Buzzing sound coming from recently built PC, PSU?

[atomsk88]

Hey everyone,

Thanks to the awesome members of this forum, I recently built my first PC about 2 months ago and thus far it has been running awesome. However, last night when I powered my PC off, I could hear a light buzzing sound coming frm the case. It seems the loudest near my Power Supply, so I think it might be that. If I turn the power off at the back, or unplug the PSU, it stops buzzing, but resumes as soon as I plug it back in.

I have an Antec TruPower 750 watt. I called their costumer support today and all they could tell me was to be careful using my PSU under heavy loads. Well, I use my PC for animating and video rendering (as well as some occasional gaming) so you can see why I didn't like this advice. Not to mention I built this PC specifically to handle more intense stuff like this. They also thought it might be the PSU's capacitor, but it looks ok to me when I inspected it.

This morning when I plugged my PSU back in, the buzzing sound stopped and I have not heard it so far today. So does that mean it really IS caused by heavy rendering? But if so, hw would I prevent this, as I need to be able to work. Is my PSU going bad? If anyone can give me any advice I'd appreciate it. If I didn't explain anything clear or you need more information just let me know, and I will certainly provide it.

My specs:

AsRock B75 Motherboard
Nivida GTX 560
Intel i5-3450 Processor
Antec 750W TruePower
Antec 300 Illusion Case



Thanks!

 

[djscribbles]

I would suspect the buzzing is harmeless. I don't know why they would suggest that the cap is buzzing, as far as I know, it's typically inductors that will buzz (caused by the coil breaking free of it's glue/fastener and jiggling slightly as it passes an AC wave).

If it happens only at idle, it's probably not too big of a deal as long as it doesn't bother you. If it does bother you, ask for an RMA, I would expect them to oblige (otherwise return to store).

The PSU is a good unit, you just got unlucky.
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Antec-TruePower-New-750-W-TP-750-Power-Supply-Review/766/10

 

[prototype18]

Well u can use that Prime95 to put it under heavy load and furmakr at the same time. And come back tell us if it will do it again.

Well that PSU had a golden award and delivered it W. But they said it wasnt a perfect build inside. And 12V ,5V could have a better regulation.

But it must be the PSU

 

[atomsk88]

Hello,

Thaks for the replies!

I would suspect the buzzing is harmeless ------- If it happens only at idle, it's probably not too big of a deal as long as it doesn't bother you. If it does bother you, ask for an RMA, I would expect them to oblige (otherwise return to store).

It doesn't bother me as long as it's not harming anything. In building this first PC I was told often that a faulty PSU could damage all the other components. So do you think it's nothing to worry about? Even the customer support guy seemed confused that it was making this buzzing noise. They did say they would give me an RMA though, I'm not worried about that. I'm just trying to figure out what caused this, like, is it just a faulty PSU or did I put too much load on it?

Well u can use that Prime95 to put it under heavy load and furmakr at the same time. And come back tell us if it will do it again.

I can give that a try. A question though, so if it is somethingto do with the heavy load, why would that be? Would that mean the PSU isn't powerful enough? Overheating? I don't know much about Power Supplies. When a graphic card is faulty I can understand that it's probably ovrheating due to me putting too much load on it (or dust), but with the PSU I don't know if this is somethin I did or I just got stuck with a faulty unit.

It might be a coincidence, but I just purchased the modeling software ZBrush, which works with crazy amounts of polygons at one time (last night I had 640,000), which was right before I heard the buzzing noise. Could this be putting too much load on the PSU? But as I said in my first post, I built this PC specifically for using these programs, so what would be my best option to deal with this?

Let me know if you need any other information, and thanks again for the replies, I appreciate it!

 

[wysir]

I wouldn't put this past a wire vibrating on a fan. Take your side panel off and turn the computer on. When you hear the noise, put your ear next to the case to be sure where the buzz is coming from.

 

[atomsk88]

Would a vibrating wire cause a buzzing noise when the PC is turned off though? As I said, the buzzing was first noticed when the PC was shut off, and it had been shut off for a good 5 min before I noticed it, and kept going until I unplugged it. I can check though, I'm certainly open to all suggestions afterall. Thanks!

 

[djscribbles]

Would a vibrating wire cause a buzzing noise when the PC is turned off though? As I said, the buzzing was first noticed when the PC was shut off, and it had been shut off for a good 5 min before I noticed it, and kept going until I unplugged it. I can check though, I'm certainly open to all suggestions afterall. Thanks!

Yes. However the wire is an inductor (a small tight coil of wire), and inductors are a component that induce a magnetic field when an AC wave is applied. They "whine" when they break free of their mounting because the magnetic field causes a small amount of physical force on the inductor, causing it to wiggle at the frequency of the AC wave it is passing; it isn't harmful, it's just noise.

Bad PSUs typically cause damage by overvolting or shorting out when they are pushed beyond their limits (and lack adequate protection to block overvolting/shorting if it does occur), coil whine could possibly introduce a little extra voltage ripple to your PSU's output, but it's very unlikely that it harms your components. The reason people stress about bad PSUs, is because many people buy no-name (or infamous) powersupplies that are poorly designed/built and are not capable of outputting their claimed wattage (and when pushed to hard, can fail and cause damage).

Your PSU is probably almost 2x larger than it needs to be, I wouldn't worry about putting it under too much stress.

 

[prototype18]

Well i think you just had a bad luck with that PSU. Maybe its faulty and it cant deliver enough voltage/power.

Or a capacitator discharging.

You should check it better maybe . Any sparks in the PSU ?

Can u record that noise maybe ? I can understand it better if i can hear it .

I just fixed a PSU today (hp one) and it had a bad coil and burned cap.

 

[atomsk88]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the replies, sorry I haven't responded recently, but my PSU had temporarily stopped producing the noise, and I decided to wait a few days to see if it would start again before posting if this was solved or not. Unfortunatly, it has started again.

Your PSU is probably almost 2x larger than it needs to be, I wouldn't worry about putting it under too much stress.

That is good to hear, and I agree, it should be totally fine. And yet this seems to only happen when stress is applied, because once again I was using a combination of Zbrush, Maya, and Photoshop for several hours. I still don't see why these would be causing an issue to my PSU, as it should be more then capable of handeling heavy load from these softwares, and t could just be coincidence, but the fact I have usedthese programs everytime I hear the noise is still worth mentioning.

In the several months I've been using this PC, I've never had a problem with Photoshop or Maya, but I will admit Zrush was just purchased last week (which is when I first heard the noise) so there could be some connection there....again I just don't understand why, this PC should be more then capable, as you seemed to agree with.

Can u record that noise maybe ? I can understand it better if i can hear it .

Sure, I would be glad to. I recorded this last night, so sorry if the video is too dark, but I figure you only need the sound anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAt_SDCgOvA&feature=youtu.be

This was recorded after I shut the PC off. Sorry for the slight static, my camera's not the best, but you can still hear the buzzing sound through it. That is the buzzing sound I hear. I held the camera directly next to the PSU. My PC is off, there were no fans running or background noise from my room, that is entirely from the PSU (though keep in mind it's louder then usual because the camera was right up against it, it's not that loud from my chair / with case on.

Once again the sound stopped when I flipped the power switch on the PSU, and after running my PC for several minuets today, I have not yet heard it.

Any ideas? As I said before, if this sound isn't harming anything then I can deal with it, I just want to know if my PSU is going bad or anything. It just seems to strange o me that this occures AFTER shut down.

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated!

 

[djscribbles]

Coil whine will often vary in volume (or disappear and reappear) depending on the load of the power supply, it's not an indicator that too much power is being drawn, it's just something that will happen at certain load levels.

It's rather similar to a resonance issue (in fact it is a resonance issue), such as you might see in a car that will shake like it's going to explode going 65mph, but will be fine at either 60mph or 70mph.

The reason you get the noise after shutdown is because, like many other devices, your computer isn't completely off. The PSU still supplies some voltages to allow the computer to wake when you press the power button, it's never truly off until you disconnect power (unplug, or with the switch on the PSU).
It's not unusual to have something buzz when it's at extremely low load levels (you can often hear the same thing in monitors, tvs and such)