP and Dell could.

 

[LiuKangBakinPie]

make sure your gpu is connected on the first available strand for it and make sure there aint any devices connected on that strand. use the other strands that comes out of the psu for it. no daisy chaining. even if theres SATA or other connectors on the strand that your gpu is connected to dont use them

---------------- Now playing: Marco V - Red Blue Purple via FoxyTunes

 

[shadowsofthesun]

My Corsair HX 620 squeals and chirps regularly, depending on load. It may be the motherboard, too. It's caused by usage patterns on my CPU, GPU, or SSDs.

My research suggested it was a noisy capacitor and shouldn't be much concern. Thankfully, it's not too loud and I've decided to leave my sleep states on. These days, I consider it to be the equivalent of hard drive seeking noises, since everything else in my machine is silent. It's kind of interesting to hear the sound patterns it makes sometimes.

 

[Hogan773]

make sure your gpu is connected on the first available strand for it and make sure there aint any devices connected on that strand. use the other strands that comes out of the psu for it. no daisy chaining. even if theres SATA or other connectors on the strand that your gpu is connected to dont use them

---------------- Now playing: Marco V - Red Blue Purple via FoxyTunes

Yeah, I'm not a gamer so I have a 5670.....no power cord so to speak....just draws from the mobo

My Corsair HX 620 squeals and chirps regularly, depending on load. It may be the motherboard, too. It's caused by usage patterns on my CPU, GPU, or SSDs.

My research suggested it was a noisy capacitor and shouldn't be much concern. Thankfully, it's not too loud and I've decided to leave my sleep states on. These days, I consider it to be the equivalent of hard drive seeking noises, since everything else in my machine is silent. It's kind of interesting to hear the sound patterns it makes sometimes.

Yeah I actually thought it WAS my Samsung HDD doing seeks....I thought "well that's a little different sound, but oh well".....it was only when I started investigating more closely that I heard the sound is actually coming from PSU.

I'm tempted to try a new PSU, but many of the posts mention that it didn't fix the problem. Or I can just turn UP my fans.....even though I was in process of trying to quiet the PC.....

Good to hear that its not doing damage or a sign of a PSU about to blow up....I think allowing the chip to sip voltage most of the time is probably better than forcing it to "guzzle" straight higher voltage just so I can not listen to some light whistles here and there

 

[SickBeast]

They only time I've heard noises like that was when I did not connect the additional power wires to my GPU.

 

[Hogan773]

They only time I've heard noises like that was when I did not connect the additional power wires to my GPU.

My GPU is a 5670 so I don't have the option to plug in a wire.

Yeah this is still just slightly annoying. To the untrained ear it just sounds like HDD seeking, although its actually a higher-pitched sound that modulates based on CPU and/or GPU usage (or both) - and it comes from the PSU.

I think it has to be due to the quick up/down voltages being drawn as the CPU does stuff, since the problem can be fixed 1) by loading up a constant voltage by running Prime or something that stresses all the CPU cores or 2) by turning off C1E stuff in BIOS.

I may investigate whether a new version of my PSU will change anything, if Antec will allow me to trade in under warranty. Interested to know whether other users have detected this sound and found any other fixes. I'm not ready to run 24/7 voltage at 1.25 instead of 0.89 just to fix the sound - yet.

 

[Phynaz]

You shouldn't be hearing a sound like that. I would RMA the PSU.