Unusual PSU sound

Du-z · Jun 3, 2008

My PSU (Antec Basiq 500W) makes an electrical whining noise when the computer is turned off. This can be fixed by turning off the power at the wall for 20 second and the turning it back on. I’ve googled this issue and have found no relevant information about.

So I guess my questions are:

1.what’s making the noise (could it just be because it was cheap ($80 AUD))
2.is the noise normal
3.and what can I do about it (it is still under warranty)

thanks in advance.

Freezer7Pro · Jun 3, 2008

It seems some PSUs just do that. My old PSU did that from the beginning to the death.

Du-z · Jun 3, 2008

mmmmm, i guess its just the psu

you get what you pay for ($80)

i also just noticed that when running ati tool the whine gets louder. so much so that i can hear it over the fans. the amount of noise also changes as the cube rotates. i can not figure out if the psu is being overloaded (but i doubt a 8800gt will overload a 500W PSU) or the gpu is whining about the stress

Freezer7Pro · Jun 4, 2008

Du-z said:
mmmmm, i guess its just the psu

you get what you pay for ($80)

i also just noticed that when running ati tool the whine gets louder. so much so that i can hear it over the fans. the amount of noise also changes as the cube rotates. i can not figure out if the psu is being overloaded (but i doubt a 8800gt will overload a 500W PSU) or the gpu is whining about the stress

An 8800GT could very well overload a 500w PSU. My 3870 made my 500w PSU go out with a bang, just a week after I got the card.

Du-z · Jun 4, 2008

Freezer7Pro said:
An 8800GT could very well overload a 500w PSU. My 3870 made my 500w PSU go out with a bang, just a week after I got the card.

the box that the 8800gt came with said that a minimum of 500W would be suficiciant with a quad core processor. seeing as i have a more efficiant dual core (E8400) i though 500W would be more that enough.

and how old was your PSU... not new i presume... mine is

Freezer7Pro · Jun 4, 2008

Du-z said:
the box that the 8800gt came with said that a minimum of 500W would be suficiciant with a quad core processor. seeing as i have a more efficiant dual core (E8400) i though 500W would be more that enough.

and how old was your PSU... not new i presume... mine is

What matters is the amperege, mainly on the +12V rails. The wattage on PSUs is in 90% of cases incorrect. The HX520, for example, has 3x18A 12v rails, about 40A continous, and is marketed at 520w, which is pretty good, as the 12v makes up about 460w, and the remaining rails probably make up that last 80w.

Now I pull out a "COLORS it" 520w PSU that I've got here, and take a look. 25A on the +12V rail... And still marketed at 520w. Just because it's a "500w PSU" doesn't mean it lives up to the requirements of actually being 500w. The PSU market is devilish when it comes to wattage ratings.

As for your question, no, my PSU wasn't new, far from, but it was in good condition (As in undusted monthly, fan replaced twice) and with only about 1000-1500h operational time. It just didn't quite live up to it's ratings, as 33A should be sufficient for any P4 and single-GPU configuration, possibly excluding the high-end G80s.

Du-z · Jun 4, 2008

so you mean that the wattage isn't the only thing to look for.

well heres the specs for the PSU:

Output Voltage

+12V1 1.0A 18.0A ±5％
+12V2 1.0A 18.0A ±5％
-12V 0A 0.3A ±10％

and after some reading i relised that a 8800gt needs 26amps.

should i buy a better PSU or does the card draw some of the 26 amps though the pci-e slot?

Freezer7Pro · Jun 4, 2008

Du-z said:
so you mean that the wattage isn't the only thing to look for.

well heres the specs for the PSU:

Output Voltage

+12V1 1.0A 18.0A ±5％
+12V2 1.0A 18.0A ±5％
-12V 0A 0.3A ±10％

and after some reading i relised that a 8800gt needs 26amps.

should i buy a better PSU or does the card draw some of the 26 amps though the pci-e slot?

If it's some kind of quality in that PSU, it should be sufficient. But if it's a low-quality PSU, like the ones you get with your case, I'd get a new one.

JamesXP · Jun 4, 2008

It's a decent PSU, based off an FSP design.

EmAn · Jun 4, 2008

The way you make it sound is that it is kind of old

we have to take in capacitor aging into effect if this is the case

Now I do not know the capacitors in your PSU but they may be low quality or high quality in either case would suggest the sound is coming from the capacitors so it may be screaming out in pain to you... yet you keep running it and get some kind of sadistic pleasure out of it.... but anyways it sounds like the psu is on its way out and it is time to look for a new psu.

