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Sound coming from my PSU

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Logiven

Registered
Joined
Mar 12, 2012
I'm making copy paste from my thread at corsair forums with some edits... hope someone can help.


>>
sometimes i can hear a BUZZ coming from the PSU not even turned on (it was on when the sound started) and the switch behind off, when I turn it on the buzz is louder but after a while the buzz disappears...

this is the sound >>
remember this is with the switch off and coming directly near the cable slot from the back of the psu(some say is a vibrating transformer I have no idea), I turned off the pc used other cable still the buzz, disconnected ground still, but after a while unplugged and the switch off then plug in again the sound disappeared...

>>
there's no way to say why is this and if it's dangerous ? I don't care about the sound it makes (only happened twice, it's not always) i'm just afraid it will damage my hardware... i have played, the system is stable playing for now.

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And Today something weird happened, other pc (new, i bought it yesterday) with a generic psu and a i5 2300, started to make the same sound exactly after this psu did it but also its monitor was showing a 1 pixel small line going up constantly, i turned off this pc with the corsair PSU, and it was still showing it, disconnected completely the corsair psu from the wall and after a while the sound and line were gone from the other PC, i have to say, the other pc is not in the same circuit breaker, but i guess they are in the same electric line. ALSO the pc with corsair psu is the only one with ground but, some people in others forums told me that connecting ground to the pipe inside the outlet box isnt the way to do ground, but i live in a department and I have no idea how to do it, also they also told me the ground has nothing to do with the sound and pc should work fine without ground.
can anybody give me a clue of what's happening??

Edit: I tested without ground and it did it again :/ dissapeared after a while

is the corsair psu triggering this?

The psu is connected to an APC 1200 line-r and the sound follows the avr when the psu is connected to it, but disappears from if it's not.
 
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Sounds like the fan bearing/motor to me dude. It's far to regular to be anything else. I'm going purely off your recorded sound for that. As for your other findings I'll wait for someone a little more qualified to comment. Sounds like a fairly unusual problem.

You're running a generic PSU on something as nice as an i5? Personally I'd be replacing that where possible with something less likely to kill your hardware. Having said that, not all generics are rubbish, although they're more likely to be bad than branded units. You're really leaving your system up to chance by running one though.
 
it cant be the psu fan, since the sounds gets produced to the AVR too if it's connected to it and it's obviously an electrical sound.

I know having the i5 on a generic psu is a bad idea but it's all i can do for now, I'll be buying some better quality later on.

Remember this i5 was not here when the problem started and also this pc psu does the same sound when the other one an i7 with the corsair hx1050 does it too, so it has to be something related to electricity, either the psu the avr or the very electric line. but I'm out of ideas...
 
Unusual. So, this only occurs when its plugged into the UPS? Also, does the same thing occur if the other system is plugged into the UPS?
 
Not an ups, is an AVR, both PC are connected to a different AVR in a different outlet, i tried connecting other PSU directly to the wall in other outlet when the sound was there and I couldnt hear it (tried to test it directly from the outlet with the issue but it faded).... and If I connect the corsair directly to the wall when this is happening I can hear it from the psu then it fades. not sure if the AVR has something to do... right now i removed all the ground from all the devices connected to the AVR and see what happens, the sound didn't show up in like a week since the first time it happened so I can't find the problem easily...

I can play for hours and the system is stable, psu voltages are normal and stable like always.
 
To me it sounds like the problem is your AVR unit, not the power supplies.... Sorry I misread your earlier posts.

I'd run your system without the AVR for a few weeks and see if this reoccurs. If not, plug it back in for a few weeks and once more see if the issue reoccurs. If it does then you've isolated the problem to the AVR. Buzzing noises in a PSU, particularly a quality unit is never a good sign. If the AVR is causing this then I suggest that you may not want to use it.
 
I think I could kill my psu without the AVR brownouts are common here, and I don't know if the shop is willing to change the AVR since it has a crack in the plastic case that I didn't notice when I got it :/

There was other problem with this PC(i7) that dissapeared when I removed the grounds from their cables at the avr:

First I had the monitor and psu grounded and in game menus like battlefield 3 I could see a constant and noticeable horizontal wave in the monitor and some scanlines while playing, I decided to remove the ground from the monitor and it disappeared, then in the game menu of trine2, bioshock or in the bios logo I could see diagonal waves going up and after removing the ground from the PSU it disappeared completely... I wonder why, bad ground? the avr is still grounded right now but the components connected to it no.
 
Hey what part of the world are you in? Specifically, 110v or 220v?
I ask because all modern APFC (no voltage switch) power supplies are happy from around 100v to 264v, a wider range than many AVRs. Some units are even happy down to 90v.

Your PSU may actually have a wider acceptable input range than the AVR does.
 
Venezuela, Voltage here is 120v, that's what the electric bill says too, so the avr is set to that, if I select 110v the overvoltage led turns on obviously.
 
Does the AVR have any sort of logging so you'd know how low the brownouts go?
 
No, I just hear a click sound when the room light dims for like half second
 
I think I'll leave you talking to Bob on this..... It's a little beyond me I think.
 
Heh I really don't know either, it sounds like the AVR unit has interesting ideas regarding it's ground vs real ground and such. I have no real experience in the area of AVR and UPS units and such, I'm just guessing here :D
 
well thanks for help, I have 7 years warranty with corsair so np if it blows lol i'll keep guessing until it's gone, if not well whatever i'm not waiting 2 months while corsair process my rma
 
OK I think i found the source of my problem, I was on my pc when suddenly this sound starts again, ok! went to the other pc to check if it was mine only and the same sound was there so then! looking for any changes in the house I found my mom using the water filter OK! I turned it off and TADA sound gone! turned in ON sound back again! so I think Obviously is the water filter making noise to the line, but why cant the regulator handle it ? I thought it was made to filter those things unless it needs more range but then is not as good as I thought so if by any chance you get this problem start checking every single electric device in your house any of those is bad quality. I wonder if it can extend the noise to others devices in the neighborhood lol
 
What the hell kind of water filter is that!? lol
Must be a serious filter and a half.
Does it have a pump?
Certain kinds of loads do rather bad things to the sine wave of incoming voltage. Fluorescent lights for instance just use the peak of it, they're low wattage so it doesn't make a difference though. If your water filter has a pump that just uses the top bits (and your wiring is dubious. My wiring certainly is) it make be taking the sine wave and turning it into a squarer wave that the AVR doesn't appreciate much.
Alternatively it's possible that it is just noisy, or that the return wire has a somewhat dubious connection somewhere.

This investigation just got blown wiiiiiide open, there are sorts of interesting possibilities now!

Thanks for reporting back!
 
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