Question Coil Whine at VRMs Area

[thegoldendecadecontact]

So, yesterday morning I installed a brand new i9-9900K on my Z370 ROG MAXIMUS X HERO and since yesterday late evening I noticed a slight coil whine noise coming out from my motherboard's VRMs.

It's not from any fan clicking or anything, it's not from the GPU, since I'm on idle, it's not from PSU either, I'm 100% it's from the VRMs area.

Funny thing, it happens even on fully stock settings, XMP Profile off etc.

I tried a clear CMOS but it didn't work. The issue begins once the PC boots into Windows.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Can I possibly RMA the board?

 

[drea.drechsler]

If you are confident that's what it is there's not normally much you can do about coil whine.

But that's also not a normal motherboard, it's kind of top-end. Is there a BIOS setting to tweak the switching frequency of the VRM circuit? If you can change that frequency you may be able to reduce it at least.

HOWEVER...if you change it too much it may make the VRM less efficient and therefore get a lot hotter in use. So change it as little as possible.

 

[thegoldendecadecontact]

If you are confident that's what it is there's not normally much you can do about coil whine.

But that's also not a normal motherboard, it's kind of top-end. Is there a BIOS setting to tweak the switching frequency of the VRM circuit? If you can change that frequency you may be able to reduce it at least.

HOWEVER...if you change it too much it may make the VRM less efficient and therefore get a lot hotter in use. So change it as little as possible.

Disabling C-States made it less annoying but it's still there.

Can I RMA the board? Or return it to place of purchase since it's only 6-7 months old under warranty?

Kind regards

PS. I forgot to mention that this existed before I replaced my i7-8700K but was really weak so I didn't notice that it was coming from VRMs/was coil whine. Now that I got a more power hungry CPU, it's pretty clear and audible.

 

[drea.drechsler]

....
Can I RMA the board? Or return it to place of purchase since it's only 6-7 months old under warranty?
....

Most store return/exchange policies are time limited, probably on the order of one or two weeks. But you can ask.

At 6 months of age I have to think that expensive monster is still in warranty...so the mfr will have to decide if it warrants an exchange. Go to their web site and initiate an RMA request.

Did you check to see if it has adjustable frequency VRM? that would be the easy fix and probably what the mfr.'s tech will tell you to do if so. Either that or cryptically refuse an RMA since you're supposed to know how to use your motherboard if that's a feature.

 

[thegoldendecadecontact]

Well the thing is that the motherboard shouldn't produce any coil whine especially on stock settings. I've contacted the place of purchase since they own the service center in Greece as well and I'll wait on their response. I'll also contact ASUS Greece by tomorrow since there's a phone line available. Most likely they'll suggest the return to place of purchase under warranty and if they manage to reproduce the problem, then they will proceed to a replacement I guess.

Just needed to know if coil whine also is covered by warranty on MOBOs as it happens on GPUs and PSUs

 

[Asryan]

I have exactly the same issue on my maximus hero xi. Have you found a fix?