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    Potential Coil Whine?

    Discussion in '2015+ Alienware 13 / 15 / 17' started by cskx2001, Jan 23, 2019.

  1. cskx2001

    cskx2001 Notebook Consultant

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    Hello, I am starting to really notice a noise coming from my machine and from what I have read up it's probably nothing to worry about but still want to bring it up here in hopes I am reading things right.

    7820HK Processor / Nvidia GTX 1080 inside the chassis of a 17R4. Over the last few days I have started to notice more of a slight buzzing sound coming from my computers insides that would grow in intensity as more load was dished out on the graphics card. It is not the traditional 'Whine" that you hear on Linus Tech Tips video about it, more like an angry pulsing bee. It is basically making a Vvvv... Vvvv... Vvvv... sound that gets a bit quicker when I really put a load on the graphics card. Would that be considered the same thing as Coil Whine but of a different pitch?

    Never really noticed it much til recently because my ceiling fan makes a similar sound sometimes in the same room I am in, so I shrugged it off.

    **EDIT** I have even tried downclocking the CPU and GPU a bit to see if that would make much of a difference, and it really does not. The CPU runs at 3.5ghz with a 300mv undervolt but the GPU I am not sure how much to drop it, or what to drop it by to make it go to the next lower volt stage.
     
    cskx2001, Jan 23, 2019
    #1
  2. Vistar Shook

    Vistar Shook Notebook Deity

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    Are you sure it is not the fan on the GPU side?
     
    Vistar Shook, Jan 23, 2019
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  3. cskx2001

    cskx2001 Notebook Consultant

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    I am positive, I used HWinfo64 to set the fans to off for a brief minute and the noise was identical with fans on and off. The sound got more frequent as I cranked settings or allowed more FPS.
     
    cskx2001, Jan 23, 2019
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  4. propeldragon

    propeldragon Notebook Evangelist

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    Try downloading something. Could be a ssd. I had a motherboard with coil whine once.
     
    propeldragon, Jan 24, 2019
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  5. cskx2001

    cskx2001 Notebook Consultant

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    I've run though and tried everything. I went so far as to temporarily down clock and undervolt my 1080 to 1600mhz on 800mv. The noise is pretty much gone and I'm still able to push high frame rates.

    My next step is finding a stable clock rate at a bit higher of a voltage but not too much more. On a plus note my GPU is drawing dramatically less power simply running 250mhz lower and at 800mv instead of 1.065v, around 100 watts tops instead of 185 watts.

    Anyone with decent experience at voltage steps for a gtx1080 know how high you can push the card at 800mv to 900mv?
     
    cskx2001, Jan 24, 2019
    #5