Question Gigabyte Z390 Gaming X making an electric buzz sound

[kikones34]

This problem has been puzzling me for over a week, and I have finally given up trying to solve it by myself.

I recently built myself a PC (full specs at the end of the post). Everything seemed to be working correctly, so I went ahead and installed Windows 10. As soon as I connected my headphones to the audio out, I noticed some weird interferences. Shortly after, I realized that a weird electrical buzz was coming from inside my PC. The sound was directly correlated with the interferences, as such I concluded that it is the cause. Now, what could be making that sound? Here's everything I've concluded up until now.

About the source of the audio interferences:
The electrical buzz is somewhere near the IO shield. I suspect this is the reason why there are interferences in the mobo audio out. Furthermore, if I connect my headphones to the case audio out (which is far away from the IO shield), there are NO interferences to be heard. As an additional —maybe even fun— bit of information, if I connect a cable from the mobo audio out to the case audio in, I DO get interferences in the case audio out. It's as if they get transferred through the cable.

About the source of the electrical buzz:
As stated, it seems to be coming from the area near the IO shield. There are several components there:

• Case fans and CPU fan: these are NOT causing the buzz, since I disconnected them, and the buzz was still there
• The CPU: I can't exactly pinpoint if the sound is coming from it with 100% certainty, but it doesn't appear to be the case
• Some components of the mobo itself near the CPU: this is my current hypothesis

What does NOT make the mobo buzz:

• Booting into the BIOS
• Booting into an Ubuntu 18 live USB

However, it does buzz when booting into a Windows installation USB, and when booting into Windows, of course. This makes me think that it must be Windows doing something with the hardware to cause the buzz. To discard any rogue driver issue, I tried booting into safe mode. The buzz was still there. I honestly am not sure what to make out of this, other than concluding that my hardware can definitely function without buzzing, under certain conditions.

What makes the mobo buzz HARDER:

• Increasing CPU usage
• Moving the mouse around (might be related to CPU usage)

The amount of buzz seems to be directly correlated with the CPU usage. In fact, setting the power management plan to High Performance makes the buzz way worse than on Balanced. Here is a recording of the interferences caused by the buzz. The first ~9 seconds are with "Minimum processor state" set to 5%. Then, I set it to 100% and put it back to 5% after several seconds. https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7zmsa1m9he7lrt/interference.wav?dl=0

Now, I've thought that maybe it is a power issue. However, I've got no known good PSU to test my build against. In fact, I've got no replacement component for anything to test if it is the culprit. Given this, and given that an Ubuntu 18 actually does not make my machine buzz, and neither does booting into the BIOS, I'm trying really hard to solve this without replacing any component, since it seems definitely possible.

Here are my full PC specs:

Spoiler: Click

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-9600K 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z390 GAMING X ATX LGA1151 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB GAMING OC PRO Video Card
Case: Fractal Design Define C ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS Plus Gold 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140 mm Fan
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 60.4 CFM 140 mm Fan
Case Fan: be quiet! SilentWings 2 50.5 CFM 120 mm Fan

Further info which might be useful:

• I connected the 8-pin power connector to the CPU. I left the 4-pin not connected, given that my PSU doesn't provide a 4-pin CPU cable.
• I did check that there are no loose connections
• Temperatures look pretty okay to me, CPU is staying around 35~40ºC
• Enabling or disabling XMP in the BIOS has no effect on the buzzing
• I have also tried to fiddle around with the CPU settings in the BIOS, especially the C-State options, to no avail. I am not very savvy when it comes to this, however.

I think that's all for now. Any input will be greatly appreciated! I have some more ideas, but it feels like I'm just doing random things hoping something will work...

 

[RemyB]

Hi, I literally have the EXACT same issue, did you solve it? Is your PC still working fine?

I'm too afraid to even turn on my brand new PC, I first thought it was coil whine but this isn't the issue because those sound different.

Also is your house earthed? Could this be interference from the IO itself that isn't grounded or something?

My specs:
9900KF, Aorus Z390 Master, 32gb G.Skill Trident Z RGB, Kraken x62, EVGA G3 650W

My audio:

View: https://vimeo.com/380338108
it is louder irl

Please respond because you are my last hope!!

 

[genzxd]

Hello guys any new info on this, I have the exact same problem, +im not sure if you tried but when I run cpuz cpu stress test audio static and buzz seems to go away while doing the stress test.
I tried to switch psu, didnt work, switching gpu didnt work. Booting outside the case didnt work.
I tried to rma my board sent it to the shop I bought it from and they said they didn't encounter any problems regarding the buzz sound or audio static.
No idea what to do now.

 

[RemyB]

Hello guys any new info on this, I have the exact same problem, +im not sure if you tried but when I run cpuz cpu stress test audio static and buzz seems to go away while doing the stress test.
I tried to switch psu, didnt work, switching gpu didnt work. Booting outside the case didnt work.
I tried to rma my board sent it to the shop I bought it from and they said they didn't encounter any problems regarding the buzz sound or audio static.
No idea what to do now.

Wow finally someone else! I just bought a new PSU to test and it seems the problem hasn't gotten away, currently testing. I'will PM you, maybe we can all share some info?

 

[genzxd]

Wow finally someone else! I just bought a new PSU to test and it seems the problem hasn't gotten away, currently testing. I'will PM you, maybe we can all share some info?

I gave my whole pc back to the shop where I bought parts from and I will see what they say.
But first I gave then thr mbo to test they tested with 8100 i3 and they said there were no sound static cracklong or buzzing from the mbo.
They will probably contact me later today will share info as soon as I get some
Bu I tried switching every single component besides ram and cpu and no success.