OCZ PSU Slight Buzzing noise

djrobbiepaul · 12 Apr 2011 at 21:12

Hi Guys,

Today i went to plug in a firewire cable into the back of my pc and when my head was next to my pc i noticed that my psu is making a slight buzzing noise.

This same buzzing noise is also heard when the computer is off but switched on at the mains.

Now i have never had my head that close to my pc so it could have been doing it from new. But could this be faulty or is it normal for a slight buzzing noise from psu's.

The psu is a ocz stealth xtreme 500w and is still in warranty.

Tealc · 12 Apr 2011 at 21:39

Depends how slight you mean really. I suppose it must be pretty slight if you have never noticed it before. You will get some energy released as sound in any transformer. Sometimes it's more than others. My OCZ SxS 600w used to have the faintest hum when switched off as it's still converting AC mains power into some amount of DC power. So in summary it's normal for a slight hum.

If it's obtrusive then it might be worth sending it back.

djrobbiepaul · 12 Apr 2011 at 21:46

Yes the buzz is only very slight, the pc tower is at my feet on my desk and when im sat on my chair i cant hear it so like i say i can only hear it very slightly when my ear is next to the case.

My monitor also makes a very slight buzzing noise when its in standby mode so i think you could be right about the noise being generated when a device converts the voltage to DC.

Thanks for the quick response it was just for peace of mind to be honest and just wanted some input from other OCZ users.

bainbridge · 12 Apr 2011 at 23:03

I also get this on my OCZ Stealth Xtreme 600w, always figured it was power still going down the 5v rail to power features such as Wake up on LAN etc.

TerryH · 12 Apr 2011 at 23:10

Buzzing is not a good sign on any PSU, it's the quite often result of being under heavy stress, especially so on cheaper made ones.

Daniel C · 13 Apr 2011 at 11:11

The light switches in my house buzz. Only very slightly. I just assumed its the electricity running through them

SouthEastBlue · 13 Apr 2011 at 12:40

I had a OCZ 500w StealthXtreme PSU buzz/crackle and on inspection I finally found out the metal inside the rocker switch on the back had burnt a small hole through itself and bent slightly out of shape so it was barely making contact. How this hapened from only turning it on and off I've no idea.

I managed to bend the internal part of the switch back so it worked correctly, but it still had the very small burn hole in it which was a little strange.

It's sat in my cupboard now anyway as a spare.