GA-X58A-UD3R electrical noises [solved]

[runn3R]

Hi onemilimeter

Thanks for all your replies and clarification in [R2].

I hope that finally we will receive your MB this week for checking. I will keep all forum members here informed about the results.

[GreenMagic]

Good luck with your RMA guys, hope you get working boards back. Dark Mantis if you get positive notes you buy the beers though I would probably had one new if it wasn't for that darn pin. It´s all runn3r´s fault by the way.

[Silentspy]

just wanna confirm i get high pitched noises with my Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R REV 2.0, didnt have any issues with my old ASUS MB, tried turning C1E off and it actually helped at some level but the noise is sorta still there

[Dark Mantis]

Good luck with your RMA guys, hope you get working boards back. Dark Mantis if you get positive notes you buy the beers though I would probably had one new if it wasn't for that darn pin. It´s all runn3r´s fault by the way.

Thanks for the good wishes GreenMagic though allowing the moths out of the wallet is going a bit far Shame about the bent pin in your case. I'm just hoping that they can find the cause and make a proper fix for it. To be fair mine was more just annoying that a terrible noise like some of the others that I have heard. I will let uyou know as soon as I hear anything from Gigabyte.

Why am I not supprised that it's all runn3R's fault. Poor guy get's the blame for everything. That's the trouble with being the front man.

[kangoo]

it seems asus is also affected
have a look at this post:

"I have tried six x58 motherboards from Asus and Gigabyte (the Asus P6T (x2), the Gigabyte EX58-UD4P, and the Gigabyte X58A-UD3R(x3)), and they ALL create such high-pitch noises"
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.aspx?m=292111&mpage=1&print=true

[Dark Mantis]

Well spotted Kangoo. At least we now know it's not just an isolated problem with Gigabyte(will make them feel happier about it to I expect). Do they have any explanation as to the cause of the sounds?

[runn3R]

Hi GreenMagic

Regarding your MB's CPU socket bend pin and problem with RMA - are you from UK / IRL?

Please start separate topic here: http://forum.giga-byte.co.uk/index.php/board,28.0.html
and we will continue the discussion how to help you there, thanks

[kangoo]

Well spotted Kangoo. At least we now know it's not just an isolated problem with Gigabyte(will make them feel happier about it to I expect). Do they have any explanation as to the cause of the sounds?

i don't know what's the explanation from asus except naming the problem as "cap whine" but indeed asus is also affected and hasn't provided any reasonable solution so far:

"As a P7P55D-E Pro board owner I'm concerned about the reported high pitched noise coming from some of these boards"
"I got both of the boards from Newegg.  9 of the 21 reviews report the noise"
"I definitely have the high-pitched electric buzz pointed out by so many others. It only comes up when the pc is idle - however, in daily use that is a large part of the time! It can be made to disappear by disabling C-States in Bios, or as I found by testing, setting C-States to C1."

"This is a well known problem that I have seen in at LEAST 10 other places beyond this forum.  Toms Hardware and many others.  I of course tried the boards in several other machines to eliminate a hardware compatibility issue (was my first thought too .  The problem (I have been contacted by a decent person at ASUS) is as I stated "cap whine"."

The reply from Asus was as follows:
"The tech told me that he never heard of this problem before, but then suggested that I simply return the board to the retailer for a refund and go with a different manufacturer instead of trying a 3rd ASUS board.
In other words, they said "go away.""
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&id=20100131044147656&board_id=1&model=P7P55D-E%20PRO&page=1&count=34

"I just built a new system this weekend using the p7p55d-e pro motherboard.  I've noticed that there's an intermittent electronic buzzing sound coming from the vacinity of the CPU area on the motherboard itself."
"The noise is terrible.  What else is terrible is that I have requested information from ASUS and basically got a cut and paste with out any answers what so ever.
"Disable the C1E and or the C1 state.  Its a work around."
No that is not.  That is a bad compromise giving up a feature/option of the MOBO to fix a problem that should have never made it passed QA.
Forgive me if I seem caustic this situation and Asus's lack of assistance is frustrating.
I should state this is MOBO 3 with same problem"
http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20100110131148921&board_id=1&model=P7P55D-E+PRO&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

BTW have you noticed who put the thread at EVGA forum which i mentioned yesterday? i wonder if it's the same dkslim who started this thread and claimed that asus is without any problem.

