Noticeable, regular clicking sound from new AX1200i

I had this issue with an AX760i and I just asked them to replace it with newer HX850i. Technically lower end, but it does the job and doesn't have any such issues as far as I can tell. It also has a newer fancier custom FDB fan, instead of the disappointing Yate Loon fan they stuck on the AXi series, so it should be quieter anyway. RMA is still processing, so I wont know for a while yet!

Also @jonnyguru, you responded to my thread and said the AXi series never had this problem, but now you say it does? What changed man :P

Edit: The AX1500i is does not have this issue, it's a newer unit and has a version of the new FDB fan.

I lied. No.. just kidding.

 

The problem may be isolated to a small percentage as opposed to the GS and TX which almost all had this issue. I personally use the AX860i and have never seen this issue (and mine is mounted at the bottom of the case with the fan pointed up, so I would know). At the time I replied, I was not aware that this was a problem and what was causing it. Sorry for the misinformation. :(:

All good mate! Hopefully they finish processing my RMA (#6503447) and get my new PSU to me soon.

As for GPU, good luck with the problem and I hope they get you a fixed one ASAP - I know how annoying that noise is, especially when you make a silent system.

Not yet. There are engineers following up and throwing emails back and forth, but so far nothing solid. :(:

 

As for "recall": Unfortunately, you don't recall a product because of a design flaw that causes a noise that's irritating to some. You'd recall PSUs that burst into flames, CPU coolers that leak, etc. But not PSUs with fans that occasionally twitch. :(:

You're wrong there. It's all over that Ebuyer web page about its totally silent operation at low loads. With a very audible click every 10 seconds, it's definitely not silent and there's nothing occasional about it either, is annoying to most people* and clearly violates the Sale of Goods Act here in the UK. I don't know what the consumer law is like in the US, perhaps there's less protection? I don't know.

*The noise may be drowned out by other fans in many enthusiast PCs, so the user may never realize the click is there, but in a minimally fanned PC like mine that's built for power and silence and has an open case 24/7 in a quiet room and sits right next to me, it's really audible and completely intolerable for any length of time. It's effectively a form of Chinese water torture, where one ends up waiting for the next bloody click every time. Awful. I must get round to logging that RMA with Ebuyer, lol.

Again, thanks for trying to help out. The lack of a solution from Corsair after such a long time implies to me that there's nothing that can be done short of getting a refund on it or having it modded by them to fix the problem and they don't seem to have a program to do that. What a shame, such an excellent product otherwise.

I lied. No.. just kidding.

 

The problem may be isolated to a small percentage as opposed to the GS and TX which almost all had this issue. I personally use the AX860i and have never seen this issue (and mine is mounted at the bottom of the case with the fan pointed up, so I would know). At the time I replied, I was not aware that this was a problem and what was causing it. Sorry for the misinformation. :(:

Ive had the TX750, and it had this issue. After a couple of RMA's- i was upgraded to the AX860 (non-i), and it works flawlessly.

Now, i'm pretty sure i saw on your site that the 860i OEM is Flextronics, while the non-i models are Seasonic. The TX750 was the V3 one, and as far as i know the OEM is Chicony. I have no idea who's designing the fan controller board, is it designed by Corsair or by the OEM, but so far the PSU Corsair released with Seasonic as OEM where the most reliable "fan wise"...

Do you have any info about that? How come both Flextronics and Chicony PSUs had this issues and the Seasonic didn't?

BTW- thanks for the great reviews from Jeremy Schrag, very talented!

You're wrong there. It's all over that Ebuyer web page about its totally silent operation at low loads. With a very audible click every 10 seconds, it's definitely not silent and there's nothing occasional about it either, is annoying to most people* and clearly violates the Sale of Goods Act here in the UK. I don't know what the consumer law is like in the US, perhaps there's less protection? I don't know.

 

*The noise may be drowned out by other fans in many enthusiast PCs, so the user may never realize the click is there, but in a minimally fanned PC like mine that's built for power and silence and has an open case 24/7 in a quiet room and sits right next to me, it's really audible and completely intolerable for any length of time. It's effectively a form of Chinese water torture, where one ends up waiting for the next bloody click every time. Awful. I must get round to logging that RMA with Ebuyer, lol.

