GA-X58A-UD3R electrical noises [solved]

[kangoo]

@jaicigy
yes i saw the date but just thought it could be worth trying.

maybe someone could try that other comment: ´Soon as you take the vcore off auto it stops, I figure its the voltage fluctuating so much that its causing some hum.´

hmmm, the reason of the sound could be the change of the shape of coils (some kind of micro vibrations) due to very frequent voltage changes

it was reported for some old mobos also: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/topic,794.msg4182.html#msg4182

if your mobo was in giga's service already then you should send it to service again until it will be fixed. they should change the coils or sth else in voltage regulator to solve it. pls keep us informed how it will end

[jaicigy]

My Gigabyte board is up for sale and I have an ASUS P6X58D-E board now, no squealing, no high-pitching noises, nothing so let somebody else worry about that problem now..
still I do follow this topic to at least have a mind at ease if a solution comes along or the cause of the noise is found..

[kangoo]

i see

[dkslim]

yes i used to stop it by disabling c1e halt state but with this new lan driver i can enable it now and it dont squeal at all,before it used to make a high pitched interferance sound that drove u nuts, the boards been great since so id deffo checkout gigabytes website for there new audio and lan drivers
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14494226

I can confirm that installing the latest LAN driver does not fix the noise problem. The high-pitch noise that kangoo was getting was probably coming from the LAN port area itself, in which case it makes sense that updating the LAN driver fixed his noise problem. But in this thread we are talking about a high-pitch noise coming from the CPU chokes area, and from the power supply - which are totally unrelated to the LAN port.

[jaicigy]

Just got another response from the Gigabyte support service and here is their point of view to deal with this problem:

Dear ...,

Since there are a lot of possibilities to cause noise issue that need further examination to see whether it is the component issue or the issue cause by the combination with other parts you use. This is the reason why we suggest you to contact your supplier to arrange RMA service. For the difference between these two revision, You can refer more to our online “Product Comparison”page where you can find detail by clicking here. From this page you can see that the spec is actually the same and the only difference is that Rev 2 supports on/off charge. For other minor components, sorry that we are not able to release other parts information in our system since those are confidential.

However, we still appreciate you providing us the link for reference and we will try to look into this issue.

Regards,
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY

Still no confirmation or solution indicated and they wil now try to look into the issue following weblinks and experiences of users.. what a dissappointing responsability

I just replied like this:

Hello,

I am getting more and more dissappointed with your handling problems and am quiet astonished that you will now follow up web links to look into the issue, instead of encouraging me and other users of the same motherboard to offer the board to service and have it thorougly checked so you can finally do something about it. How do you expect me to have faith now in Gigabyte products when you do not even take me seriously???

I just got my board back from service and as I expected, nothing done or even found as they state.. what am I deaf and stupid then???

Do not know what your sense of responsability and pride is to be part of Gigabyte but right now I would be ashamed for working for a company that takes problems and dissappointments of users so lightly and little seriously.

Awaiting your response, good day

[dkslim]

Good news everyone - after a few days of communicating with the Gigabyte warranty manager in Australia (who was extremely helpful), I can now say that Gigabyte is working on a fix to solve this noise problem.

When I brought my UD3R motherboard in 3 days ago for them to examine, Gigabyte staff finally confirmed that they could hear the noise.

Apparently, it was the first time that Gigabyte staff heard the noise coming from a X58A. In the past, people have RMA'd their noisy X58A motherboards, but Gigabyte staff could not hear the noise, because of 3 factors:
1) The technicians work in a room that is quite noisy, there are fans etc on all the time. Even I had a hard time hearing the noise when I was in their testing room. We had to put our ears right next to the area that was making the noise, in order to hear it. So it would have been easy for the technicians to miss the noise.
2) Some people simply cannot hear high-pitch noises well. Apparently the technicians in general are unlikely to hear high-pitch noises, because they have been exposed to noise all the time in their work environment, which makes them less likely to notice soft noises coming from a motherboard.
3) Gigabyte uses Windows Vista to test their motherboards, not the latest OS Windows 7.  It could be that the noise only occurs when running certain operating systems, and not when running Windows Vista.

Since the noise problem is now officially confirmed by Gigabyte, the research department in Gigabyte headquarters has been informed about the problem. Apparently the research team thinks that they can fix the noise, by tweaking the BIOS of the motherboards.

