Antec Sonata PSU whistle normal?

[Mitchua]

I recently bought an Antec Sonata case with its built in power supply. I've
started noticing that after the system is running for a while, the PSU's
80mm fan starts emitting a high pitched whistle (kinda like tweeting).
Also, the air coming out of it is really warm (at least 10 degrees warmer
than the air coming out the 120mm exhaust fan at the back).

The sound coming from the PSU isn't THAT loud but it is the loudest part of
the system and the noise is definately more than air turbulance. Has anyone
with the Sonata case experienced the same problem? Just put your ear to the
PSU fan and listen. Do you hear tweeting as well as air turbulance?

Thanks for your help,
Mitchua

 

[John]

I recently bought an Antec Sonata case with its built in power supply. I've
started noticing that after the system is running for a while, the PSU's
80mm fan starts emitting a high pitched whistle (kinda like tweeting).
Also, the air coming out of it is really warm (at least 10 degrees warmer
than the air coming out the 120mm exhaust fan at the back).

The sound coming from the PSU isn't THAT loud but it is the loudest part of
the system and the noise is definately more than air turbulance. Has anyone
with the Sonata case experienced the same problem? Just put your ear to the
PSU fan and listen. Do you hear tweeting as well as air turbulance?

Thanks for your help,
Mitchua

I recently built using a Sonata case and the power supply did not make
that type of noise. It did exhaust rather warm air. I don't think that
is unusual, though.

Are sure it is the power supply and not the CPU fan? Maybe an AGP card
with a noisy fan?

So far, the fan on my Radeon 9800 PRO AGP card makes the most noise on
my system. The Zalman on the CPU, the case fan and the power supply are
very quite.

John

 

[Strontium]

Sounds more like the hard drive. Just had this issue, recently.

Stop all the fans (not the PSU, of course) and see if the noise persists to
a point that you can determine where it's coming from. My 4yr old WD drive
whined like a bitch on a Harley Davidson....


-
John stood up at show-n-tell, in [email protected],
and said:

 

[Mitchua]

Sounds more like the hard drive. Just had this issue, recently.

Stop all the fans (not the PSU, of course) and see if the noise persists to
a point that you can determine where it's coming from. My 4yr old WD drive
whined like a bitch on a Harley Davidson....

It's not the hard drive. I just upgraded to Seagate for just that reason
My old IBM drive was terribly loud. Now I can't hear the Seagate over
the air exhaust.

--Mitchua

 

[Mitchua]

I recently built using a Sonata case and the power supply did not make
that type of noise. It did exhaust rather warm air. I don't think that
is unusual, though.

Hmmm....Maybe I should contact Antec.....

Are sure it is the power supply and not the CPU fan? Maybe an AGP card
with a noisy fan?

It's definately coming from the PSU. The Arctic Cooling Copper 2 TC CPU
fan makes very little noise...I even undervolted it.

So far, the fan on my Radeon 9800 PRO AGP card makes the most noise on
my system. The Zalman on the CPU, the case fan and the power supply are
very quite.

I have a Gigabyte Radeon 9600 PRo that came with a noisy little fan. I just
took it off and left the heatsink. I've gamed for hours at a time and it
never seems to get too hot. As long as I don't overclock it, I hope I'll be
fine

I also had a noisy little Northbridge fan that I removed and replaced with a
Zalman heatsink. If I could get this PSU prob fixed, my system would be
even more quiet

--Mitchua

 

[Strontium]

-
Mitchua stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

Hmmm....Maybe I should contact Antec.....

It's definately coming from the PSU. The Arctic Cooling Copper 2 TC
CPU fan makes very little noise...I even undervolted it.

I have a Gigabyte Radeon 9600 PRo that came with a noisy little fan.
I just took it off and left the heatsink. I've gamed for hours at a
time and it never seems to get too hot. As long as I don't overclock
it, I hope I'll be fine

I also had a noisy little Northbridge fan that I removed and replaced
with a Zalman heatsink. If I could get this PSU prob fixed, my
system would be even more quiet

My Motherboard came with the Zalman on it (north bridge) Big mother
hunker hehe. But, nice.

 

[Strontium]

-
Mitchua stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

It's not the hard drive. I just upgraded to Seagate for just that
reason My old IBM drive was terribly loud. Now I can't hear the
Seagate over the air exhaust.

Ok, ok, ok Sorry to hear that. I'm going to get a drive caddy and put
this 3rd hdd into use (muffling the noise, as well). Already set it up with
an old Promise ATA66 card I have...works fine. Just too loud. Hence the
drive tray.

