Weird noise coming from Seasonic X-750 PSU (with videos)

[RoboTree]

Hi. I have an annoying issue with my new Seasonic PSU - sorry if the post is a bit long, but keep reading, cause it gets weird.

I recently put together a new PC about a week ago, with a Seasonic X-750 PSU. I've noticed an annoying electrical buzzing sound coming from the PSU. It starts when i start up and continues constantly until windows has loaded. Once loaded, it happens intermittently, and whenever im running a program. I can notice it quite clearly(and so can friends) when im using it, with the case panel on, sitting there at the desk about 1m away, and its quite loud, enough to be very frustrating. It sounds like an squeaky electrical sound, like there's a cicada on crack sitting inside it.

Initially I thought it was the hard drives as it roughly coincided with the Hard Drive Seek noise, so I unplugged them, but it was still there. I've unplugged different components and listened with my ear up close and concluded that it's the PSU.

When I have just the mobo and PSU connected (no HDD, optical drives, graphics card etc) the sound doesn't occur, so I guess its only when under a bit more electrical load.

I took some vids of the noise:

Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f7jLC_stBk
This is during startup, you can hear the sound, - it also sounds like its 'pulsing' when the camera's round the back. You can hear the HDD's in the background but you can tell what the buzzing noise is - its the cicada-like sound, or kind of like squeaky brake pads, and it gets louder when i put the camera round the back.

Video 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5s_XCHRk14
This is what I find WEIRD - whenever i resize a window in Windows 7 (and also while doing other things) you can hear the squeaky buzzing sound, coinciding with me moving the mouse. In this vid I'm resizing a window at a constant rate, and you can hear the sound start and stop while i resize up, stop, and resize the window back down.

Here's the components in my build:
PSU: Seasonic X-750
Mobo: Asus P8P67 Pro (B3)
CPU: i7 2600K
CPU Cooler - Zalman Flex
RAM: 8GB Kinston HyperX 1600MHz
HDD: 2 x 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000524AS in RAID 0
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon 6950 1GB
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DX
DVD Drive: LG GH22NS50

I've read on other forums about similar problems and compatibility issues with motherboards, but im not sure if it's the same problem. This noise really is quite loud and distracting, more than your average electrical sound coming from a pc, and enough to make you want to stop using it - like a dog whistle for humans.

Does anyone know what might be causing this - if it may be an issue between the PSU and my ASUS motherboard, and if just getting a new X-750 would fix the problem?
Also, has anyone else encountered this before, with the X-750 or any other PSU?

Cheers.

 

[COLGeek]

Sounds like "coil whine". You can search for many solutions/reasons/etc, but you best bet is to RMA/exchange the PSU if you are sure the PSU is the problem.

Good luck!

 

[mosox]

Try swapping around the power cables or use some unused ones, this solves the problem sometimes. Use more of the power rails.

 

[RoboTree]

Sorry for taking a while to reply - our internet's just started working again after having problems for the last 2 weeks. Thankfully the problem's now been solved, but not without a few hiccups.
I tried swapping cables around but that didnt help - so took it back to where I bought it and:

1. Store tested it, acknowledged it was making a weird noise, replaced it for free - said it was probably a loose coil.
2. The new PSU lasted about an hour before shutting down weirdly and refusing to turn back on.
3. Took the new PSU back, store tested it again and said it didnt turn on. They replaced it for free again, this time with an X-760 as they just sold out of 750's. (luckily for me).
4. Tried the 760, same problem as before - pc didn't turn on.
5. Finally just took my whole PC to get checked out by the same place, and it turns out one of the molex connectors from some led lights on the front of the case were loose, messing up the system and preventing it from turning on. They told me they'd seen the same thing before with case lights and fans.

So the original PSU was faulty.. but i guess i accidentally blew the replacement X-750 with a loose case led molex connector.

Lessen learned: Beware of loose molex connectors. I didnt think something like that could damage a power supply like the X-750.

 

[RoboTree]

Best answer selected by RoboTree.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey