Does thermal paste cause motherboard buzzings in CPU area?

DV2FOX

DV2FOX

DV2FOX

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We recently added a NH-U12A CB CPU cooler and after cleaning the CPU with alcohol (we don't have the isopropyl one but we let it dry and clean up) it seemed a tiny bit of thermalpaste went behind the CPU at the borders of the pins.

We tried to clean it up as much as possible without touching the pins

However after installation and 2 days later the CPU area at the motherboard's behind starting making a faint yet deep annoying buzzing sound. It happens randomly but i thought the thermalpaste touching the CPU socket might be causing it

The CPU temps are normal, 33C around

If that's the case, am i screwed or is there a way to clean it up properly without damaging the motherboard/CPU?.. Or is the motherboard kinda dying?. One thing for sure: The noise must get out
 
DV2FOX said:
We recently added a NH-U12A CB CPU cooler and after cleaning the CPU with alcohol (we don't have the isopropyl one but we let it dry and clean up) it seemed a tiny bit of thermalpaste went behind the CPU at the borders of the pins.

We tried to clean it up as much as possible without touching the pins

However after installation and 2 days later the CPU area at the motherboard's behind starting making a faint yet deep annoying buzzing sound. It happens randomly but i thought the thermalpaste touching the CPU socket might be causing it

The CPU temps are normal, 33C around

If that's the case, am i screwed or is there a way to clean it up properly without damaging the motherboard/CPU?.. Or is the motherboard kinda dying?. One thing for sure: The noise must get out
Click to expand...
My immediate thought was that this sounds like coil whine, for which there is no solution except motherboard replacement. It is normal unfortunately and is not necessarily an indicator that your board is dying, new boards suffer from this issue as well as old ones. Whether your VRMs (they live near the CPU) have it or not is a lottery.

It might instead be an issue of the fan resonating on the cooler, but the way you have described it definitely makes me think coil whine. I don't think it is thermal paste related, but I'm no authority on the subject.
 
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Shouldn't be the thermal paste
Sounds more like resonance
If its coil whine then it should have happened
With the previous cooler too
Assuming there was a previous cooler

Would double check that everything on the cooler
Is tightly mounted

You can always upload the sound
So we can listen
Which makes life a lot easier

Could also disconnect the cooler fan/fans
As an additional test
 
Put old cooler back and see if the problem goes. If so, reseat new cooker making sure it is secure. Try again.
 
As above disconnect fan to check however pc may power off unless you change settings in bios to not power off if fan rpm is 0
 
A few days ago i placed the old cooler, Noctua NH-D15 CB, and the noise is there too. Again, with the previous cooler, before this changfe, this NEVER happened

Yes, i've made sure that when screwing the cooler in again i held the backplate with a hand so that the bolts were tightly screwed (without overdoing it) while the plate remains attached there to prevent having a "separation" with the motherboard (Leading to vibrations)

And when installing the cooler itself (Not the holding mounts) i followed the instructions of "Do 2-3 spins on one bolt, then move to the next one. Rinse and repeat till it's tightly mounted"

However i gotta add that sometimes the mount holders were dancing around and LIGHTLY hit some of the black capacitors that surrounds the CPU. Not sure if this is the reason or the PSU is starting to lose power or have coil whine there that might affect the other components, and it's just nearly 3 years old...

And that the baseplate on the new one had a tiny scratch but it was smooth and soft without any bumpings. People said that thermal paste "fills it up". Temps stays at 33-34C on IDLE with STEAM off (STEAM likes to mess things up, but even worse Microsoft Edge tasks even tho i don't use the app but i need the app to make other apps to work, sadly)

This is a vid of the actual cooler. Rise the volume to the max as it's hard to hear

PC:

Be Quiet! DARK BASE PRO 901
CORSAIR RM1200x SHIFT (European cable)
ASUS X570 TUF GAMING PLUS
RYZEN 5800X3D
Noctua NH-U12A Chromax Black
GIGABYTE RTX 4070 Super
2 SATA SSDs, 1 SATA HDD, 1 SATA DVD drive

HDD has been disconnected because it'd interfere with it's own noise

While i can hear the noises the phone doesn't catches em sometimes (mostly the CPU fans), at 0:59 it should be hearable from behind the CPU's mounting plate.

Noises that i am hearing are:

-Motherboard: Front: Around the cooler. Rear: More heard at 0:59 behind the mounting plate, same area as the front.

-GPU: While it's not "heard", if i put my left ear at the GIGABYTE RGB logo my left ear can hear/feel an "intensification" in that area. Rest of the GPU (ports, heatsink by the left and center , and PSU cable) are not heard on both ears. If i disable the RGB with GIGABYTE's app the noise remains there. If i unplug the GPU from the PCI port the sound's gone (But i need the GPU...)

-PSU: It does a soft and faint sssssss like if it was an electrical version of an HDD spinning. After a few seconds it stops but it returns 3-5 seconds after

-HDD: While it doesn't shows connected in the vid to isolate the noises some, this one, a WD Blue SATA HDD 4TB has like 3 noises: Spinning (Acceptable), chirping and a kind of ssssssss like the PSU does. Not sure if the PSU has something to do with it

What i want to know is why these noises are happening and how i can silence them. No, i do not have people to change parts to test things out with so it's all about buying new hardware and try out one by one

Reason i'm asking this is because i have tinnitus and i want to prevent ASAP that these noises gets recorded in my ears FOREVER, and while some are temporal, others aren't... And that i want my PC to stay silent again (Within the fans' noise)
 
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I can only really hear the fan noise
Though I am old
So not the ideal person for this
As can't hear certain frequencies younger
People are able to

Coil whine off a gpu is certainly possible
Though usually when it's under load
Not idle

What fans are spinning in the video?
Unplugging those may help with hearing the sound

Not used mechanical hard drives in over 10 years
But yeah those can be noisy
 
The GPU's CW is not the usual "i move the mouse and hear it" but an intense "silent frequency" where if i approach my right ear to the RGb area nothing happens, but if i put the less one i notice the intensity out of it

However my left ear notices the mouse movement in another intense yet lighter noise, but the GPU doesnt do it's Bzzzzzzt CW noise like when ya playing a game in high settings and over 60FPS (Most common fact, i know, but just letting ya know). The silent intensity and mouse moving is much more noticeable if i do a GPU stress test on OCCT

If i sit and turn on the PC nothing happens but a few secs later my left ear detects the GPU's noise

The motherboard's noise is random as to when it happens on Idle or light tasking. On OCCT might appear but the fan kinda masks it but it's still there

Rear fan at 900RPM, 1 of the 2 CPU fans at 1400RPM (RAM one, due to air turbulence), 2 top and 2 front at 1200RPM those sets
 
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