This brings the question. Do you plan on keeping your current rig and slowly upgrading or do you plan on buying a new rig in <6 months... if so then buy one that will power your next rig

Depending which way you answer this will determine the results of what we can help you out with.

ratbuddy · Jun 4, 2008

Du-z said:
so you mean that the wattage isn't the only thing to look for.

well heres the specs for the PSU:

Output Voltage

+12V1 1.0A 18.0A ±5％
+12V2 1.0A 18.0A ±5％
-12V 0A 0.3A ±10％

and after some reading i relised that a 8800gt needs 26amps.

should i buy a better PSU or does the card draw some of the 26 amps though the pci-e slot?

Whoa, you are getting some very bad information here. That 26 amp rating on the 8800GT includes everything else in the system. No way in hell does an 8800GT draw over 300 watts on it's own. I ran the system in my sig except with an 8800GT instead of the GX2 on a 450 watt Antec rated 15+17 amps on the 12v rails with no issues at all.

The person who said an 8800GT can overload a 500 watt PSU just because their PSU (still haven't heard what brand the thing was) happened to die while hooked up to a 3870 is just .. Well, look at it this way: An 8800GT draws 105 watts at full load. That's 8.75 amps.

Just call Antec and see if you need to RMA it. Could be a bad component in the thing making noise at ya..

Freezer7Pro · Jun 4, 2008

ratbuddy said:
Whoa, you are getting some very bad information here. That 26 amp rating on the 8800GT includes everything else in the system. No way in hell does an 8800GT draw over 300 watts on it's own. I ran the system in my sig except with an 8800GT instead of the GX2 on a 450 watt Antec rated 15+17 amps on the 12v rails with no issues at all.

The person who said an 8800GT can overload a 500 watt PSU just because their PSU (still haven't heard what brand the thing was) happened to die while hooked up to a 3870 is just .. Well, look at it this way: An 8800GT draws 105 watts at full load. That's 8.75 amps.

Just call Antec and see if you need to RMA it. Could be a bad component in the thing making noise at ya..

I said you can overload a 500w rated PSU with an 8800GT. I know there's no way in hell to blow a "real" 500w PSU with an 8800GT. A good quality 400w can very well handle an 8800GT, but a $10 600w won't.

ratbuddy · Jun 4, 2008

Freezer7Pro said:
An 8800GT could very well overload a 500w PSU. My 3870 made my 500w PSU go out with a bang, just a week after I got the card.

Freezer7Pro said:
I said you can overload a 500w rated PSU with an 8800GT. I know there's no way in hell to blow a "real" 500w PSU with an 8800GT. A good quality 400w can very well handle an 8800GT, but a $10 600w won't.

So, was your blown PSU a really cheap one? You sure made it sound like 500 watts isn't enough for an 8800GT, and that's not correct.

Freezer7Pro · Jun 4, 2008

ratbuddy said:
So, was your blown PSU a really cheap one? You sure made it sound like 500 watts isn't enough for an 8800GT, and that's not correct.

Wasn't a super-cheap one, it was value-class. 60€ at a local computer store, a HuntKey DH 500. 15+18A. Not very good with today's standards, but it was fairly good back then, about 2.5-3 years ago. I didn't know **** about PSUs back then, either. Now I'm awaiting a HX520 to arrive, so that I can finally use my gaming rig again...

I could've written my first post a little better, my intention is more apparent in my second post. I generalized when I said 500w isn't enough; Most 500w-rated PSUs are really around 300-400w. I've seen 500-watters with as low as a single 15A rail on +12v.

Du-z · Jun 5, 2008

ok thanks for that

i also thought that the amperage might be a bit high considering there are no psu's that can supply that sort of amperage.

ill need a psu for a older computer soon any way there for i might as well buy myself a newer psu. what psu would you reccomend that is not as noisy and at around $100AUD

ill buy it from Umart

Du-z · Jun 5, 2008

this look like a decent psu for $119

Antec NeoPower 2.2 550W Modular

Is moduar the abbility to remove cables that are not needed? that seems handy

Moto7451 · Jun 5, 2008

If it's a humming sound, it's probably a flaw in a choke coil. If they're wound slightly off from where they should be they will resonate. It shouldn't hurt anything. If it gets louder, you may want to replace the unit since the coil may be failing. If it fails due to the coil it shouldn't hurt anything since power will simply be cut off from the rest of the unit.

My Rosewill 500W unit does and it's been in good shape for 3 years. No caps bulging or anything, just a slightly noisy choke. It came that way right out of the box actually. An identical unit I bought for another PC doesn't have the problem.

Du-z · Jun 5, 2008

Moto7451 said:
If it's a humming sound, it's probably a flaw in a choke coil. If they're wound slightly off from where they should be they will resonate. It shouldn't hurt anything. If it gets louder, you may want to replace the unit since the coil may be failing. If it fails due to the coil it shouldn't hurt anything since power will simply be cut off from the rest of the unit.

ok thanks for that info... thant's good that it wont hurt anything

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