annoying sound

e v o

Hi, my old ga 7n400-l1 died, and i just got a A7n8x to replace it. All went fine with the installation, but whenever i enter windows i get this high pitched, very faint electric buzzing noise in the background. It's not any of the fans, and only happens when im in windows or about to enter into it. It stays off when im in the bios, etc. I've had a similar problem like this and it turned out to be a hd. I have that hd in a silentdrive, while my latest hd is a 200 gb seagate. Do you think its the hd? Such a pain....

Ben

PS i've tried everything in the bios settings to make the noise go away, because i had some noises when i overclocked my cpu on my old mb.

EDIT: Bleh i just realized i posted this in the wrong place. Could a mod move this to technology, sorry.

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Dark Lord

if its the same buzz i think i had, its your monitor. something to do with the monitors refresh rate causeing some buzzing noise...
at any rate the easiest way to tell if thats what it is, is when you hear that buzz again turn your monitor off for a moment. if the buzz goes away when you turn it off thats probably what it is. just change your refresh rate to something else and it should go away.

e v o

naw, its in the computer itself. I just tested and its not the hds so it must be a setting on the motherboard. I installed yesterday, and don't remember hearing it until i changed some bios settings, but i can;t remember which...

edit: well im pretty sure its overclocking related now, lol. I had this problem with the last motherboard. At times if i can the fsb too high even at 200, i would get these weird noises that would come when id load a 3d app. I lowered my fsb to 166 and the high pitched noise is gone. The thing that is weird is that it's inconsistant. On my old board, i could eventually run it at 200 without the noises, but it would have to almost break in the overclock". I think the vcore also has something to do with the noises. Anyone else have/had these issues? I'm thinking it might be the actual processor im using that is causing this

Ben

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Tipstaff

Question for you:

Are you using the onboard audio? I have noticed with that particular board that if you use the onboard audio, and overclock the system it can mess with audio output (intermitent sounds, sometimes the onboard audio will fail too). I would try unhooking your speakers to see if that buzzing sound is coming from your audio connector.

If it's not, or you aren't using the onboard audio, then it could be that the increased voltage is wreaking havoc on the power regulator/capacitors, and it's them that are buzzing (ok.. maybe not havoc, but it is increasing the power demands on them).

In anycase it sounds like the board is telling you off, and you should clock it back a tad just to be safe.

-Tip

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e v o

Not using onboard audio. Have tried resetting the motherboard, incase of vibration, resetting cpu hs. Tried rearranging ram, took out pci cards, checked fans, checked hds for noises. Nothing.

Again, this noise is only when im in windows, AND only when i'm idle, ie if im loading a program or installing something. It seems to be inconsistant with my last assumption about the overclock. When i back the fsb down to 166, it stays. I'm stumped. It's so slight, some might not hear it, but it's very very evident to me. It's alternating between two tones, and like i said before, turns off (or goes to a pitch i can't hear), when i am active on the computer, loading something.

Tried Bios settings. Have turned off the onboard audio, can't think of anything else. Whatever, it's ignorable, i guess

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e v o

have tried everything i can think of for now. I am going to reformat windows now, wish me luck and hope this goes away with the format. I really dont wan't to have to go through the hassel of returning this mb....

EDIT: looks like its related to the built in network on the mb

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Tipstaff

Check the IRQs.. see if the NIC and sound card are using the same one. If you are using a physical NIC I would try putting into a PCI slot further from the sound card. If you are usin an onboard NIC, see if you can change the IRQ settings in the bios, or if you can change the IRQ it uses in Windows.

-Tip

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e v o

Ok, well heres what i found. I can't change the IRQs because of APIC, when i turn APIC off, it wont get past loading windows. I tried this...

"Run Win 2k/XP setup. At the beginning of text-mode setup ignore the prompt to press F6 to install third party SCSI & Raid storage drivers: press F5 instead and select Standard PC from the menu. Win 2k/XP will install all the devices with no conflicts."

That didnt work either, same thing as before wouldnt get to windows.

Checked the IRQ handling, everything is fine, except for 20-22

20 standard openhcd USB Host Controller

21 Nvidia Nforce Networking controller

21 standard openhcd USB Host Controller

22 standard enhanced PCI to USB Host controller

Before i experimented disabling and enabling some of those, there were 2 conflicts. Could this be causing the annoying buzzing sound??? It is so inconsistant, so i think it's gone, only to reappear again. The fact that it's faint doesnt help either. Very frustrating. Thanks for your suggestions/help

Ben

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e v o

Those two things are causing the noise. When i push on them, the tone of the noise varies. Anyone have any idea what to do? Faulty board? I don't think i can RMA it cuz, there's nothing "wrong" with the board. It works, but that goddamn noise is driving me nuts.

Ben

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Tipstaff

Those are inductors. I'm gonna use someone elses words to fill you in on them:

"An inductor is essentially a coil of wire. When current flows through an inductor, a magnetic field is created, and the inductor will store this magnetic energy until it is released. In some ways, an inductor is the opposite of a capacitor. While a capacitor stores voltage as electrical energy, an inductor stores current as magnetic energy. Thus, a capacitor opposes a change in the voltage of a circuit, while an inductor opposes a change in its current. Therefore, capacitors block DC current and let AC current pass, while inductors do the opposite. The strength of an inductor is called--take a wild guess--its inductance, and is measured in henrys (H). Inductors can have a core of air in the middle of their coils, or a ferrous (iron) core. Being a magnetic material, the iron core increases the inductance value, which is also affected by the material used in the wire, and the number of turns in the coil. Some inductor cores are straight in shape, and others are closed circles called toroids. The latter type of inductor is highly efficient because the closed shape is conducive to creating a stronger magnetic field. Inductors are used in all sorts of electronic circuits, particularly in combination with resistors and capacitors, and are commonly found in PCs."

When combined with the capacitors you get an oscillator.

Put it simply they help regulate the engergy (voltage).

Put that all together, and this is what happens:

"Let’s say for example, that we have a capacitor that has been fully charged and we initially place it into the circuit. As soon as this happens, the capacitor will begin to discharge and the current will begin to flow around the circuit. As the current moves through the circuit, it will then come to the inductor where the magnetic field will begin to form. When the capacitor has been fully discharged, and the magnetic field built, the field will then immediately begin to collapse as the inductor will try to keep current flowing through the circuit. As the field collapses, the energy will then begin to recharge the capacitor and the process will repeat itself until the system runs out of energy due to resistance, unless of course periodically energy is added to the circuit to keep it at a given level. Thus, we have created an oscillator, an imperative factor in the power delivery for the processor."

Boy.. saved me a whole lot of typing...

-Tip

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dj_stick

try placing a thing piece of foam or cloth between the two. maybe hte noise is coming from them vibrating against each other

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Tipstaff

Good idea there DJ.

Just make sure to do it with the psu unplugged though. I mean.. we want to know how it worked out, but we'd rather you tell us than read about it in the obits.

-Tip

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e v o

tried your suggestion but no go, thanks for all the info too tip. I have a feeling from the noise it's just a faulty motherboard, or something is loose. Thanks. Could IRQ conflicts cause a noise like this? And should i be able to boot with APIC disabled?

Ben

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Tipstaff

I've seen some devices interferre with sound cards when they share IRQs such as network cards and modems, but usually only when both devices are being used at the same time (sound issues during online play for instance). When the sound card and a poorly designed, or faulty NIC/modem card are used at the same time you might hear interferrence or jumping in the sound (such as lag or distortion). This can also happen with NICs/Modems that rely heavily on software to run them.

As for APCI.. yes you can disable it. Windows 2000/XP takes advantage of the APCI settings in the bios to assign or reassign IRQs as needed. You may have better luck changing IRQs within Windows by disabling it, but then again, you may not. One thing to note is that most devices these days are able to share IRQs as per the 'Plug and Play' specifications, however some companies cheapen out when building network cards, and don't follow that 'spec' real closely. They usually build the cards to the point that they work, and not use the full ability of the chip they use to drive the cards. It's these cards that can effect sound processing if their IRQs are shared with that of a sound card.

At any rate, since you've isolated the cause of the noise to the indutors you have 2 options here: 1) return it/RMA it, or 2) before you go that route I would try using a better quality power supply first (or at the very least a different one) to see if there that is causing a problem. It could be that the inductors are amplifiying a PSU problem.

-Tip

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RyderOCZ

Find some hot melt glue or silcone at the base of those to "chokes". When you are overclocking the frequency of the electricity causes them to resonate for the reasons explained above. They are resonating at a frequency you can hear because they are "loose" You may not be able to move them per se but they are vibrating at an audible rate. If you use some glue or silicone, you may get it to stop. You could RMA the motherboard, its a rather common problem with some boards

Hope that helps

e v o

Thanks for the info you guys. It's always better when you understand the problem.

What type of glue/silicon should i use? I take it it's not the stuff i apply to the hs and cpus. Thanks again

Ben

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Makita

Sounds like an IRQ conflict. My SB Live! card would do that to me. Eventually had to turn off the Serial ports and force everything else away from what/where the SoundCard was trying to use.