How to quickly & easily fix coil-whine(coil choke noise)

[lexluthermiester]

So i performed this on my 6900XT Toxic, roughly 3 weeks ago, using Loctite 406.
At first i cleaned the all the inductors and their surroundings with a toothbrush and isopropyl and let it dry.
Started gluing under minor rails to get a grip (key takeaway: the nozle of 20g bottle is way too big, so dont turn it upside down before its already pointed where you want to apply), then input filtering and finally the output inductors of the main VRM. Only single application/layer. (unforturnately i havent made photos)

Coil whine reduced both noticeably and measurably, but not completely gone. (I guess ferrites around 8pins are going to next step)
For testing i decided to use 1080p Furmark locked to 360fps, as this appeared to be both most annoying, cotent, reproducible and at the same time not galaxies away from real use (like loading screen at few thousand FPS). Fan speeds were locked at 25%. Recorded with Nokia 5.3 (unfortunately its fairly low bitrate AAC, so much for a "lossless" preset inside the recording app ), placed at outer edge of PSU, side panel open (Fractal Define S).

Onto results from Audition:

Before
Noise:
Peak Amplitude: -50.22 dB
Perceived Loudness (Legacy): -60.63 dB
Whine:
Peak Amplitude: -45.06 dB
Perceived Loudness (Legacy): -55.67 dB

After
Noise:
Peak Amplitude: -48.65 dB
Perceived Loudness (Legacy): -60.54 dB
Whine:
Peak Amplitude: -46.50 dB
Perceived Loudness (Legacy): -57.55 dB

And spectrograms (used noise reduction modeled from the background noise and subsequent +6dB gain applied for visual clarity, calculated values abve done before making those changes)
Before
View attachment 324231
After
View attachment 324233

Recordings attached as well, since there is only so much that numbers and pictures can tell you about the sound.

Based on this info, the output seems to have changed enough to be less annoying, which is visually demonstrated in both the mid-range and upper-range frequencies of the audible sound range.

 

[mateyooooo]

I know this would be a lot riskier but couldn't you dremel a small hole in the corner of the plastic that covers the choke? You would be able to fill it all up with glue after that. This along with gluing the bottom should 100% fix the vibrations and whining.
How important is it for the heat sink to connect to the chokes? If they don't need to be cooled you could seal them in a layer of hot glue to create a noise barrier. I took apart a monitor that was making noise and used hot glue on it. It worked great for reducing coil whine but I'm aware that the GPU will be a lot hotter. I used low temp hot glue in my monitor, but I would use the higher temp stuff on the GPU.

 

[imabigdipper]

Recently bought a 4080 with a LOT of coil whine, and came across this thread. After some more research I decided to go with superglue instead of epoxy/silicone. I found that Starbond has glues that seem PERFECT for this application. The come in a variety of viscosities, with very small nozzle applicator tips, since people often use their glues to fill hairline cracks in wood, etc. The small nozzles should make it super easy to "inject" the glue at the base of the coils, meaning less mess and more efficient damping.

Here are the two top contenders for me. The one of the left is Super Fast Thin, takes 2-3s to cure, penetrates 0.002in spaces, and has water-like consistency. The one on the right is Heavy Thin, takes about 6-10s to cure, penetrates 0.004 in spaces, and has the consistency of olive oil. Super Thin is easily available in stores or on Amazon Prime, but Heavy Thin is less popular and takes longer to ship. I ordered a bottle of Heavy Thin, I figure the longer cure time will help it seep into the coil better, and make less of a mess than a watery glue. There are some warnings online regarding how watery the Super Fast Thin glue is. Both seem to have a lower viscosity rating than off the shelf super glue though.

 

[lexluthermiester]

I know this would be a lot riskier but couldn't you dremel a small hole in the corner of the plastic that covers the choke? You would be able to fill it all up with glue after that. This along with gluing the bottom should 100% fix the vibrations and whining.
How important is it for the heat sink to connect to the chokes? If they don't need to be cooled you could seal them in a layer of hot glue to create a noise barrier. I took apart a monitor that was making noise and used hot glue on it. It worked great for reducing coil whine but I'm aware that the GPU will be a lot hotter. I used low temp hot glue in my monitor, but I would use the higher temp stuff on the GPU.

