Unnatural buzzing sound from my PSU

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shioriharu

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Nov 21, 2014
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Yesterday everything was alright when i switched off my PC

But today morning my PSU started giving out a faint buzzing "electric-static" kinda noise, can only hear it when you put your ear verry close to it - even when turned off.

TBH i only noticed it cause when i turned my PC on both my HDTV and my speakers started to buzz like no tomorrow so put my ear close t my PSU to check if i hear the buzz there as well...and i did.

I spent all the day to completely get rid of my speakers and the cables, now theres only one "power splitter ? i dont know how you call it" between the wall and my PC
and i also tried to push the power cable into my PSU hard as i can

Now the buzzing sound is almost 100% gone

It did this kinda noise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-ZoABfgJ5A
Just a whole lot more faint and maybe also whirring at a slower rate

some extra info:

-The air coming from my PC isnt exactly rosy, i'd say it has a kind of hot metallic-electric smell, not sure if thats normal? Can only be perceived when i start sipping around it much

-although the buzzing sound is now gone and is non-recordable, i can hear some other noise sometimes which sounds like electricity jumping(click sound for like 0,05 second, the kind you hear when you have sand under your shoes or when you turn on a dusty old monitor)

-i dont see arcing inside the PSU case

-system performance seems slower (i might just be super jumpy and hallucinate this one)

-one of my power splitters was indeed faulty, but i removed it

-when i enable my power splitter (by pushing the big red button on), the lights in the room seem to flicker a bit.

And before you say its a coil whine, i do have very faint coil whining too but only when im doing heavy work on the pc and that is a totally different sound.

And lastly, i have a Chieftec CTG 450w 80p it is supposed to have PFC

Please i need some expert opinions if i should be concerned about this, cause even tho im geting a new PC soon (inside 2 weeks for sure), this would still be in use by my mate.
Thanks in advance!

 
Solution
InvalidError

That sort of sound would be caused either by corona discharge or frequent weak sparks, neither of which qualifies as normal.

The issue may be as simple as a cold solder joint or something more serious like a blown flyback diode causing arcing since there is nothing to clamp leakage inductance voltage anymore. Both of these issues (and many others) could cause severe PSU performance degradation. That would explain the "metal smell" you mentioned and maybe part of your turn-on surge issue.
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Good thing you detected this in advance. Yes, you (well your mate) need a new psu ASAP.

Do a quick safety check to see if the psu fan is still spinning. If not. Stop using the computer.
 
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What is the worst thing that can happen ? and which one of my description says primarily that this psu needs replacement ?
I might also go and try to record how does it sound now
Cause much ppl around me said it might catch flames or smthing that sounds a little exaggerated to me
And this PSUis 5 years old if not more

EDIT: the PSU fan is spinning okay
 
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splitter = power strip / surge protector. COuld have been faulty and damaged the psu... typically I tend to replace a psu when it's anything other than minor coil whine (some times even then).

It's not really a good sign regarding the house's power lines either if you get dimming when turning things on. suggests you have too much draw on a breaker and the there's a strain to provide the power.

Would highly suggest you get an uninterrupted power supply if you feel that the wiring in the building isn't up to snuff (cheaper than buying a new pc/tv) make sure if you have active pfc that you get one with a perfect sine wave (also listed as active pfc compatible).

my semi educated .02
 
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If you hear a sharp crack that you are quite confident sounds like an electrical discharge, there is a fair probability that it is exactly what it sounds like.

You may not be able to see it but that could be because either something is covering the area where the spark is occurring such as under shrink-tubing, under components, under tape or maybe under the PCB. The spark could also be too faint to be readily visible - I had a cracked coil pack in my car last year and could easily hear it arcing over but could not see it in broad daylight even though the spark itself was wide-open and over 1cm long.
 
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If the noise you are hearing is really arc-over, then the fault is almost certainly on the primary / high-voltage side of the power supply. If something fails there, you may get a small explosion, some smoke, sparks and possibly a fire but the rest of your computer should be fine - unless the fire spreads into it.

Lights dimming when you "hard-switch" a SMPS (if your PC is plugged into your power strip) is not entirely unexpected since some power supplies have inrush current as high as 60A. 30A is more common and still enough to cause a noticeable dip in incandescent lamps even though the surge itself usually lasts less than 1/100th of a second.
 
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Yea when i plug it in without the power strip then theres no flicker, but both my tv and my pc is plugged into that power strip - which is a brand new one cause my old one seemd faulty as i said.

Yea well think the easiest is to record how it sounds now and see what you have to say about it

Here is how it is now : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cckrv_video0128_webcam

Dont mind the mess

BTW before it sounded like this exactly :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WuH5ZerP88
But even with power off
 
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That sort of sound would be caused either by corona discharge or frequent weak sparks, neither of which qualifies as normal.

The issue may be as simple as a cold solder joint or something more serious like a blown flyback diode causing arcing since there is nothing to clamp leakage inductance voltage anymore. Both of these issues (and many others) could cause severe PSU performance degradation. That would explain the "metal smell" you mentioned and maybe part of your turn-on surge issue.
 
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Solution

The absolute worst-case scenario is the PSU catches on fire and burns your house down.

Without knowing exactly where the sparks are occurring and why though, I have no idea how likely that worst-case is. In principle, most materials inside PCs have flame-retardant chemicals to prevent them from sustaining a flame for more than a few seconds after the external heat source is removed but the same cannot be said about what might be around the PC such as linnen, carpet, etc. or the dust that might be all around and inside your PC.

If you insist on using that power supply until it fails, I would recommend keeping your computer away from anything readily flammable, use canned air to blow dust out of the PSU and thoroughly clean your computer case to reduce the risk of flash-fire.

Electrically-speaking, a primary-side failure rarely have a catastrophic impact on outputs but the abnormal circuit operation until a hard-fault kills it for good may cause additional output ripple and noise which some components might not like.

 
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Apparently it looks like my PC is running fine, there are just some days when our electricity company has problems on their own and that gives us unstable electricity, the sound is gone too, looks like i was just extra scared.

And found the culprit on the performance issue as well, it was an adware called BCU.exe
It seems to be all fine now, crossed fingers
i want it to keep being fine for several weeks at least.
 
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