HP Z420 Coil Whine

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michaelmurfy

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Topic # 220312 5-Aug-2017 16:05

Long story short my HP Z420 has a coil whine issue...

The noise is coming from some coils directly beside the CPU however don't want to pop off the CPU cooler to find out what particular coil is making this noise.

I've heard that putting hot glue over them can dampen the noise but this seems like a bad idea in my books. It is related to load - if I put my PC into "Power Saving" mode most of the noise goes.

Any ideas? It is incredibly loud.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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nas

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Reply # 1839562 5-Aug-2017 16:42

Think its one of those things that when it happens you can't do much about it unfortunately

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 1839563 5-Aug-2017 16:49

nas:

Think its one of those things that when it happens you can't do much about it unfortunately

Just what I thought - bugger.

I can mitigate it a little by changing the power settings on my computer from Performance to Balanced (which is fine most of the time) but sometimes I need to do some really CPU heavy stuff on it and thats when it gets quite loud.

MadEngineer

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Reply # 1839564 5-Aug-2017 16:50

Just glue em.

nas

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Reply # 1839565 5-Aug-2017 16:51

I've only had experience with it from a graphics card perspective, a change in PSU helped once which you obviously can't do with the laptop.

Another time I just RMA'd the card because the noise is so irritating

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 1839592 5-Aug-2017 19:09

MadEngineer: Just glue em.

That's what I thought but wouldn't this cause damage?

macuser

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Reply # 1839603 5-Aug-2017 19:58

Did you not get the 3 year nbd onsite warranty?

it's only like $110+GST!!!!!!!!

Batman

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Reply # 1839604 5-Aug-2017 19:59

It's "normal". But what's causing it?

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 1839606 5-Aug-2017 20:05

macuser:

Did you not get the 3 year nbd onsite warranty?

it's only like $110+GST!!!!!!!!

I bought this PC second hand then upgraded it (Xeon E5-2670, 32GB of ECC memory and a GTX 1060). No warranty when I bought it but I could potentially ask HP as they're quite good to deal with and this PC is not that old.

Batman:

It's "normal". But what's causing it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise - It is in this case caused by a bunch of choke coils sitting beside the CPU. It is quite common on graphics cards but never had it on a motherboard before.

macuser

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Reply # 1839607 5-Aug-2017 20:08

michaelmurfy:

macuser:

Did you not get the 3 year nbd onsite warranty?

it's only like $110+GST!!!!!!!!

I bought this PC second hand then upgraded it (Xeon E5-2670, 32GB of ECC memory and a GTX 1060). No warranty when I bought it but I could potentially ask HP as they're quite good to deal with and this PC is not that old.

Batman:

It's "normal". But what's causing it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coil_noise - It is in this case caused by a bunch of choke coils sitting beside the CPU. It is quite common on graphics cards but never had it on a motherboard before.

You're better off looking for spare parts on ebay I think, I doubt they will let you bring it back into warranty and if they do it'll cost heaps

michaelmurfy

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Reply # 1839641 5-Aug-2017 22:01

macuser:

You're better off looking for spare parts on ebay I think, I doubt they will let you bring it back into warranty and if they do it'll cost heaps

Yeah you're right. I was more looking at contacting HP to see if it was a known issue with a batch of boards or something. I've basically done my full system upgrade (except SSD's and GPU) from eBay.

MadEngineer

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Reply # 1839807 6-Aug-2017 11:29

michaelmurfy:

MadEngineer: Just glue em.

That's what I thought but wouldn't this cause damage?

nope. They usually contain glue or larger ones are glued to the pcb anyway. Use a dot of hotsnot. Same for large capacitors as they can vibrate.