I've been told that Gigabyte will be working on a BIOS update to fix the noise problem on the UD3R Revision 1.0 first, then the UD7. These BIOS updates could be ready by next week. They will then gradually fix the BIOS of the remaining X58A motherboards.

Personally, I am not sure whether a BIOS update can fix this noise problem. From what I can see, it is a hardware issue - the chokes (black cubes near the CPU slot) vibrate when there are fluctuations in the CPU voltage, and the vibrations give off the noise. I'd be interested to see how a BIOS update can stop the vibrations from happening, without disrupting the efficient power management of the i7 CPU.

But at least we now know that Gigabyte is trying to fix the problem.

Please note that I am simply passing on information I got from discussions with Gigabyte, since there are many people out there who (like me) are upset by the noise, and would like to know any information about a possible fix. There is no guarantee that the problem will be fixed, until we see the BIOS updates and test them out. But at least there is some hope, for now.

[onemilimeter]

My Gigabyte board is up for sale and I have an ASUS P6X58D-E board now, no squealing, no high-pitching noises, nothing so let somebody else worry about that problem now..
still I do follow this topic to at least have a mind at ease if a solution comes along or the cause of the noise is found..

Great! I'm going to buy one too... are you using Windows 7? Thanks.

[jaicigy]

My Gigabyte board is up for sale and I have an ASUS P6X58D-E board now, no squealing, no high-pitching noises, nothing so let somebody else worry about that problem now..
still I do follow this topic to at least have a mind at ease if a solution comes along or the cause of the noise is found..

Great! I'm going to buy one too... are you using Windows 7? Thanks.

Yep, Windows 7 - 64 bit, all updated and with the latest drivers.. it is a great mobo, I really recommend it and you can do the same as on the Gigabyte and more.. without the opera singer accompanying you..jeje  

Thanks dkslim for informing us about the recognition and confirmation by Gigabyte of this noise problem...

[dkslim]

By the way, for those people who are frustrated by the useless responses of Gigabyte Online Support - the staff at Gigabyte who really know about the problem and who really want to fix it, won't be the ones who read and answer your online questions. You won't get any satisfactory answer from them online, until they have been educated about how to deal with the noise problem. To get results, you need to find your local Gigabyte office, and talk to a senior technical staff there. If you submit your question through the normal channels on the Gigabyte website, you won't get anywhere.... as many of us on this thread have found out...

[jaicigy]

Well dkslim, I just offered my mobo for checkup and service so it went to the Gigabyte office and they could not and/or did not want to do something about the noise issues so not really useful information... bad publicity widely spread is in this case I think the key.

[onemilimeter]

Good news everyone - after a few days of communicating with the Gigabyte warranty manager in Australia (who was extremely helpful), I can now say that Gigabyte is working on a fix to solve this noise problem.

I really appreciate your effort!

When I brought my UD3R motherboard in 3 days ago for them to examine, Gigabyte staff finally confirmed that they could hear the noise.
Apparently, it was the first time that Gigabyte staff heard the noise coming from a X58A.

This is important achievement. Thus, must be highlighted.

In the past, people have RMA'd their noisy X58A motherboards, but Gigabyte staff could not hear the noise, because of 3 factors:
1) The technicians work in a room that is quite noisy, there are fans etc on all the time. Even I had a hard time hearing the noise when I was in their testing room. We had to put our ears right next to the area that was making the noise, in order to hear it. So it would have been easy for the technicians to miss the noise.
2) Some people simply cannot hear high-pitch noises well. Apparently the technicians in general are unlikely to hear high-pitch noises, because they have been exposed to noise all the time in their work environment, which makes them less likely to notice soft noises coming from a motherboard.
3) Gigabyte uses Windows Vista to test their motherboards, not the latest OS Windows 7.  It could be that the noise only occurs when running certain operating systems, and not when running Windows Vista.

Well... when customers complain about "noise", Gigabyte engineers should perform the test in quiet environment. They kept on asking us to confirm the noise if it's from motherboard. They claimed we didn't isolate well the noises within the motherboard, GPU, PSU, fans, etc., but in fact they all did not do that as well. Really shameful to those so-called Gigabyte well trained engineers.
By the way, a very experienced forumer in other forum claims that he doesn't hear the sound under Windows 7.

Since the noise problem is now officially confirmed by Gigabyte, the research department in Gigabyte headquarters has been informed about the problem. Apparently the research team thinks that they can fix the noise, by tweaking the BIOS of the motherboards.

Hopefully...

