Annoying sound generated by PSU

Mr. Killjoy · December 28th, 2005

Hey, as you guess, I got a problem, it started months ago, but it gets worse
over the time. So, I have a 550W PSU (passive PFC) which is supposed to be
very silent. At the beginning, it was, and I must admit that still don't hear the
fans rotate... but the problem is this almost constant high-pitched noise,
kinda like a whistle, and after some browsing on google, I learnt that
it comes from the coil that micro-vibrates.

Is there any safe way to fix this? I don't want to RMA it, or buy another one.
And I don't really like the idea of opening the PSU myself

Kraelis · December 28th, 2005

Just get it fixed in a shop. PSU are usually off limits stuff.

Mr. Killjoy · December 28th, 2005

>> Just get it fixed in a shop.

Cost?

>> PSU are usually off limits stuff.

What do you mean? (sorry, it's late and my english isn't perfect either :>)

**cooliscool** · December 28th, 2005

He means that opening up the PSU yourself isn't something you should try. And he's right.

The 350W PSU I had that came with my case also made that noise. I got a new TT Silent PurePower just because of the noise.

**hushypushy** · December 28th, 2005

Quote:

Is there any safe way to fix this?

nope. and since you dont want to RMA it, get a new one, you're kind of screwed :/

Mr. Killjoy · December 28th, 2005

Oh I see... I guess I'll have to live with it until the PSU blows

RZetlin · December 28th, 2005

It might be just dusty.

Unplug and open up the PSU and clean it out with a can of air.

Just don't start poking around the PSU with a metal object or with bare hands or else you might get shocked!

Player-X · December 28th, 2005

Clean it out with a vacume cleaner or compressed air to reduce it blows out due to overheating and be careful, trust me it isn't funny to be shocked by a PSU or have one blow up

ka0s · December 28th, 2005

This might not apply to the PSU but I was told never to use a vacuum cleaner in your computer, as it causes a ton of static electricity.

**Shadow Lady** · December 28th, 2005

dunno, if it may work for you, but i used to have this very unusual problem and is that unless i overclocked my gpu it would give those wierd (and quite annoying) high pitch noises, never got to fix it, but overclocking my gu certainly stopped it

Mr. Killjoy · December 28th, 2005

Weird, I heard that this sound is usually produced when the PSU has to deliver a lot of power. OCing should have made it even more annoying :s

Bad thing that I don't have a vacuum cleaner, though I doubt a lot that dust could be the problem. There's very little of it :I

ceramiclion · December 28th, 2005

OH! and make sure upi don't have it plugged in while your cleaning it

Mr. Killjoy · December 28th, 2005

Obviously

**Shadow Lady** · December 28th, 2005

didnt seem so obvious the first time i did it -.-

edit: ok... that did sound just... wrong

Mr. Killjoy · December 28th, 2005

It seemed abivous to me the first time I touched my PC case without wearing shoes. The metallic part of it is charged in electricity after some hours of use,
and it's shocking

Kraelis · December 29th, 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow Lady

dunno, if it may work for you, but i used to have this very unusual problem and is that unless i overclocked my gpu it would give those wierd (and quite annoying) high pitch noises, never got to fix it, but overclocking my gu certainly stopped it

Cool! A PSU that WANTS to be overclocked

I'm not sure about the cost, but it's always Standard Labor Price in your country + Cost of Components to be replaced.

You can probably safely vacuum the thing if you remove the PSU from the frame first, or yeah, spray with canned air. Opening it up for any other reason is just too darn risky w/o real background in it.

LilTone247 · January 14th, 2006

im still wonderin, wats so dangerous about a PSU that isnt plugged in?

GCFreak · January 14th, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by LilTone247

im still wonderin, wats so dangerous about a PSU that isnt plugged in?

I second that.

WindHydra · January 14th, 2006

It's not dangerous when it's unplugged... I blew up a fuse last summer and replaced it myself without getting shocked

The scary part is soldering the fuse onto the board.

KillerShots · January 14th, 2006

It is indeed still dangerous when not plugged in. Think of huge capacitors as batteries that have yet to be discharged. You can get quite a nasty (perhaps lethal) shock by accidentally discharging one of the large capacitors.

EDIT: Also, the only way a vacuum is going to be dangerous is if you're stupid enough to be using the floor-vac (the one with all the brushes on the carpet at high speeds... a static electricity generator). A vacuum hose is harmless.

December 28th, 2005	#1 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	Annoying sound generated by PSU Hey, as you guess, I got a problem, it started months ago, but it gets worse over the time. So, I have a 550W PSU (passive PFC) which is supposed to be very silent. At the beginning, it was, and I must admit that still don't hear the fans rotate... but the problem is this almost constant high-pitched noise, kinda like a whistle, and after some browsing on google, I learnt that it comes from the coil that micro-vibrates. Is there any safe way to fix this? I don't want to RMA it, or buy another one. And I don't really like the idea of opening the PSU myself __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

December 28th, 2005	#2 (permalink)
Kraelis Fallen Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Moonlight Spire Posts: 1,393	Just get it fixed in a shop. PSU are usually off limits stuff. __________________ --KrÆlis Cross Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur =============== Athlon 64 x2 3800\| Asrock ALiveNF6G-VSTA \| Kingston DDR2 1 Gb RAM

December 28th, 2005	#3 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	>> Just get it fixed in a shop. Cost? >> PSU are usually off limits stuff. What do you mean? (sorry, it's late and my english isn't perfect either :>) __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

