PSU coil whine - normal?

[Astraea Kisaragi]

Seeing the PSU discussion down there, I would have a question myself.
Some time ago my Seasonic 400W went bad - bearing of the fan wore out and couldn't replace it due it had a custom 2pin fan and all 12cm fans on local shop are 3pin.
I own now Corsair CX 430 and occassionally it produces a low frequency coil whining. Is not due it would be overloaded, cause it happens almost always in idle. The noise isn't loud at all and it stops after like half hour.
Also noticed that is more frequent on hot days. Now when is arround 20 celsius outside, it doesnt happened for a whole week.
Is that normal or something to worry about?

[_I_]

its normal
sometimes it fixes itself, sometimes it lasts forever
nothign you can do about it

if you got the psu at a local store, you can try exchanging it at the store
else, put the case/pc in a location that you wont hear the coil whine

[ZigZach]

You could carefully apply a small amount of silicone lubricant to the center of the fan where the bearing is. remove the psu before applying, and keep a towel handy for cleaning overspray. This will be temporary, but could last awhile.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If a fan goes up in a PSU (or something like GPU) that is covered under manufacture warranty; should the hardware device still be within the warranty limit.

However if u really needed to replace a PSU fan yourself and it is a 2-pin/wire fan; using other fans shouldn't be an issue. If it is a 3-pin fan, the 3rd pin (usually yellow wire) is for RPM only, not power, so that wire could be removed. Or you can use a 4-pin Molex fan, which is just 2-wire running to a molex end for plugging into standard device molex plug. Either of these fans you can cut the end of and also shorten the wire; then take the fan from the PSU and cut the wire leaving the 2-pin plug intact (allow some slack) and then properly remove the wire covering exposing the bare wire and then connect your new fan wiring to the old fan wiring w/ plug. Twist the wires so they are secure and then wrap each in electrical tape so they are not touching or exposed to touching anything else. Then re-install the fan and plug inside the PSU. Make sure the fan points the correct way, depending on how the original fan was setup.

[_I_]

Originally posted by ZigZach:

You could carefully apply a small amount of silicone lubricant to the center of the fan where the bearing is. remove the psu before applying, and keep a towel handy for cleaning overspray. This will be temporary, but could last awhile.

coil whine is not from a fan

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

Originally posted by ZigZach:

You could carefully apply a small amount of silicone lubricant to the center of the fan where the bearing is. remove the psu before applying, and keep a towel handy for cleaning overspray. This will be temporary, but could last awhile.

i am not the OP and i already heard something like what you describe.
where can one buy this "silicone lubricant" and is it available for less than 5$?

[_I_]

to fix fan noise, adding a drop of sewing machine or a light oil works good
anything under 30wt can work

[Bad 💀 Motha]

For fan noise:
Best way would be to apply directly to the fan motor bearing.
To do this, look at the fan and there should be a flat side w/ sticker. The sticker will cover the access point to the motor bearing. Use a small razor/knife and carefully cut a line through the middle, you will be able to expose it this way, then use the blade tip to peel the sticker to the side just a to allow enough room for a drop or two of light multi-purpose oil. You could use a silicon lube spray, but u will easily apply too much by using this. Try to do it so the sticker stays clean. Once applied and finished, cover the hole with electrical tape, to keep the oil from backing out onto your fan surface area.


Again this is separate from PSU coil-whine. That is usually within the electrical components themselves and you can't really do anything about this. Sometimes poor ground can cause it, but it is sometimes the sign of a poor quality PSU. Even with a quality PSU, u may end up with one here and there that have such an issue, it happens.

If the PSU is new and has coil-whine; allow it some break-in time. Sometimes u may notice a unique smell from a new PSU (which is often quite normal). Allow that to go away, before u judge the coil-whine as being an issue. As that can often dissipate as time goes by. If you've had the PSU for a while and it went from not having any coil-whine to all of a sudden having this issue, I'd return it, or get it replaced under warranty from the manufacture.

[Astraea Kisaragi]

I have it since 4 months, the coil whining started like 1,5 months ago as the hot weather broke in. Perhaps did even before, but is not enough loud the hear it over any active audio.
Though not sure if is about heat tolerance as long I live in a country inside the temperate climate zone and this unit seems to sell well even in much hotter countries.
Currently is completly silent regardless if is idle or maxed Skyrim with 10+ nexus mods.

I was pretty happy with this unit on beginning, but now not sure if is was a good choice. (greetings to the one who said wouldn't touch the CX series even with a stick, I laughed on that - I pay a beer if we ever met)
Unfortunately in my country is pretty limited choice for lower mid-range/mid-range units. Rich gamers buy the too expensive stuff (which I cannot afford) and the common folks buys the crappy Eurocase units (which contain a fireblast magic scroll inside)
Brands with good mid-range like XFX or Antec are accessible only trough specialized shop with too costly shipping.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Could just be drastic changes in ambient room humidity causing it.

[Astraea Kisaragi]

Any suggestion then? The PSU in my secondary PC is getting old anyways, I could put the CX there and get something better for my primary. As long it doesn't has a price with 3 digits.

[_I_]

do you have another psu to use, or can swap it into a different machine

i had one cx430 that had loud coil whine, let it go for a month, and it quieted down
and another psu with quieter noise(that didnt go away), but put it in another machine where the noise wouldnt be as noticable, stuffed behind the tv stand for htpc

if you can exchange it, some whine louder than others, and others are silent
its just luck

seasonic/xfx is not immune to coil whine either

[Astraea Kisaragi]

I have a secondary PC what I use for a old version of Photoshop + some torrent download only. It has a 350W Fortron which is 7 years old. Doubt I could use it in current cause it doesnt has enough SATA connectors for my current setup. Had the idea to put the CX there, cause coil whine is still better as the loudness of a old PSU and for my current machine get something better. Another reason is that the old Fortron PSU isnt even 80 certified. Need look how many molex has the cx.
And regarding XFX, only one shop sells it on other side of country. My local shop sells Fortron, Zalman, Corsair, Coolermaster, Seasonic, Silverstone, Enermax, Thermaltake, Fractal Design and EVGA. And of course the crappy ones like LC Power, Evolveo, Eurocase and Gembird.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

And I've also use many Corsair CX430, 500 PSUs and they never had any coil-whine.
So do not act like it only happens to cheaper quality ones. It can happen to any, period.

My suggestion would be to replace it under warranty. If warranty expired from the manufacture for it, replace it with a new one.

[Nalydyenlo]

Coil whine, although annoying, is not a serious issue and unless it's driving you nuts, I'd say nothing to worry about.

Originally posted by akiranyo:

.... bearing of the fan wore out and couldn't replace it due it had a custom 2pin fan and all 12cm fans on local shop are 3pin.

Just a note in case you ever want to resuscitate your Seasonic 400w:

I recently had a bearing problem like this with a noisy PSU fan. Like a lot of PSU fans it had only two wires. However, I was able to connect a new 3-wire 120mm case fan to the PSU's 2-pin header using a 3-pin (male) to 2-pin (female) adapter cable which I found in my local PC accessory store. It was described as a 3-pin fan adapter for a GPU with a 2-pin header, but it worked great on my PSU. The extra wire on the fan is just a speed monitoring wire anyway and not needed here. If you can't find that adapter cable though, or something like it, the guy in this video shows how you can do more or less the same job by cutting and splicing a few wires.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfcjSDgE3V0

[_I_]

if you can make an adapter or pull the pins and tape the sense wire, the 3-4 pin fan will work fine in its place
just use the black/red wires and ignore the yellow/blue wires, and insilate them with tape