I've been told that Gigabyte will be working on a BIOS update to fix the noise problem on the UD3R Revision 1.0 first, then the UD7. These BIOS updates could be ready by next week. They will then gradually fix the BIOS of the remaining X58A motherboards.

They should fix all at the same time, especially UD3R because more customers use this board.

Personally, I am not sure whether a BIOS update can fix this noise problem. From what I can see, it is a hardware issue - the chokes (black cubes near the CPU slot) vibrate when there are fluctuations in the CPU voltage, and the vibrations give off the noise. I'd be interested to see how a BIOS update can stop the vibrations from happening, without disrupting the efficient power management of the i7 CPU.

I think it's possible to fix the problem with improved BIOS. The VRM is controlled by BIOS, I assume. At the moment, I think the BIOS is programmed in such a way whenever there is a change of computation demand, a command is issued to the VRM to change the voltage. In my opinion, the computation power required by some programs, for example, Google Chrome or Real Temp, quite fluctuates and hence they tend to induce the noise. Probably the BIOS can be modified to have a "hysteresis band" or "Schmitt trigger" type of response, i.e. change of VRM will only be triggered if the changes of a computation power is more than a threshold value with hysteresis band. My explanation is bad I know and I'm sorry if you don't understand it. However, again, the real culprit should be a poor design of the VRM circuit (with poor dynamic transient performance).

Please note that I am simply passing on information I got from discussions with Gigabyte, since there are many people out there who (like me) are upset by the noise, and would like to know any information about a possible fix. There is no guarantee that the problem will be fixed, until we see the BIOS updates and test them out. But at least there is some hope, for now.

Hope is important!

[onemilimeter]

While waiting for the possible solution, we should keep on pressuring the Gigabyte to response to the problem...

[kangoo]

Good news everyone - after a few days of communicating with the Gigabyte warranty manager in Australia (who was extremely helpful), I can now say that Gigabyte is working on a fix to solve this noise problem.

When I brought my UD3R motherboard in 3 days ago for them to examine, Gigabyte staff finally confirmed that they could hear the noise.

great news ! finally

Personally, I am not sure whether a BIOS update can fix this noise problem.

i also doubt

From what I can see, it is a hardware issue - the chokes (black cubes near the CPU slot) vibrate when there are fluctuations in the CPU voltage, and the vibrations give off the noise. I'd be interested to see how a BIOS update can stop the vibrations from happening, without disrupting the efficient power management of the i7 CPU.

yes, it's the choke issue most probably

By the way, for those people who are frustrated by the useless responses of Gigabyte Online Support - the staff at Gigabyte who really know about the problem and who really want to fix it, won't be the ones who read and answer your online questions. You won't get any satisfactory answer from them online, until they have been educated about how to deal with the noise problem.

let's hope it will happen very fast.

[dkslim]

Well dkslim, I just offered my mobo for checkup and service so it went to the Gigabyte office and they could not and/or did not want to do something about the noise issues so not really useful information... bad publicity widely spread is in this case I think the key.

Yes I read about your experience and their replies, and feel for you. I would be disappointed, upset, and angry as well, if I went to the trouble of sending my motherboard in, and discover they did not even try to find the problem. I had similar feelings when I RMA'd my UD3R the first 2 times, it was only the 3rd time when the warranty manager personally looked at the motherboard with me, and we located the noise together.

I am guessing that your Gigabyte office might not be as helpful, it really depends on who the warranty manager is. I was lucky the warranty manager in Melbourne was great. You could try to contact the Gigabyte office you sent it to, talk to the person in charge, and see what they say...

Otherwise, just wait for the BIOS update, at least the hard work has been done and Gigabyte is trying to do something about the noise now...

[dkslim]

Well... when customers complain about "noise", Gigabyte engineers should perform the test in quiet environment. They kept on asking us to confirm the noise if it's from motherboard. They claimed we didn't isolate well the noises within the motherboard, GPU, PSU, fans, etc., but in fact they all did not do that as well. Really shameful to those so-called Gigabyte well trained engineers.
By the way, a very experienced forumer in other forum claims that he doesn't hear the sound under Windows 7.

I agree completely. I think Gigabyte should provide their engineers with quiet environments to perform tests. I'm sure the engineers would like that too.
I also agree that it's not nice, when Gigabyte accuses us of our components (PSU, GPU etc) causing the noise, when they haven't even properly tested the motherboard for the noise.
So there are improvements that can be made within Gigabyte warranty centres, for sure. I hope it improves in future...