 

Again, thanks for trying to help out. The lack of a solution from Corsair after such a long time implies to me that there's nothing that can be done short of getting a refund on it or having it modded by them to fix the problem and they don't seem to have a program to do that. What a shame, such an excellent product otherwise.

I know how annoying this noise can be- i've had a nearly silent PC and this was the only noise i've heard from it every couple of minutes. But it wasn't dangerous, just annoying. So i don't think a recall of thousands of units from all over the world is necessary, especially when this PSUs will usually end up in high-end builds which are not very quiet, as you mentioned yourself.

I hope an RMA with corsair can help you find one from a new batch with this issue fixed, but if not- remember that the 1500i is also designed by Flextronics- so i would try to find out whether people had the same fan-clicking noise (or more precisely the fan tries to start then stopped by the controller) that the AX1200i has.

AX uses a completely different fan controller. Notice the switch to turn the Zero RPM mode on and off? The CWT, Flextronics and Chicony made products all use the same fan controller.

Yep, i did. So the OEM designs the board?

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Do you mean the non-digital AX? Because the AX860 has a different fan profile than the AX860i. And the AX860 connectors board looks a lot like the Seasonic 860 Platinum (with the hybrid mode button), though the fan profile is not exactly the same.

Yes and no. Seasonic designed the fan controller in the Seasonic built Corsair units. Corsair designed the fan controller in the other units.

 

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I said AX. If I meant the digital, I would've said AXi.

Thanks for the clarification. It looks like the Seasonic design is better, at least from my experience.

I know how annoying this noise can be- i've had a nearly silent PC and this was the only noise i've heard from it every couple of minutes. But it wasn't dangerous, just annoying. So i don't think a recall of thousands of units from all over the world is necessary, especially when this PSUs will usually end up in high-end builds which are not very quiet, as you mentioned yourself.

I hope an RMA with corsair can help you find one from a new batch with this issue fixed, but if not- remember that the 1500i is also designed by Flextronics- so i would try to find out whether people had the same fan-clicking noise (or more precisely the fan tries to start then stopped by the controller) that the AX1200i has.

Yeah, it's annoying all right. Really annoying, to the point I can't use it at all and is now sitting in my cupboard.

It's irrelevant whether some people don't care about it due to the other noises in their rigs or their temperament, this PSU is not as described, so the law is on my side on this issue and I will get my money back from Ebuyer.

In my opinion, something like this is worthy of a product recall, at least an optional one (non-optional would be something like a fire hazard, say). It might only be a very tiny glitch in technical terms and it still works fine in every other respect, but the consequences are significant, so it's not reasonable to say it shouldn't be fixed because it's only a small glitch. All that matters is that the thing doesn't do what it says on the box and there are many people like me who have quiet PCs in quiet environments where something like this is unacceptable for the reason I described above.

Would Corsair care to state on the box that this clicks every 10 seconds in "silent" mode? No, of course they wouldn't, because they know it will put many people off buying it and reduce their profits. They recognized this click as a flaw too, because...

From what I understand from this forum, later batches of the AX1200i have this problem fixed in a product revision (try getting hold of one though...) and the AX1500i being much newer already has this fix built in so doesn't have this problem. Yes, it's outrageous getting such an extreme PSU for my rig, but I love putting top end components in it and the performance that comes with them, including very low noise. It's great to know that the fan in the AX1500i is unlikely to ever switch on in my rig no matter what I throw at it because it's so overpowered. :biggrin:

Yeah, it's annoying all right. Really annoying, to the point I can't use it at all and is now sitting in my cupboard.

 

It's irrelevant whether some people don't care about it due to the other noises in their rigs or their temperament, this PSU is not as described, so the law is on my side on this issue and I will get my money back from Ebuyer.

 

In my opinion, something like this is worthy of a product recall, at least an optional one (non-optional would be something like a fire hazard, say). It might only be a very tiny glitch in technical terms and it still works fine in every other respect, but the consequences are significant, so it's not reasonable to say it shouldn't be fixed because it's only a small glitch. All that matters is that the thing doesn't do what it says on the box and there are many people like me who have quiet PCs in quiet environments where something like this is unacceptable for the reason I described above.

 

Would Corsair care to state on the box that this clicks every 10 seconds in "silent" mode? No, of course they wouldn't, because they know it will put many people off buying it and reduce their profits. They recognized this click as a flaw too, because...

