New PSU, humming and high-pitched noise from speaker

[Wallengard]

Hi there everyone!

Wasn't entirely sure where to place this thread, as it contains a bit of different things so I just chose to put it here as it seemed like the most reasonable place (hopefully it can be moved if I'm way off)

As the title says I'm having a problem with what I believe is a new PSU I bought (XFX Core Edition 550W) and my active studio monitors (Yamaha HS8) that I did not have before installing it.

So,
I just bought this new PSU along with a GTX 970.
The problem I'm having is a low frequency humming sound coming out of the right hand side speaker when the computer is turned on. The sound seems to be in the range of 50-ish hertz and I hear it as a pulsating vibrating hum of sorts. The speakers are self-powered and hooked up to a USB-powered external audio interface (Scarlett 2i4). Changing the volume on the audio interface does nothing to change this sound in any way, but turning up the gain on the back of the speaker itself does make it louder or quieter. It doesn't get louder when anything's played through the speakers either, in fact the only time it's really audible is when there's no playback going on at all.

When i turn off the computer, this low frequency humming sound suddenly turns into a fairly high-pitched noise at a pretty much constant tone instead (I'd put this tone at about 7-9 khz, based on hearing alone), and if I switch off the PSU on the back of the PC, the tone will gradually sweep down (this can take up to 10 seconds almost) in frequency until it breaks down at a very low frequency and crackles a bit, before the noise is completely gone (other than a faint white noise coming from both speakers, which I assume is normal since no system is really truly quiet).

Also either of these sounds do not appear in my headphones that are connected through the headphone jack of my audio interface.

I'm currently using 2 wall sockets;
One socket has a power strip where the right hand side speaker is connected, along with my 2 displays, a powered USB-hub and an Xbox.
In the other socket I have the left hand side speaker connected as well as the PC.

Here's what I've tried doing so far;
- Disconnecting the speaker cable from the audio interface (problem disappears)
- Disconnecting the entire audio interface from the USB cable to the PC (problem disappears)
- Changing the PC power source to the power strip where the right hand side speaker is connected (removed the usb hub to fit it in there, the problem remained)

This problem did not exist before I put the new PSU or the new graphics card in, which leads me to believe the only reasonable thing is that it has something to do with that (quite obviously)

So now I'm at a loss, I don't know if there's anything wrong with the PSU, or if I did something wrong while connecting it or even what the cause of this could be. I'm looking for some help with this and hopefully come to a conclusion that doesn't involve my studio blowing up or having to replace every component because of my ignorance.

If I have left out any relevant information please let me know and I'll provide as much as I can.
I thank you all in advance for any help and your time

Cheers,
Daniel

 

[gaborbarla]

Hi Wallengard,

Is there a possibility of trying out another set of speakers on your computer or trying out another Power supply? Perhaps you can get in contact with the PSU supplier and see if you can get another one. It must be interference of some kind. i would recommend a Corsair PSU but it could also be your GFX card that is interfering with something on your Motherboard. Maybe also can try removing the GFX card and use onboard or another card and see what is causing the issue.

 

[Wallengard]

Hi Wallengard,

Is there a possibility of trying out another set of speakers on your computer or trying out another Power supply? Perhaps you can get in contact with the PSU supplier and see if you can get another one. It must be interference of some kind. i would recommend a Corsair PSU but it could also be your GFX card that is interfering with something on your Motherboard. Maybe also can try removing the GFX card and use onboard or another card and see what is causing the issue.

Hi gaborbarla!

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately I don't have any other set of speakers at the moment to try. I still have the old power supply and the old graphics card lying around (I only just upgraded both less than a week ago). I could try out that old power supply again but it's not enough to power the GTX 970 I have in at the moment, and if I change back to my old setup, well, I didn't have this problem at all before using those components.

What leads me to believe that it's actually the PSU and not the GFX card is that when the computer is turned off, I get that high pitched noise, and when cutting the power to the PSU by using the switch it just gradually pitch sweeps down until it goes away.. and it seems entirely unaffected by the workload of the GPU.

What I'm really concerned about is whether or not my other components in the PC and other gear connected to it is in any immediate danger of being ruined by this.
If it's just a little bit of interference I'm not too bothered by it (i.e not in a hurry to get it replaced) since I can't hear it when I'm playing anything through the speakers anyway.
I will try to get a replacement if everything else fails but I'd like to exhaust my options first before that.
My biggest concern right now is the safety of my electrical gear in here.