@ dkslim
any comment from your side?

[Dark Mantis]

Very interesting comments from the Asus forum. As I said it just goes to show that this is a much more widespread issue than was at first thought. One thing that needs to be sorted out is does the problem happen with ALL X58 boards or is it limited to certain builds. I ask this because the instances in Gigabyte boards seem to be closely related to the UD3 with some instances in the UD7 and I haven't heard of any in the UD9 group. Is this because of the increasing number of phases on these boards? The uD3 has a high pitched whine, my UD7 has a low pitched noise and as I said I haven't heard of any on the UD9. Is this just coincidence?

[dkslim]

@ dkslim
any comment from your side?

I have had experience with several Asus and Gigabyte x58 motherboards, so I will tell you what the difference is between them regarding the noise.

The difference is, with the Asus motherboards, the electrical noise does NOT come from the motherboard CPU socket area. Asus motherboards are themselves completely silent. However, the Asus motherboards I tried (the Asus P6T) CAUSED the POWER SUPPLIES they are connected to, to make strange noises. For example, the Seasonic X series power supplies and Corsair power supplies all made a lot of noise when connected to the Asus motherboard - when idling and with CPU activity. It also made my Vantec power supply emit a soft beep noise every 2 seconds, constantly. It made the PWM fan on my Antec Signature power supply tick repeatedly, to generate a soft continuous buzz noise. So as you can see, the Asus does not directly make noise, it instead causes the power supply to make all sorts of weird noises. The moment I connect those power supplies to another computer motherboard (my mum's Core2Duo computer) there are no weird noises from those power supplies.

With the Gigabyte motherboards, the electrical noise comes from BOTH the motherboard CPU socket area, and the POWER SUPPLIES connected to it. Even the noise coming from the power supplies, on the Gigabytes, are worse than on the Asus. So the problem is more severe with Gigabyte. The Gigabyte motherboards I've tried are the Gigabyte DS4, EX58-UD4P, UD3R and UD7. They all had the same noise problem, at the same intensity and loudness.

As a short-hand, I have, on other forums as Kangoo discovered, simply said that Asus motherboards make the noise. However, what I meant was, the Asus motherboards caused the power supplies to make noise - while the motherboards themselves are silent. Many people, including retailers and Asus themselves, blame the problem on the power supplies, but I think it is the motherboard causing it, because otherwise how can so many different power supplies make the noise with the Asus motherboard, but not with other non-x58 motherboards? Also, why is it that the noise is worse on the Gigabytes than the Asus? That difference suggests that it's motherboard related. However, there is a small chance that I am wrong, and that the noise is actually the fault of the power supplies (which cannot handle the i7 power management system), but that would mean that almost all the power supplies are faulty.

[dkslim]

the instances in Gigabyte boards seem to be closely related to the UD3 with some instances in the UD7 and I haven't heard of any in the UD9 group. Is this because of the increasing number of phases on these boards? The uD3 has a high pitched whine, my UD7 has a low pitched noise and as I said I haven't heard of any on the UD9. Is this just coincidence?

The number of power phases does not affect the noise coming from the motherboard. I have tried the UD3R and the UD7, the UD7 had more than twice the number of power phases, and yet the noise coming from the motherboard CPU socket area was still the same. However, I believe the number of power phases might have an effect on the feedback noise going from the motherboard into the PSU. Because the power supplies make a bit less electrical weird noises, when connected to the UD7, than the UD3R.

I think there is no news about the UD9 making noises because:
1) Not many people buy it, as it is very expensive.
2) Those people who buy it, will overclock it straight away (otherwise why pay so much for a UD9 to run it at stock?), and as we all know, overclocking involves turning off C1E and setting a vcore voltage, which means stopping the noise coming from the CPU socket area. It also means there are lilkely to be loud fans etc, to keep temperatures under control when overclocking, making it harder to hear the noise.
3) Some people just can't hear very well, or think that the noise is coming from their hard drive instead of the motherboard/power supply.

