Glzmo Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 (edited) Hey everyone! Since upgrading my PC a couple of weeks ago (with a new mainboard, CPU, RAM, NVMe SSD and a bunch of Corsair cooler and fan swag) my trusty old "Corsair Professional Series™ Gold AX1200 80 PLUS® Gold Certified Fully-Modular 1200 Watt Power Supply" has developed a strange, rather high-pitched "coil whine" when the computer is turned off (but the PSU is still on the On position). It isn't super-loud, I can barely hear it in a silent room when sitting at the desk, but it's very audible when under the desk near the case. I have never noticed the whine before I upgraded my PC, but it has been present ever since I did. As soon as I power on the PC, the whine is gone. When I turn off the power supply, the whine is gone after a couple of seconds as well. The PSU is already pretty old (I think I bought it around 2011 so I guess that 7 year warranty it had is up) but has served me well for many years. Is this anything to worry about? Could this mean the PSU is faulty and more so, could this cause damage to my components? I'm planning to replace it eventually anyhow, but I'm wondering if the whine is dangerous enough to be forced to do so immediately. If I have to replace it, what would be a equal or better recommended replacement for it? Edit: I enabled ErP in the BIOS (since I remembered I had it enabled on my old board and noticed it was disabled by default on the new one) and now the coil whine when the PC is off is gone and the PSU is silent as a lamb in this state. Still rather strange, though. Should I be worried or should it be okay for the time being? Edited March 5, 2019 by Glzmo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees Corsair Notepad Posted March 7, 2019 Corsair Employees Share Posted March 7, 2019 Nothing to be concerned about as coil whine is normal. You were noticing it more because the system was off so there was no additional fan noise but since the motherboard was still drawing power the PSU was still providing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glzmo Posted March 10, 2019 Author Share Posted March 10, 2019 Thank you very much for the assurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STOPchris Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Send it back. Coil whine while the system is off? I would send that unit RIGHT back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glzmo Posted March 11, 2019 Author Share Posted March 11, 2019 Send it back. Coil whine while the system is off? I would send that unit RIGHT back.Well, the 7 year warranty it came with has expired (and the coil whine never occured before), so sending it back will do no good. As long as there is no danger of it damaging my components, I won't worry too much about it, especially since it doesn't occur when I have ErP enabled. I'll be on the lookout for a good deal on a new Platinum or Titanium PSU in the next couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees Corsair Notepad Posted March 11, 2019 Corsair Employees Share Posted March 11, 2019 It has more to do with the PState settings in BIOS than it does the PSU. While the system might be powered down modern motherboards continue to draw power and illuminate things like RGB lighting. You would need to adjust the Pstate settings in BIOS to fully remove the coil whine while the system is shut down to keep your system from drawing power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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