December 28th, 2005	#4 (permalink)
cooliscool Natural medicine Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Redmond, Washington, USA Posts: 6,152	He means that opening up the PSU yourself isn't something you should try. And he's right. The 350W PSU I had that came with my case also made that noise. I got a new TT Silent PurePower just because of the noise. __________________ Fayt : Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 @ 3.0GHz [Allendale] (1333MHz FSB), 2GB Crucial DDR2-800 Dual Channel kit @ 800MHz 4-3-3-10, 512MB BFG nVidia GeForce 7950GT OC (650/1600), Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, MSI P6N-SLi nVidia 650i (crap OCer), 200GB Seagate Barracuda 8MB Cache 7200RPM SATA2 (NCQ), 80GB Seagate Barracuda 8MB Cache 7200RPM SATA2 (NCQ), Lite-On DVD+-RW 16x w/ Lightscribe, Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM, Aspire X-Dreamer II case, Logitech MX518 GG Optical Mouse, Asetek Waterchill kit (distilled water + Red Line Water Wetter), T.I.M - Arctic Silver Ceramique

December 28th, 2005	#6 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	Oh I see... I guess I'll have to live with it until the PSU blows __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

December 28th, 2005	#7 (permalink)
RZetlin General of Tangerines Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Defending the Sea Posts: 3,885	It might be just dusty. Unplug and open up the PSU and clean it out with a can of air. Just don't start poking around the PSU with a metal object or with bare hands or else you might get shocked! __________________ AMD Athlon 64 3700+ \| 2 GB RAM \| XFX Nvidia 6800 GS 256 MB XXX Edition \| Win XP Pro SP2

December 28th, 2005	#8 (permalink)
Player-X Banned Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: From Kuching in Malaysia now stuck in Houston Texas Posts: 9,110	Clean it out with a vacume cleaner or compressed air to reduce it blows out due to overheating and be careful, trust me it isn't funny to be shocked by a PSU or have one blow up

December 28th, 2005	#9 (permalink)
ka0s Kancho Assassin Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: NJ, USA Posts: 1,035	This might not apply to the PSU but I was told never to use a vacuum cleaner in your computer, as it causes a ton of static electricity. __________________ Shuttle SN41G2 XPC 1.6 AMD Duron -=- 512MB PC 2700 OCZ Memory 80GB WE Caviar SE -=- Liteon 48x24x48 CD-RW Optical Drive Abit 9600XT VIVO

December 28th, 2005	#10 (permalink)
Shadow Lady Advanced Newbie Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Bogotá... not that it matters... Posts: 4,905	dunno, if it may work for you, but i used to have this very unusual problem and is that unless i overclocked my gpu it would give those wierd (and quite annoying) high pitch noises, never got to fix it, but overclocking my gu certainly stopped it

December 28th, 2005	#11 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	Weird, I heard that this sound is usually produced when the PSU has to deliver a lot of power. OCing should have made it even more annoying :s Bad thing that I don't have a vacuum cleaner, though I doubt a lot that dust could be the problem. There's very little of it :I __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

December 28th, 2005	#12 (permalink)
ceramiclion Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 209	OH! and make sure upi don't have it plugged in while your cleaning it

December 28th, 2005	#13 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	Obviously __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

December 28th, 2005	#14 (permalink)
Shadow Lady Advanced Newbie Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: Bogotá... not that it matters... Posts: 4,905	didnt seem so obvious the first time i did it -.- edit: ok... that did sound just... wrong

December 28th, 2005	#15 (permalink)
Mr. Killjoy [Suggest a custom title] Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Somewhere I don't belong (La Rochelle, France) Posts: 7,753	It seemed abivous to me the first time I touched my PC case without wearing shoes. The metallic part of it is charged in electricity after some hours of use, and it's shocking __________________ Leader of "The Pessimists' Club" CPU: Core 2 Q6600@3GHz - RAM: 2GB DDR2 (Corsair PC6400) VGA: GF8800GTS 512MB OC - Mobo: Gigabyte EP35C-DS3R - PSU: Antec Trio 650w 24Mb/1Mb ADSL - WindowsXP-Pro SP2 --------------------------------------------- All ePSXe plugins up-to-date http://mrkilljoy.deviantart.com/

January 14th, 2006	#17 (permalink)
LilTone247 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ohio Posts: 42	im still wonderin, wats so dangerous about a PSU that isnt plugged in?

January 14th, 2006	#19 (permalink)
WindHydra Wind, Life, Eternity Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: El Monte Posts: 1,331	It's not dangerous when it's unplugged... I blew up a fuse last summer and replaced it myself without getting shocked The scary part is soldering the fuse onto the board. __________________ My deviantArt :bounce: We ran like the wind, under the cerulean skies...

January 14th, 2006	#20 (permalink)
KillerShots War Games coder Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Florida Posts: 1,918	It is indeed still dangerous when not plugged in. Think of huge capacitors as batteries that have yet to be discharged. You can get quite a nasty (perhaps lethal) shock by accidentally discharging one of the large capacitors. EDIT: Also, the only way a vacuum is going to be dangerous is if you're stupid enough to be using the floor-vac (the one with all the brushes on the carpet at high speeds... a static electricity generator). A vacuum hose is harmless. __________________ Primary CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Mobo: Biostar N4SLI-A9 RAM: 2G Crucial (DDR400) Video: eVGA GeForce 7900 GTX (512M) Audio: HDA X-Mystique HD(s): Maxtor 300G SATA2, Samsung 400G SATA2 OS(s): WinXP x64 Pro, Vista x32 Ultimate, Gentoo x64 Monitor(s): Primary - 19" Flat Panel (1280x1024) Secondary - 19" Flat Panel (1280x1024) Tertiary - Zenith 42" Plasma TV (1024x768 res) Many other machines... sig too short

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode