static/crackle/coil whine/interference problem
Posted: Fri Mar 14, 2014 12:29 pm
G'day all,
I recently bought new speakers and they have brought to the fore a noise problem which was just about bearable before. It is not the speakers themselves, rather that the speakers are very efficient in amplifying all noises, including this annoying thing!
The symptoms are a static crackle (more-or-less continuous but quite quiet) and a whining noise whenever the computer comes under load. That is the annoying part. Even moving the mouse does it - although I found that a different mouse reduces the volume of the annoying noises a bit. It is definitely coming through the speakers which, I believe, rules out 'normal' coil whine which would eminate directly from the coil in question (most likely my Seasonic X460 fanless CPU). So maybe it is some sort of interference?
I have tried:
* removing the VGA card (and using onboard)
* removing the sound card (and using the onboard)
* removing all superfluous USB peripherals (actually not quite, I never tested my fan controlled or SD card reader which are on motherboard headers)
* unplugging the front panel audio
* turning on the monitor and removing its power cable
* booting both Windows and Linux
But nothing worked.
The most stripped down setup I tried was:
* CPU (Athlon X3) and 4 Gb RAM (don't remember manufacturer)
* Gigabyte motherboard (don't know product number off-hand)
* Crucial M4 256Gb
* WD Green 2Tb
* Nexus Fancontroller
* SD card reader
* Antec P193
* SEASONIC X460 FANLESS PSU (likely culprit?)
* Err some fans and stuff (but turning the case fans off with the fan controller doesn't help)
So if it is a particular component the culprit should be in that list. Obviously I could strip it down further (and test with my old mechanical boot drive) and provide more exact details of the parts. But I thought I'd ask here and get the benefit of wealth of the spcr experience first...
Firstly, can anyone hazard a guess at what is going on?
Secondly, can this be coil whine if it is coming from my speakers? It somehow seems more like interference to me.
Thirdly, if I was to go further with swapping out stuff, what would be the first thing to test? (after first removing all non essental stuff like the fan controller etc) I guess the PSU? Could the mobo be at fault? And what about the SSD?
Fourth, something that just occured to me, could my new speakers (what are heavy duty, full range PA speakers capable of kicking out 900W of sound and probably have coil hefty coils) be interfering with the PC? I don't get the sounds when using other sources (eg laptop) and headphone sound ok but it did happen with other speakers.
It is weird and stressing me out, any help appreciated. TIA!
I recently bought new speakers and they have brought to the fore a noise problem which was just about bearable before. It is not the speakers themselves, rather that the speakers are very efficient in amplifying all noises, including this annoying thing!
The symptoms are a static crackle (more-or-less continuous but quite quiet) and a whining noise whenever the computer comes under load. That is the annoying part. Even moving the mouse does it - although I found that a different mouse reduces the volume of the annoying noises a bit. It is definitely coming through the speakers which, I believe, rules out 'normal' coil whine which would eminate directly from the coil in question (most likely my Seasonic X460 fanless CPU). So maybe it is some sort of interference?
I have tried:
* removing the VGA card (and using onboard)
* removing the sound card (and using the onboard)
* removing all superfluous USB peripherals (actually not quite, I never tested my fan controlled or SD card reader which are on motherboard headers)
* unplugging the front panel audio
* turning on the monitor and removing its power cable
* booting both Windows and Linux
But nothing worked.
The most stripped down setup I tried was:
* CPU (Athlon X3) and 4 Gb RAM (don't remember manufacturer)
* Gigabyte motherboard (don't know product number off-hand)
* Crucial M4 256Gb
* WD Green 2Tb
* Nexus Fancontroller
* SD card reader
* Antec P193
* SEASONIC X460 FANLESS PSU (likely culprit?)
* Err some fans and stuff (but turning the case fans off with the fan controller doesn't help)
So if it is a particular component the culprit should be in that list. Obviously I could strip it down further (and test with my old mechanical boot drive) and provide more exact details of the parts. But I thought I'd ask here and get the benefit of wealth of the spcr experience first...
Firstly, can anyone hazard a guess at what is going on?
Secondly, can this be coil whine if it is coming from my speakers? It somehow seems more like interference to me.
Thirdly, if I was to go further with swapping out stuff, what would be the first thing to test? (after first removing all non essental stuff like the fan controller etc) I guess the PSU? Could the mobo be at fault? And what about the SSD?
Fourth, something that just occured to me, could my new speakers (what are heavy duty, full range PA speakers capable of kicking out 900W of sound and probably have coil hefty coils) be interfering with the PC? I don't get the sounds when using other sources (eg laptop) and headphone sound ok but it did happen with other speakers.
It is weird and stressing me out, any help appreciated. TIA!