 

From what I understand from this forum, later batches of the AX1200i have this problem fixed in a product revision (try getting hold of one though...) and the AX1500i being much newer already has this fix built in so doesn't have this problem. Yes, it's outrageous getting such an extreme PSU for my rig, but I love putting top end components in it and the performance that comes with them, including very low noise. It's great to know that the fan in the AX1500i is unlikely to ever switch on in my rig no matter what I throw at it because it's so overpowered. :biggrin:

Obviously the clicks were not intended, so i wouldn't expect this to be on the box :-)

And yes, i certainly see this as a flaw, i guess that is why it ws so easy for me to get it RMA'd to Corsair with no shipping costs on my side. I can't say they didn't recognize the flaw, but a recall would have been a disaster, i think.

Anyway, i see what you mean in taking an overkill for your build, however, from the fan profile on Corsair's site, it seems like the fan kicks in at 35% of full load, thats 525W, and if you have a strong build you might reach that exact point- then the fan would start and stop every few minutes. If the fan clicks issue is fixed, im not sure it will bother you, but it might. The reason i chose the AX860 over the AX860i, was the very useful fanless mode- it will only kick in when the load is 60% (!) unlike the AXi which would start at 20%. This is more fanless mode then fan-cooled mode, and if needed, i have the hybrid button. I've heard that the link software was malfunctioning anyway, so decided i have no use for the digital version. I have yet to hear the fan spin (it was tested good using the hybrid button), and i have an OC 3770K and two OC'd 7950.

Oh yes, 500+ watts fanless comes in very handy indeed. :): It will be interesting to see if the fan comes on intermittently when my PC is working flat out, but I'm not so sure it will, as per below.

During the short time I ran that AX1200i, I did stress test my PC with Furmark for a few minutes at a time and the fan never came on once! It was uncanny watching my PC work so hard, yet sound so whisper quiet and I absolutely loved it! Or I could play a modern, taxing game for a while and hit that audio mute button on the keyboard and experience the quietness with a stopped fan. I've never seen anything like it. It's quite possible that running it like this for an hour on a warmer day would have caused the fan to start, but I think in any normal usage scenario it wouldn't kick in.

As an experiment, I'd intended to replace the GTX 780 Ti with my old GTX 590 and use an old GTX 580 for PhysX for a much bigger load on the PSU and see what happened with the fan, but then the clicks started and I removed it pretty soon after that, so I don't know.

Looks like you made a good choice with that AX860. 60% fanless is much more than I would have expected and I'm a bit surprised that there's such a difference between the two versions. So, how warm does it get to the touch without that fan spinning?

Oh yes, 500+ watts fanless comes in very handy indeed. :): It will be interesting to see if the fan comes on intermittently when my PC is working flat out, but I'm not so sure it will, as per below.

 

During the short time I ran that AX1200i, I did stress test my PC with Furmark for a few minutes at a time and the fan never came on once! It was uncanny watching my PC work so hard, yet sound so whisper quiet and I absolutely loved it! Or I could play a modern, taxing game for a while and hit that audio mute button on the keyboard and experience the quietness with a stopped fan. I've never seen anything like it. It's quite possible that running it like this for an hour on a warmer day would have caused the fan to start, but I think in any normal usage scenario it wouldn't kick in.

 

As an experiment, I'd intended to replace the GTX 780 Ti with my old GTX 590 and use an old GTX 580 for PhysX for a much bigger load on the PSU and see what happened with the fan, but then the clicks started and I removed it pretty soon after that, so I don't know.

 

Looks like you made a good choice with that AX860. 60% fanless is much more than I would have expected and I'm a bit surprised that there's such a difference between the two versions. So, how warm does it get to the touch without that fan spinning?

Its quite cool, actually. But thats thanks to the fact that it is very efficient. The case is a CM Haf X, so the flow is good. This PSUs dont get very warm at all, from what i saw, it will usually kick in due to load threshold before passing the heat threshold.

This is one of the few reasons I dropped my AX860i for. It's really hard to hear for most people, surely if their system is in general just loud, I could hear it from a meter away. They redesigned the fan profile completely for the RM series/HXi/AX1500i which works amazingly well.

Looks like you made a good choice with that AX860. 60% fanless is much more than I would have expected and I'm a bit surprised that there's such a difference between the two versions. So, how warm does it get to the touch without that fan spinning?