 

[kony]

I recently bought an Antec Sonata case with its built in power supply. I've
started noticing that after the system is running for a while, the PSU's
80mm fan starts emitting a high pitched whistle (kinda like tweeting).
Also, the air coming out of it is really warm (at least 10 degrees warmer
than the air coming out the 120mm exhaust fan at the back).

The sound coming from the PSU isn't THAT loud but it is the loudest part of
the system and the noise is definately more than air turbulance. Has anyone
with the Sonata case experienced the same problem? Just put your ear to the
PSU fan and listen. Do you hear tweeting as well as air turbulance?

Thanks for your help,
Mitchua

Presumably this PSU is under warranty, so are you looking for advice
to have it replaced, or looking for ways to void the warranty, quiet
it yourself?

Typically there's two reasons it'd squeal, either a loose coil winding
(on the fan, or another component quite near) or other PSU defect (a
capacitor mounted with improper, reversed polarity can also cause this
sound). It you are SURE it's the fan, it's simple enough to swap a
fan, but again that voids the warranty.


Dave

 

[Mitchua]

-
Mitchua stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:


My Motherboard came with the Zalman on it (north bridge) Big mother
hunker hehe. But, nice.

Yah, I think most of the new ones do. I have a haunted Asus A7V266-E with
the stupid little, noisy fan

--Mitchua

 

[Mitchua]

-
Mitchua stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:


Ok, ok, ok Sorry to hear that. I'm going to get a drive caddy and put
this 3rd hdd into use (muffling the noise, as well). Already set it up with
an old Promise ATA66 card I have...works fine. Just too loud. Hence the
drive tray.

I used to use one of those. It was pretty good but by placing the drive
right at the front of the case, its just sitting behind some cheap plastic,
so it wasn't the quietest thing in the world. For the $30 you'll spend on
that you could just sell the drive you have and then get something quieter.

Good luck!

Mitchua

 

[Manny]

I had thhhe same problem with the Sonata power supply. Mine made a high
pitch whistle that wasn't very loud but noticeable since every thing else
was fairly quiet. Sound was definitely electrical in nature, somewhat like
the noise a high tension hydro line makes at times. Anyways, I contacted
Antec and the told me to RMA it back since they felt it was the power supply
thhat was defective. To make it short I had a replacement sent to me in less
than 2 weeks, counting from when I mailed back the defective one. No whine
since.


Manny,

 

[hxbarney]

I would guess that it is a high voltage arc.

Contact the manufacturer and request replacement.

An arc could get to be a source of failure of the entire computer and
even fire.

 

[Mitchua]

I had thhhe same problem with the Sonata power supply. Mine made a high
pitch whistle that wasn't very loud but noticeable since every thing else
was fairly quiet. Sound was definitely electrical in nature, somewhat like
the noise a high tension hydro line makes at times. Anyways, I contacted
Antec and the told me to RMA it back since they felt it was the power supply
thhat was defective. To make it short I had a replacement sent to me in less
than 2 weeks, counting from when I mailed back the defective one. No whine
since.

Yah, that sounds like what I have. Nothing to do with air flow...pretty
sure it's electical.

I'll RMA it tomorrow. Thanks for the post.

--Mitchua

 

[Mitchua]

I would guess that it is a high voltage arc.

Contact the manufacturer and request replacement.

An arc could get to be a source of failure of the entire computer and
even fire.

Ahhhh. All I need if for my computer to light my room on fire. Thanks for
the heads up. Guess I'll be shutting it down when I'm out of the room from
now on

--Mitchua

 

[Mitchua]

Presumably this PSU is under warranty, so are you looking for advice
to have it replaced, or looking for ways to void the warranty, quiet
it yourself?

Typically there's two reasons it'd squeal, either a loose coil winding
(on the fan, or another component quite near) or other PSU defect (a
capacitor mounted with improper, reversed polarity can also cause this
sound). It you are SURE it's the fan, it's simple enough to swap a
fan, but again that voids the warranty.

I've popped a few PSUs open in my day but then I found out how fried you can
get from doing that (even if its been unplugged for a while) so I think I'll
just RMA it. It's only a couple weeks old. Antec shouldn't have a problem.

--Mitchua

 

[kony]

I've popped a few PSUs open in my day but then I found out how fried you can
get from doing that (even if its been unplugged for a while) so I think I'll
just RMA it. It's only a couple weeks old. Antec shouldn't have a problem.

--Mitchua

Any halfway-decent PSU I've seen will drain the caps faster than the
amount of time it takes to unplug and unscrew it from the system, but
of course it's a bit hard to find the noisey component without it
open, powered. I would guess most people get shocked by touching the
hi-side heatsink, which is usually hi-voltage against ground.


Dave