CPU-Whining?
Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1842
Printed Date: 20 Jul 2025 at 11:16pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: CPU-Whining?
Posted By: Tenkei
Subject: CPU-Whining?
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2016 at 11:44pm
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Recently I've noticed that my PC does some strange buzzing noises on idle, when the energy plan is set to "performance" mode. I'm pretty sure that it comes from the CPU socket area of the motherboard. Disabling the C-States and/or setting the energy plan to "balanced" stops the noise. However, I get a weird buzzing/highpitched noise while moving the mouse, no matter which energy plan is set or when the C-States are disabled. Lowering the polling rate of the mouse will also lower the noise, but it's still there. I've tried 3 mice and everyone has the same accustic feedback, which is kind of annoying. I've already removed my GPU,WLAN Card, soundsystem, monitors,keyboard etc. and plugged my PC in a different wall socket, but without any luck. Any thoughts what could cause this? My system: Case: Fractal Design Define S PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 550W ATX 2.4 MB: ASRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6 CPU: Intel Core i7-6700k GPU: Palit Jetstream GTX 970 RAM: G.Skill Trident Z 16GB DDR4, 3000Mhz SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 256GB WLAN: Asus PCE-AC68 OS: Windows 10 64bit |
Replies:
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 27 Jan 2016 at 11:52pm
| You will need to try and identify exactly where the noise is coming from. It may be necessary to take the board out of the PC and bench run it so you can gain access to more of the board and check where the whine is coming from. My guess would be one of the power coils near the VRMs or possibly the GPU. If that is the case I would RMA the guilty culprit. The "whine" is due to the design of coils and the insulation used to "deaden" this sound, if there is not enough insulation the sound will be audible, generally it does not effect performance or life span, it is just annoying. I usually recommend RMA as it will drive you crazy over time. |
Posted By: Tenkei
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 1:12am
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Thanks for the clarification. I removed the GPU again (just to make sure) and the backpanel of the case. The backside of the motherboard is fortunately visible so I didn't have to take it out. I think you're right. it's one of the coils near of the rear panel I/O. I already requested an RMA of the motherboard because the noise is giving me headeaches. |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 2:21am
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Its always best to RMA any component that has a coil whine when you first notice it. I have had to live with a GPU that had coil whine once because I missed the return window and that thing annoyed me so much I ended up giving it away and buying a new one...... Irritatingly it worked fine in a friend's PC, that or his fans were so loud he couldn't hear it lol
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Posted By: castelL
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 10:52am
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I buy only few days motherboard AsRock Z170 Extreme4 and i have noise/sound issue coming from motherboard "coil whine", specifically coming from VRM-CPU or something I/O. I return it and i buy expensive motherboard: AsRock Z170 Gaming K6 which also has "coil whine" noise/sound problem again coming from VRM-CPU or something I/O. PC specs: i7-6700k+scythe mugen max kingston fury x 2x 8gb 2400mhz r9 390 msi 250gb ssd, 2x 1tb hdd evga 750w g2 I tried other/another: psu, ram, without gpu (igpu), cpu. disable ssd/hdd/coolers and not help me. If you disable C-state, problem solved on Gaming K6, but this "solution" not help me on Extreme4. I very disappointed with AsRock boards, specifically Z170. I have few boards (Haswell) B85 chipset without any issue. AsRock have great motherboard for price/perfomance. Any coil whine on Z170 chipset, have only AsRock :( Now i don't feel my board on RMA, because in my country (Slovakia), RMA solved mostly 30+ days. This is my work PC and i need working. Probably solution is again returned mothearboard and buy another brand. Or is there other solution? Sorry for bad English.
