Buzzing Noise

JakeDB · 26 Apr 2014 at 19:32

Hi all,

I ordered the parts of my computer on the 31st of March and built the rig a few days later. Everything has been running fine apart from this slight buzzing noise. It doesn't always buzz, I've tried to narrow it down and it seems to start when I launch a game, if I minimise the game the buzz will stop, open the game back up and it's buzzing again.

I have tried removing the power cables into the graphics card and just run the onboard graphics. I loaded the game up and the buzzing wasn't present. Plugged the graphics card back in and voila, it's back!

When the buzzing noise does occur, I get some interference I believe on the monitor as well, it sort of goes a little wavy.

Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks.

Just want to add that if I turn V-Sync on the buzzing and interference on screen seems to stop, guess I can accept that as a short-term fix.

wazza300 · 26 Apr 2014 at 20:05

what board and graphic card?

JakeDB · 26 Apr 2014 at 20:17

wazza300 said:
what board and graphic card?

Board: Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX
Card: Powercolor Radeon R9 280X TurboDUO 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express

--

Just want to add that if I turn V-Sync on the buzzing and interference on screen seems to stop, guess I can accept that as a short-term fix. (also added to the first post)

wazza300 · 26 Apr 2014 at 22:14

It's coil or capacitor whine due to very high frames per second

Is it loud to hear over your pc noise? And can you hear it in actual gameplay or just game menus ect

JakeDB · 26 Apr 2014 at 23:10

wazza300 said:
It's coil or capacitor whine due to very high frames per second

Is it loud to hear over your pc noise? And can you hear it in actual gameplay or just game menus ect

Yeah, It's quite loud. It was masked by my speakers which had a similar buzzing noise to them, after I got rid of the speakers I was then able to hear that the computer was also buzzing.

It's whenever the game is loaded and on screen, If I click the little (-) then the noise stops are becomes a lot quieter.

Have any advice on what I could do? Should I e-mail the manufacturer as it's only been 28~ days, or will they all be the same?

tamzzy · 26 Apr 2014 at 23:14

run heaven benchmark for 48h, if that doesn't solve it (or make it bearable), you can a) dsr or b) ask the etailer nicely for a replacement

/coilwhinesucks

wazza300 · 26 Apr 2014 at 23:18

It's pretty much the norm to hear it in game menus,all three of my gpu's do it,2 7850's and a 7970

I can hear it coming from my pc case and in game menus and that's it,not in the actual game or through the speakers ect

You could rma if its excessively loud,you might get a louder/quieter card Idk

JakeDB · 27 Apr 2014 at 00:17

tamzzy said:
run heaven benchmark for 48h, if that doesn't solve it (or make it bearable), you can a) dsr or b) ask the etailer nicely for a replacement

/coilwhinesucks

Thanks, will give this a shot. Hopefully it makes it a little more bearable.

wazza300 said:
It's pretty much the norm to hear it in game menus,all three of my gpu's do it,2 7850's and a 7970

I can hear it coming from my pc case and in game menus and that's it,not in the actual game or through the speakers ect

You could rma if its excessively loud,you might get a louder/quieter card Idk

Thanks, will try Tamzzy's suggestion out and if that doesn't work and it's still unbearable i'll try to rma it. Otherwise, I guess it's time to purchase a nice headset.

keyser · 27 Apr 2014 at 08:31

I had this a while ago, turned out to be a gfx card powersaving feature turning on/off quickly and by quickly I mean after each frame. Disabled it, whine gone. I have nVidia here so not sure what AMDs power options are called (nVidias is in Manage 3D Settings > Power management mode > Prefer max performance).

JakeDB · 27 Apr 2014 at 10:05

keyser said:
I had this a while ago, turned out to be a gfx card powersaving feature turning on/off quickly and by quickly I mean after each frame. Disabled it, whine gone. I have nVidia here so not sure what AMDs power options are called (nVidias is in Manage 3D Settings > Power management mode > Prefer max performance).

Thanks for your comment, I changed the 'Power Control' setting to max which allows the GPU to have 20% more power if needed, so it doesn't throttle itself when under high performance but it didn't help.

The fact that when the noise appears it affects my screen also is kind of beginning to bug me a little.

Going to swap out the DVI cable see if that causes the screen issue.

tamzzy · 27 Apr 2014 at 11:18

If it affects your screen. I would rma it regardless. Its not working properly

JakeDB · 27 Apr 2014 at 14:03

Running dual screens and it seems to only affect one screen. Yesterday it was my TV, swapped some cables around and now it's my Monitor. Only happens when the squealing is occurring when VSync is off, turn it on and it's instantly fine again.

Will give them an e-mail and see what they say.

JakeDB · 28 Apr 2014 at 12:30

I opened an RMA ticket, but after further testing cables/messing around I'm gonna come to the conclusion that the grainy/white wavy lines which appear when VSync is off is not an issue related to the graphics card, but the cable itself.

I can live with the coil whine, it ain't that bad. Only really noticeable when you mute the sound and shut the windows, but who plays games with the sound muted right?

Thanks for the help, going to hold off sending it back and see what it's like in the next few days.

tamzzy · 28 Apr 2014 at 19:32

try heaven for 48h, usually solves the coil whine (mostly)