Never tried that. A bit to invasive for my tastes. I'll bet it would work in many situations.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I am not keen on the idea of drilling holes in electronic components either. I think it too risky no being about to see how deep you are going. If I wanted to expose what was underneath, I would just slowly scrape away the plastic with an xacto knife.

 

[mateyooooo]

I am not keen on the idea of drilling holes in electronic components either. I think it too risky no being about to see how deep you are going. If I wanted to expose what was underneath, I would just slowly scrape away the plastic with an xacto knife.

True. I need to find some coils I can practice on.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I don't see how that will help unless you can find the exact same brand and model numbers of the suspect one. I am sure there is no industry standard for coating thicknesses.

 

[Veseleil]

Heat up a needle with a blow torch.

 

[Bill_Bright]

I think a match or cigarette lighter will do.

 

[Veseleil]

These might be the size of a regular lighter, but they're technically a blowtorch. So let's talk about nothing, and omit the forest from a tree.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Except a blow torch is a "tool" designed to create a flame much much hotter by concentrating the flame into a focal point, and is used for soldering, cutting, or welding.

A match or lighter (most lighters, anyway) just creates a flame - a flame like that of a candle. And matches and lighters can be found cheap (or even free for matches) at any convenience store, if not already in most users' kitchen junk drawers.

Sure, a blow torch will work - no argument there. All I am saying is readers don't need to go to The Home Depot, Lowes, or Ace Hardware and buy a blow torch to heat up a needle hot enough to poke a hole through a coil's insulation.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah, let's stay away from the talk of lighters and torches please. Fire has NO place being anywhere near a graphics card or PC in general..

 

[Veseleil]

My RGB led strip has a terrible coil whine, and the pitch sounds different with change of the brightness.
Might be off topic, bit too many electronics screams at us nowadays. My bluetooth speakers also whine while searching for each other.

 

[lexluthermiester]

My RGB led strip has a terrible coil whine

Weird! Have you tried the superglue fix on it?

My bluetooth speakers also whine while searching for each other.

That's not actually choke coil whine and is normal. It sucks, but there little that can be done about it.

Recently bought a 4080 with a LOT of coil whine, and came across this thread. After some more research I decided to go with superglue instead of epoxy/silicone. I found that Starbond has glues that seem PERFECT for this application. The come in a variety of viscosities, with very small nozzle applicator tips, since people often use their glues to fill hairline cracks in wood, etc. The small nozzles should make it super easy to "inject" the glue at the base of the coils, meaning less mess and more efficient damping.

View attachment 332329View attachment 332330

Here are the two top contenders for me. The one of the left is Super Fast Thin, takes 2-3s to cure, penetrates 0.002in spaces, and has water-like consistency. The one on the right is Heavy Thin, takes about 6-10s to cure, penetrates 0.004 in spaces, and has the consistency of olive oil. Super Thin is easily available in stores or on Amazon Prime, but Heavy Thin is less popular and takes longer to ship. I ordered a bottle of Heavy Thin, I figure the longer cure time will help it seep into the coil better, and make less of a mess than a watery glue. There are some warnings online regarding how watery the Super Fast Thin glue is. Both seem to have a lower viscosity rating than off the shelf super glue though.

Sorry I missed this, but yeah both of those look like they would be excellent!

 

[Veseleil]

Weird! Have you tried the superglue fix on it?

It's a waterproof one, so the diodes and the traces are fully covered with a kind of glue, but still making high pitch noise through a solid layer. Normal hearing people shouldn't notice it though.

That's not actually choke coil whine and is normal. It sucks, but there little that can be done about it.

Yes, a short period when you're setting them up. Again, for normal people...

 

[lexluthermiester]

It's a waterproof one, so the diodes and the traces are fully covered with a kind of glue, but still making high pitch noise through a solid layer.

Damn. Hopefully it's not too loud or annoying.

 

[Shrek]

My RGB led strip has a terrible coil whine, and the pitch sounds different with change of the brightness.
Might be off topic, bit too many electronics screams at us nowadays. My bluetooth speakers also whine while searching for each other.

I can hardly imagine what it is like for pet dogs and cats.

 

[Veseleil]

I can hardly imagine what it is like for pet dogs and cats.