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Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 11:09am
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castelL, Seeings your on a second board and hearing a whine, I guess it's possible, but I highly doubt two boards would present the same issue. Not one after the other. You don't say what Country you're from, yet another cause of coil whine is attributable to dirty power and or current coming in from the outside, off the distribution pole. Are you positive it's not coming from a fan(caes or HS/F) or quite possibly a piece of the HS mounting or anything else metal that is loosely in harmonics and in turn resonating to the pitch you're hearing ? |
Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 2:01pm
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The odds of getting 2 boards with coil whine is almost impossible. If you have had 2 boards that exhibit the same problem then it can't be a fault with the board. I would guess as Wardog said, probably bad power getting to the unit somehow. Your description exactly matches the symptoms of coil whine on a motherboard, even the reduction in whine when disabling C-States. The good news is that it is not a sign of a damaged/defective product. If disabling C-States cuts out the noise then using it in this way is perfectly safe. This issue happens fairly often, more commonly in GPUs. I have never had or seen an ASRock board with this problem however so the likelihood you have gotten so unlucky as to get 2 in a row are slim to none. If you can, try borrowing a UPS and connecting the system through that and see if it helps the issue. ------------- 
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Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 3:30pm
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I had this problem with an Intel G45 board. Disabling C States stopped the whining, but the CPU in that board had very simple C States, possibly only C3 at that time. The coil whine is most likely from the inductors used in the CPU VRMs. My ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ board has no coil whine, and I use C States. To verify it is the CPU VRM stage making the noise, all video cards must be removed from the board. Trying to locate the source of very high frequency noise like coil whine is difficult and tricky. I've heard of SSDs producing coil whine-like noise. Imagine production runs of various mother boards. They all don't use parts from the same production run from the part supplier. So imagine a less than optimally damped production run of inductors is received by a mother board manufacture. Any of the boards using those parts have the potential for having the coil whine problem. If a board is returned to a retailer for this issue, and is replaced with another one of the same model, the two boards may have been from the same shipment or even the same large box received by the store. Meaning they were made and packaged on the same day, and all have the same parts. So it is possible to get two boards that both have a coil whine problem. PSUs and video cards can have the same situation with their parts. Of course, to conclude that all ASRock Z170 boards have coil whine when a person has used two of them, is completely wrong and is not an example of critical thinking. Just as it would be wrong for me to say other Z170 boards cannot have coil whine, because my Z170 board does not have coil whine. Unfortunately, some people will read the one sentence about coil whine in an ASRock Z170 board, and will believe and remember it. That is even worse but all to common on the Internet. I try to notice and fix/refute nonsense statements like this in forums, but some people enjoy hating things. Noise in the AC line can cause this, as well as less than optimal AC filtering in a PSU. That's why I always use some sort of AC line filtering device (NOT necessarily a UPS, which I don't like), or several in series. Also, nothing less than the best PSUs, Seasonic or others from known OEMs like SuperFlower or Delta. There is only so much that can be done to clean up noise. Poor AC power sources are all to common. Ever since I began using Kill-A-Watt products, I can judge a power source pretty well after a while. I live in a good power area now.  ------------- http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow"> 
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Posted By: Tenkei
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 6:25pm
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Today I checked my system again and here's what I've found out: - Changing to "power savings" in power plan settings stops the noise completely. No more highpitched sounds when I'm moving the mouse. The major drawback is that the CPU frequency won't go up higher than 800Mhz. - I noticed that my system produces some noises when the SSD is under load. I opened the side panel of the case to check while Crystaldiskmark was running. The SSD stayed quiet, but I heard some highpitched noises around the VRM of the motherboard (under the heatsink of the Z170 Logo I believe). - The PSU is so silent that it's actually difficult to tell if the fan is even spinning. - The system is plugged into an outlet surge protector. Nothing changes when I plug the system directly into the wall socket. Also my alienware notebook and Zotac Zbox don't have this problem.
Which AC line filtering device are you currently using? |
parsec wrote:Posted By: castelL
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 8:02pm
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I have another build with ASUS H110, G4400 and 4GB DDR4 without any coil whine problem. Extreme4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpzCSg_PsCk Gaming K6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnsKHB859SE I try: - cooler scythe mugen max or box - other RAM - other PSU (Fractal Integra M) - disable SSD or HDD - with GPU and without GPU (iGPU) - unplug the USB C-state disable currently solved this problem but i think that isn't a great solution. Thats not help me! My build before was i5-4690k with MSI Z97 boards and no problem with same anoher components. On my PSU i tested a lot of builds without any problem.