Thanks again,
Daniel

 

[gaborbarla]

I have a similar problem with my monitor's speakers. I have very cheap and clunky speakers in my monitor and even though I have decent ASUS U7 USB sound card with low signal to noise ratio, when I plug that monitor in, I can hear my mouse create a high pitch noise when I move it around. I hear my mouse on my monitors speakers. I recently bought decent speakers (Creative T40 II) and the problem is now gone. It is possible that your PSU is creating and electromagnetic field and the speaker cable plugged at the back of your PC is not shielded and gets affected. Something like that. Hope this helps. I would still try to use my PC without that graphics card first, and then if the problem remains I would replace my PSU with another model.

 

[Wallengard]

I have a similar problem with my monitor's speakers. I have very cheap and clunky speakers in my monitor and even though I have decent ASUS U7 USB sound card with low signal to noise ratio, when I plug that monitor in, I can hear my mouse create a high pitch noise when I move it around. I hear my mouse on my monitors speakers. I recently bought decent speakers (Creative T40 II) and the problem is now gone. It is possible that your PSU is creating and electromagnetic field and the speaker cable plugged at the back of your PC is not shielded and gets affected. Something like that. Hope this helps. I would still try to use my PC without that graphics card first, and then if the problem remains I would replace my PSU with another model.

Alright, I will try to unplug the graphics card and see if and what difference that makes. My sound card and speakers are not particularly cheap. My external sound card is 200ish euros and the studio speakers I've got are around 600 euros for the pair. Both of which are built for audio production (which I do)

I'm not hearing any difference in the noise with anything I do with the computer. It's just that constant low frequency hum when it's turned on, and the high pitch noise when it's turned off, and only from one speaker.

I don't have any speaker cable plugged in the computer. It's plugged into my USB powered external sound card using balanced 6,3mm cables that should eliminate interference, which is on the table, half a meter from the computer.

However I will take your advice and try your suggestions when I'm back home again, and meanwhile I hope that other people may come here as well to drop some suggestions and insight as to what this could be, and whether or not I should be concerned about the continued life of my electrical components shared by my PSU's circuit.

I appreciate your help and time a lot! Will be back with results of my experiments soon.

Cheers,
Daniel

 

[Wallengard]

Ok, so I'm back with an update!

I've tried it without the new graphics card, both with the old one I had and the onboard. My problem remains still.

Any ideas?

Cheers

 

[gaborbarla]

Ok, so I'm back with an update!

I've tried it without the new graphics card, both with the old one I had and the onboard. My problem remains still.

Any ideas?

Cheers

I think perhaps your speakers/cables are not shielded properly.

 

[Wallengard]

Ok, so I'm back with an update!

I've tried it without the new graphics card, both with the old one I had and the onboard. My problem remains still.

Any ideas?

Cheers

I think perhaps your speakers/cables are not shielded properly.

Hey there! I appreciate you getting back to me even though it's been a while.

So I had thought of what you suggested as well, so I simply tried to switch my cables around but the problem still remained. Moving the left audio cable to the right side didn't do anything unexpected what so ever.

Since we last spoke here I've had a few encounters where my initial problem didn't exist. For example sometimes if I turn my speakers on with the power switch on the back of each one, whilst in the middle of a game, this problem does not present itself. It doesn't always do that however and it feels more like a random occurrence than anything else.

It didn't do anything except confuse me further though.. Still hoping for some insight, cheers!

 

[SugaSurge]

Hello There,
Though this thread 5 years old, I'm replying because I'm facing the same issue. After reading the whole thread, I found out no one was able to provide a solution in 5 years!! such a shame. And that Gaborbarla guy is rubbish, he doesn't have any knowledge on such matter. Anyway, My Amplifier system gives a High pitch static noise while I play something from Computer but not from my phone. Then I switched the Power supply (ATX PSU) of my Amplifier to a normal power 12v 700mA Adapter. The noise GONE!! This noise was created by SMPS Power supply 12v 15A (ATX PSU for PC) which I purchased and separately using as my Amplifier Power supply. I don't know the reason. Would be great if anybody knows it. Because I really want to use ATX as my Amp PSU as it gave it better sound.

I am having the same problem!! I just built my first pc. (Ryzen 5 1600, Asus X570 mobo, 16 Gb Ram, Samsung 500 Gb M.2 SSD) and my PSU is a gold certified 650 watt from Corsair. I was thinking of maybe getting a Furman power conditioner to see if it would help? Also, using Yamaha HS5’s and Scarlett 2i4 (first gen). I did however plug them directly into my computer and the problem remained so I know it’s not my audio interface.

 

[DSzymborski]

If you want an answer, actually start a thread. Very few people are going to participate in a five-year-old thread, which is why we don't do all-purpose threads for vaguely similar problems.