Cats are fine with it.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

I remember hearing a story about someone whose dog went crazy when she ran Windows, but was fine with DOS. Apparently there was a damaged flyback transformer in the monitor...

 

[Bierkaiser]

Just wanted to thank you @lexluthermiester for the tutorial, it was worth a shot!
Sadly it did no changes to my 6900XT Liquid Devil. Under load, it still screams at me like I'm listening to the beginning of Slayer - Angel of Death.
I wish all of you the best!

 

[lexluthermiester]

Just wanted to thank you @lexluthermiester for the tutorial, it was worth a shot!
Sadly it did no changes to my 6900XT Liquid Devil. Under load, it still screams at me like I'm listening to the beginning of Slayer - Angel of Death.
I wish all of you the best!

Perhaps the culprit is in your PSU or on your motherboard? While uncommon, it does happen. Or perhaps that card simply doesn't want to hush up.. Regardless, I'm sorry it didn't work for you.

 

[Bierkaiser]

Perhaps the culprit is in your PSU or on your motherboard? While uncommon, it does happen. Or perhaps that card simply doesn't want to hush up.. Regardless, I'm sorry it didn't work for you.

I tried an Asrock Z690i PG and an Asus Z390 Formula XI. Those where powered by an Asus Thor 850, Asus Loki 1000 and a Corsair SF 750. Thats why my last resort was gluing the coils . This card has just the worst coilwhine i ever experienced. I bought the card very cheaply on eBay. 350€ or ~380$. So i can live with it, although i really can’t understand how something like that Passes QC

 

[lexluthermiester]

although i really can’t understand how something like that Passes QC

Most companies do not consider coil-whine to be a defect and ignore it as long as the card passes all other performance requirements. That assumes the cards are tested before leaving the factory. Many companies don't.

 

[Nokami]

Hey, I know the post is largely aimed at GPU's but I really want to test this out on my loud monitor power supply.

I'm not sure how the inside of this thing looks like. But it should be the same concept? Not sure how easy it is to get this open, so I want to be sure it's even possible.

 

[Jonbee.603]

I'm pretty hopeful!

I have a MSI 2060 Super Ventus OC 8gb here with really bad whine/buzz coming from the area with the line of inductors that are to the left of the die. I used a metal straw and listened around the card when I had Elden Ring of WoW running, which is the only real offending program. Surprisingly neither furmark, prime95 or the combination of the two caused the sort of noise that comes up when I run Elden Ring or retail WoW.

Test your glue first!
I almost used the duro glue pictured here, and by testing it first I realized that it said GEL on the product, from which I just somehow did not see until I actually used some on a test object. Thankfully my local Aubuchon Hardware had several brands of super glue, of which the "liquid original super glue" super glue brand was found. I picked these little guys which came in a four pack, I ended up using one and 3/4" of them and I feel like I adequately soaked all the members that could cause potential noise.


Thanks @lexluthermiester for the suggestion of this material to use, it definitely climbs up and around the necessary parts of the card, so much so that I would say "wicking" is a understatement, liquid super glue is certainly the best real-world solution for DIYers especially. I only spent $2.69. Some time, and with slight eye irritation from working too closely without safety glasses I was able to perform the procedure successfully (I think.)


I cannot stress enough to do this procedure on a completely level surface. My apartment is very uneven, as the house was built in 1830s on the side of a river, the floor is sinking in and even with my most level surface in the house I did have significant run off that almost met the PCIE pins. Have cotton cutips ready. I had to jet to the bathroom pantry to keep it from getting out of hand.


It is definitely concerning that along the line of the inductors, it goes 2 of one kind, SFC with a shinier finish, then an empty spot for an inductor which probably would have helped with causing less whine?(I would also agree that Super models def get the shaft with mfg. quality) and another line of 5 SFC inductors that were of a darker shade. Perhaps only the caps were different, and the underlying part was the same. Either way, this definitely looks shoddy, and I assume that this was to save on manufacturing costs somehow. It is quite odd that this super 2060 8gb is almost opposite to all other 2060 card layouts I see on a google image search, its like all the inductors were placed on the opposite side. Most other 2060s seem to have their line of coils under the power connector, which makes more sense to me.



I'm letting it cure overnight and going to check out the level of success I have tomorrow afternoon. Probably going to cure at least 20 hours. Excited to see (and not hear) some results.