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Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 8:11pm
I'm confused now. I thought the PSU was New as you posted earlier? |
Posted By: castelL
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 8:18pm
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New build is only cpu-mobo-ram (skylake). Other components is older. Buyed in 2015 (march). Now i bought Skylake platform in this month. I working sometimes with HW, thats a reason i try with my PSU other builds. Sorry, my bad. actually my builds is: i7-6700k + scythe mugen max asrock z170 gaming k6 2x 8gb ddr4 2400mhz kingston msi r9 390 crucial ssd mx200 250gb 2x 1tb wd blue evga g2 750w fractal design r5
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Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 8:56pm
It's fine. I was only looking for clarification before commenting further. The 500w PSU is at the minimum for powering a GTX 970. I might suggest laying your hands on a solid, Seasonic/Superflower built 650w and retest. Yea. I'm still standing by this being power related. Just now it's narrowing down some in considering the PSU is used and at it's limits with powering a 970 now. I may be wrong too but it's unbelievable to get two different boards, mind you same installed components!!, and have a whining issue. |
Posted By: Tenkei
Date Posted: 28 Jan 2016 at 8:58pm
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@castelL My motherboard whines like your extreme4/K6. It sounds awful combined with the highpitched buzzing noise when I'm moving the mouse. ASRock replied to my concern and they told me that I should replace the motherboard... I hope that the new one, which will arrive on next week, will fix this once and for all. If not, then I'm stuck in a vicious circle. I will try to reseat and check every component carefully, change every cable etc. |
Posted By: castelL
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2016 at 12:09am
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I have AMD graphic card - MSI R9 390 and PSU Evga 750w G2 it must be enough. I tried yet other PSU without graphic card (iGPU enable): Fractal Design Integra M 450W and Antec 550W (both 80PLUS Bronze) and it did not help. Is there possible option bios fix it? It seems to me impossible :D Now i think is nothing help me with this "issue". I don't time to wait for RMA assessment. I have ordered another brand but still i wait for another brand help me or no. I will write as soon as possible. ASUS board with i7-6700k or G4400 it's OK, no coil whine but is h110 chipset. I asked the shop how many motherboard sold: Extreme4 (only 1 witch i bought) Gaming K6 (only 2 witch 1 i bought).
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Posted By: Xaltar
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2016 at 12:30am
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Unfortunately this happens on occasion, as Parsec stated it is caused by a batch of components that have poor sound dampening finding their way to a manufacturer. The problem is that the testing phase of the production line checks for electronic failures not for coil whine. Seeing as the parts work within specification regardless of poor sound dampening means they get through quality control and onto the shelves. Electronically speaking there is nothing wrong with them but oh boy can it be annoying having that whine/hiss/buzz coming from your PC. Based on the fact that there are 2 of you with 3 boards between you that have coil whine I would guess that there is a batch of boards out there that received these less sound insulated components as Parsec explained. ASRock already stated that they recommend and RMA which should tell you that they value their product reputation and quality. I have on more than one occasion had a manufacturer refuse me and RMA for coil whine with GPUs. The thing is, legally speaking they are not obligated to as the products are functioning as per specification. The fact that ASRock (among others) now actually encourage RMA for coil whine is a great sign for customer satisfaction. I am sorry you have opted for another brand but given that you have had 2 different model boards from that store that both had whine it is probably your best option unless you chose to get a refund from that store and purchase a new ASRock board from another one (hardly practical). Good luck with your issue and I sincerely hope that you resolve your issue regardless of the brand of board. -------------
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Posted By: wardog
Date Posted: 29 Jan 2016 at 4:04am
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Agreed. You(we) have tried and looked at what we can. Send he back. |
Posted By: Grimmkyu
Date Posted: 10 Oct 2016 at 11:27pm
| I know this thread is 9 months old now, but I recently got the same motherboard and it's making the same noises. Rather mainly the noises in the video one guy linked earlier and it coincides with heavy ssd usage even though the device is not directly making noise but rather near the CPU area is. Should I leave as is and not worry about it? The computer was a prebuilt by Microcenter. My PC specs are MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G I7-6700k 4.00ghz CPU AsRock Fatal1ty Z170 Gaming K6 SanDisk z400s 256gb SSD EVGA SuperNOVA 650w P2 modular. As it is a prebuilt I would have to return the entire setup to the store or void warranty and switch boards. Has anyone with this issue noticed any issues because of it? |