The fan on the ax860(non-i) will kick earlier in than the one from the AX1200i.. I'd still take the HX850i over the Seasonic one because its fan profile is more relaxed, has a lower minimum fan speed which I love. Hate to see a minimum speed of 900-1000 rpm on a psu. My ax1500i's lowest rpm is around 200 rpm combined with a FDB is literally silence.

Well, I have exact same issue. I was thinking my fan broke down and was planning to replace it. To be honest I am shocked by the fact that PSU was designed the way it will click every 11 seconds using it's fan. I really hope whoever is responsible for this is fired from Corsair. What a shame!

From reading through this thread I understood that replacing fan will not help, blocking it or removing it completely will not help either. Is there any way to force the fan to spin all the time? May I somewhere specify minimum fan RPM?

Yeah, it's piss-poor design from Corsair all right. Such a stupid and easily fixable mistake, too.

AFAIK, the Link software can define an always-on profile for the fan. Let us know how you get on.

GPU, thank you for your reply.

I tried to fix RPM in Corsair Link an boy I was naive to think it will be more quite this way.

At minimum allowed 40% fixed PWM (~750 RPM) my AX1200i is now the loudest part of the whole build. Fan sounds like it's bearings are falling apart, or like it's blades are loose from the rest of the fan body. This noise disappears at about 70% PWM (1300 RPM) but another type of noise occur - as if the air flow is very strong. The long story short - I failed to find any setting for fixed RPM that would make this PSU quite.

I will try replacing the fan inside my AX1200i.

That's a really awful result. Looks like Corsair really borked this part of the AX1200i design. My one doesn't sound like that though when the fan spins up.

I recommend that instead of hacking it and getting into a whole lot of headaches we can't even foresee here, just eBay the thing and get yourself a better PSU without these problems from either Corsair or another brand.

Just because something doesn't work properly doesn't mean it's a design flaw.

 

Yours doesn't sound like that because yours isn't defective. CLEARLY if the fan is that noisy at 40% PWM there's something wrong with the fan. The fan should be almost inaudible at 40%, so if the unit is still under warranty (and since it's a 7 year warranty, I seriously doubt it's out of warranty), just RMA it and get a new one.

I'm talking about the clicking noise, which is most certainly a design flaw and that's what I'm referring to about the borked design. And yes, the fan on flimipy's PSU sounds like it's faulty, which is why I made the point that mine does not sound like that.

I did not realize I had a 7 years warranty on my AX1200i. Thanks for advise, but it is too late at this point - I have opened it. Besides, RMA might fix the noise coming from the fan at low RPM, but I do not think it could fix the ticking issue.

Anyway, I thought I should share what I discovered after opening the unit.

Apparently it has a well know fan (by it's noisiness and high cfm) - D14BH-12. By saying well known I mean there is a lot of information about this fan in the internet.

I spent quite some time looking for a replacement fan from a different manufacturer and there aren't many 140mm fans with similar characteristics!

D14BH-12 delivers 140 cfm airflow and can spin up to 2800 RPM.

The only alternative that I found is Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM with maximum RPM = 3000 and 158 cfm.

It seems that Corsair wanted to incorporate the highest performance fan in it's PSU, but a that time there was not a lot of choice and they used Taiwanese Yate Loon D14BH-12.

Unfortunately the fan inside AX1200i has a non-standard connector, so I had to make an adapter:

- cut D14BH-12 connector

- cut fan extension cable

- solder them together as per wiring mentioned here

I used Noctua extension cable, so wiring for me was as below:

extension cable______________yateloon cable

black ______________________black

yellow______________________green

green______________________yellow

blue________________________blue

I have attached the picture of adapter and the fan that went to trash.

Another picture shows Noctua NF-F12 fan (120mm) connected to AX1200i.

Result was astonishing. Not only I no longer hear how fan works (up to 1200 RPM, at higher RPM I can barely hear it), but also the clicking (or ticking) issue is gone! Not sure why, but Noctua does not even trying to check if it is blocked or not (maybe different type of motor is the reason for this effect).

Anyway I can't wait for my Noctua NF-A14 iPPC-3000 PWM to arrive.

Will post an update once I'll have it installed.

I recommend that instead of hacking it and getting into a whole lot of headaches we can't even foresee here, just eBay the thing

precisely why I dont buy from Ebay...;):