CPU emitting some buzzing noises

Okay, I've run into the weirdest problem that I thought some of you guys may be able to help with.

TL;DR
My CPU is making an odd buzzing sound that is related to C-states.

Long version
I bought a new A6-3500 Llano paired with Asus F1A75-I Deluxe motherboard. I put it together and noticed that it starts to make a buzzing sound as soon as Windows boots, and sometimes in the bios interface. It sounds like the sound that older hard drives used to make when they were seeking.

1) Buzzing sound is unrelated to any fans, since it persists with all the fans unplugged and the power supply moved far enough away that I would be able to tell the direction of the sound.
1+) Also not from hard drive since the sound persists even when I disconnect HDD and boot Linux off a USB (also shows it's not Windows related)
1++) Also not coming from speakers as all speakers, including system speaker, are disconnected.
2) The buzzing sound appears to be coming from around the CPU socket.
3) The sound changes frequency when I move the mouse and goes back to the same frequency when I stop moving the mouse
4) Sound disappears when the CPU is under load
5) Problems 3 and 4 made me think that it's related to power cycling transition, when the motherboard switches the CPU on and off rapidly. To address this, I found that disabling BOTH C-6 state and some ambiguous "C-state Pmin" option in the bios completely makes the sound disappear
6) Thinking it was some weird vibrating capacitor of the motherboard, I RMAd the motherboard, but the new board still makes the same noise
7) This leads me to believe that it's the processor but I don't have time to keep RMAing things

So has anyone else run into anything similar?

Any clue as to what's causing this?

It's coil whine. It isn't the CPU but more likely one/several of the chokes around the CPU. You can get coil whine out of a PSU very commonly. A mobo is less common but it happens. I've seen it on a notebook.

Theocnoob said:

It's coil whine. It isn't the CPU but more likely one/several of the chokes around the CPU. You can get coil whine out of a PSU very commonly. A mobo is less common but it happens. I've seen it on a notebook.

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Yeah, but its unlikely that two motherboards in a row would do that unless it was a design or manufacturing process flaw that was common to that line.

Have not heard your problem to date in this forum and not really doing a g00gle search, so since changing the power states makes a change in the noise, I would think you have no choice but to RMA the cpu. The board RMA did not fix it, so there is not much left.

+1 for coil whine, i had a 775 mobo do it and my p67ga-ud4 used to do it occasionally when i had it at higher clocks as long as everything runs fine i wouldnt worry about it. ive heard covering the coils with some hot glue can dampen the noise, but idk if id recommend it as idk how conductive hot glue is. if the noise is bothersome then i would rma the board and pick another

I looked up coil whine and the first video that comes up sounds very similar to what I'm experiencing. The person also states that their sound goes away when the CPU is under load.

If it's not coming from the motherboard (since two boards had the same issue, or unless it's a design flaw), can it be coming from the CPU? There are no coils on the CPU itself.

I can look at the power supply again, and perhaps try a different PSU, but I'm fairly certain it sounded like it was coming from around the CPU area, even when the PSU was moved far away.

I really don't believe the CPU would make a noise that sounds anything like coil whine. More likely its the particular mainboard model you have.

I've seen this issue on quite a few notebook computers, and the occasional desktop. In each case it was the mainboard.

just a thought, but glob vasline on the coils. (unless you plan to rma the board)
(I've had a mobo coated in the stuff running for 4 months now, its totally safe)

If it is coil whine then it should dampen the sound.

No experience with coin whine or wierd sounds though.

Won't work on the chokes around the processor dude

mjw21a said:

Won't work on the chokes around the processor dude

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I don't remember seeing any inductors that are not plastic encased on a good mobo in a few years now anyway.

Most coils are resin Encased these days. You are right RGone.

Have you tried a different power supply? I have seen a few power supplys that have problems Caused by similar things in the powerphases of motherboards. I haven't seen it in the last 10 years much but that could be something really simple to check.

If the power supply is the fault here theres a chance the board might still be ok. Alot of the power regulation circuitry these days is designed to be rather forgiving.

I'm having this issue too with sabertooth 990x and FX -8120, and it do noises when is underload with high clocks

I received the exact same Motherboard/CPU combo in the mail today and I immediately noticed the whine as soon as linux starts up. I can't hear it in bios, and disabling C6 states removes the majority of the sound (I can still hear it a bit). I hooked it up to a different PSU and have the exact same whining sound. I'm not too sure what to do here, since I can't be sure if it's the CPU/GPU combo, or the board itself. I took a look around the CPU and can't seem to see any coils either, but this is without lifting the heatsink off again... I guess they're pretty tiny.

A6-3500
Asus F1A75-I Deluxe
Pico-PSU (150w)

For anyone who is still trying fix this issue i have a fix for you. I work at a computer company and was receiving the same problems. I had changed all components and gone through every bios setting you could imagine and the last thing to try was the case. when running the system out of the case i found that it would work without a problem. i then looked under the motherboard and noticed that there were a lot of components on the bottom of the board which is not normal. When fitting the motherboard within the case the components from the motherboard were sitting on the motherboard tray due to the case which i was using having only small risers. The only way then to fix the issue was to change the case to a different model which used higher risers. Hope this helps anyone with the same issue as it was mind boggling to start with.

Is it actually a buzzing noise or more of a whine? The whine would most likely be coils but a buzzing noise could mean the air gap between the motherboard and motherboard tray is getting ionized in light of what aidenr posted.

I have the same problem, Asus M5A99X EVO and FX-8120. Whining from mobo or cpu when idling at 1400 MHz, it disapperas under load. Also completely gone when disabling the C6 state from bios. It's not related to high clock speeds, since it's on stock setting also.

Does C6 state actually have impact on energy consupted by CPU when it's idle?

I noticed today that the coil whine is gone even though I have C6-state enabled. Previously it always started when idle at 1400 MHz. I found out that it doesn't whine if you set a fixed cpu voltage, not auto or offset. When in C6 state it idles at 1400 MHz with the same voltage than in full speed, so something causes the whine when idling at 1400 MHz and auto sets the voltage to 1.1V.

I would say that it's more of a buzzing sound than a whine but pretty high frequency.
As for setting it to a fixed voltage, I know that on some motherboards (my
Asus A8N SLI) manually setting the voltage disables some of the power savings features. This probably automatically disables the C-state or some related feature on your board, which is probably why you don't hear the buzzing.
I have tried a different power supply and it doesn't seem to help.
I RMAd the board, and the new one has the same problem.
As for the case, I find it makes the sound even when I don't have it in a case.

Try a different brand board to see if it happens with that bit it sounds more like the coils I don't think changing your case will make any difference at all. You could also try set your bios manually to see if it helps also leave C6 state disabled if it helps. All in all if your system works fine I would just leave it to see if it sorts itself out

I have exactly same issue with buzzzing sound. Except MS Sidewinder.
AMD A8-3870
ASUS F1A75-V EVO

Sound comes from CPU. But when i play games or watch movies it doesn't buzz.
I've also noticed that when on desktop, mouse movement buzzes only in certain territory. Doesn't buzz at right side nor bottom. I'm not sure has it always buzzed.
F***ING ANNOYING!

If you find a solution post it here, please, thank you!