[dkslim]

I think it is very important to remember (as I stressed at the very beginning of this thread) that the electrical noise problem, consists of 2 separate problems:
1) Noise coming from the motherboard CPU socket area.
2) Noise coming from the connected power supply, but caused by feedback generated by the motherboard.

Both noises are caused by the motherboard, but one is emitted from the CPU socket area, the other is emitted from the power supply.

Gigabyte motherboards have problems 1 and 2.

Asus motherboards have problem 2 only.

Regarding other brands (from my research on the net):
1) EVGA motherboards: The cheaper ones (eg. EVGA LE) can have problems 1 and 2, whereas their premium ones (eg. EVGA Classified) do not have such problems. However, as I don't hear such complaints often, I think only certain EVGA motherboards have this problem, it's not a product-wide problem like the Gigabytes.
2) DFI motherboards: They can also have problems 1 and 2. But also, since I don't hear such complaints often, again it's probably an isolated fault, rather than a product-wide fault.
3) ASROCK motherboards - since Asrock is a subsidiary of Asus, I think it will be the same as the Asus motherboards regarding the noise problem.

[Dark Mantis]

Fair points dkslim and well made. Thanks for the extra information regarding the other companies' products. As with most things the problems become clearer with the more information assimilated. Gigabyte are doing tests on my UD7 board now so we will see what their findings are. I will post when I have received their report.

the instances in Gigabyte boards seem to be closely related to the UD3 with some instances in the UD7 and I haven't heard of any in the UD9 group. Is this because of the increasing number of phases on these boards? The uD3 has a high pitched whine, my UD7 has a low pitched noise and as I said I haven't heard of any on the UD9. Is this just coincidence?

The number of power phases does not affect the noise coming from the motherboard. I have tried the UD3R and the UD7, the UD7 had more than twice the number of power phases, and yet the noise coming from the motherboard CPU socket area was still the same. However, I believe the number of power phases might have an effect on the feedback noise going from the motherboard into the PSU. Because the power supplies make a bit less electrical weird noises, when connected to the UD7, than the UD3R.

I think there is no news about the UD9 making noises because:
1) Not many people buy it, as it is very expensive.
2) Those people who buy it, will overclock it straight away (otherwise why pay so much for a UD9 to run it at stock?), and as we all know, overclocking involves turning off C1E and setting a vcore voltage, which means stopping the noise coming from the CPU socket area. It also means there are lilkely to be loud fans etc, to keep temperatures under control when overclocking, making it harder to hear the noise.
3) Some people just can't hear very well, or think that the noise is coming from their hard drive instead of the motherboard/power supply.

[kangoo]

thx dkslim for exlanation of differences between gigabyte and asus and other vendors regarding this problem. i can see now that you've spent really long time on this!

However, there is a small chance that I am wrong, and that the noise is actually the fault of the power supplies (which cannot handle the i7 power management system), but that would mean that almost all the power supplies are faulty.

maybe. you know i don't have this issue in my pc fortunately (probably because i don't use x58 based giga mobo) but after reading this thread i checked my notebook and i can hear similar high frequency very very silent sound from it's psu which is separate device other than voltage regulator on the notebook's mobo of course. i haven't noticed it before as usually i listen to some music while browsing internet.

[Dark Mantis]

Well I have just finished re-building my system after having the motherboard replaced by Gigabyte. They have been testing my old board for a couple of days now but I am still unsure of their findings. My new board UD7(no upgrade to UD9 but never mind ) seems to be performing well. It was totally silent to start with. I loaded BIOS defaults and booted up normally, no problem. So I set the BIOS to my normal settings(no overclock at the moment) and rebooted. Again no problem. I have noticed over time though that a slight noise like on my old board has returned. Not so loud but nonetheless audible. I have added a small fan dedicated to cooling the coils(because I liquid cool my entire system there is no airflow from the CPU fan) thinking this may help but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. Basically better but not perfect.
When I hear the findings of the Gigabyte techs I will post again.