SSD whines when under load

[McKay]

I have Windows installed on a Samsung 840 Evo SSD, and randomly when it comes under load it will let out a split second whining sound, audible when through the case. Things like emptying the recycle bin can trigger it, also opening tabs on Chrome occasionally do it. 

 

I thought there are no components in an SSD capable of making sound? Is this normal?

[HoochieMamma]

Pretty sure it's not the SSD. Like you said, nothing in it can produce sound. By any chance do you have watercooling? I know my H100i can make that sort of sound if it's dead silent in the room every so often.

[McKay]

  On 12/08/2014 at 09:58, HoochieMamma said:

Pretty sure it's not the SSD. Like you said, nothing in it can produce sound. By any chance do you have watercooling? I know my H100i can make that sort of sound if it's dead silent in the room every so often.

 

No watercooling no, just a split second high pitched whine from the front of the tower where the drives are located, when something accesses the drive after it's been inactive for a while.

[Haggis Veteran]

its not possible for it to be the SSD

 

another other drives at all in there?

[Brian M. Veteran]

It's probably a capacitor or something within the SSD.

One of my 840's had a whiney capacitor, the noise stopped after a month or so for some reason.

[Hum]

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... just a split second high pitched whine from the front of the tower where the drives are located

 

 

Is there an extra cooling fan located there ?

 

It could be dirty/bad.

 

Some info here:

 

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2362022

 

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yeah if I leave it idle there is a constant noise but when it works I can hear variations.

Also when I'm changing settings in samsung magician (like disabling RAPID) the noise stops.

 

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UPDATE: RMAed it and got a new one, I still hear whistling. It must be the PSU that doesn't like two hard drives.

It's the motherboard that's doing the noise.

p7p55d

 

[articuno1au]

Was going to say, it could be the SSD; it's highly unlikely though.

 

I'd be more inclined to suggest it was capacitor whine from CPU/GPU/Motherboard.

 

Not sure how you could narrow it down though.

[satysin]

It is perfectly possible for it to be the SSD, not sure why people are saying otherwise.

 

If you can reproduce it I would recommended getting a replacement for the drive just to be on the safe side. It may be nothing but I can imagine it is annoying more than anything else.

 

I have a laptop which made an annoying high pitch noise when the battery was changing, turned out to be a small fault in the connector. Got it replaced and the noise went away. More than likely the same kind of thing here. Sometimes a capacitor can make annoying sounds such as this.

[+JHBrown Subscriber¹]

My old Intel 520 SSD made the same noise under load. I thought it was my power supply or video card. Intel replaced the drive after I swapped both the GPU and PSU and the problem still persisted. Once I installed the new drive, whine was gone.

[T3X4S]

In order to have sound, something has to be moving & SSD have no moving parts...

So, can it be a bad electrical component ? 

[Hum]

^ Quartz and other crystals can generate noises.

 

just saying

[spacer]

  On 12/08/2014 at 10:15, Brian M. said:

It's probably a capacitor or something within the SSD.

One of my 840's had a whiney capacitor, the noise stopped after a month or so for some reason.

You probably have one less capacitor in there.  :laugh:

[Astra.Xtreme]

The noise is almost certainly a capacitor.  This sort of thing is more common in PSUs and GPUs, but I guess it's a possibility in a SSD.

 

It probably won't be something to be super concerned about (more annoying than anything), but it's probably something that you could file an RMA for.

[technord]

Yes ssds can make a high pitched noise

 

My old 120gb Samsung evo did before I replaced it with a 512gb one

 

I think it's one of the chips inside doing it

[neufuse Veteran]

it is actually possible for it to be the SSD, if there is a failing part it can make a very high pitched squeal... I've heard it a lot in electronics with high frequency data transfer when something isn't right... usually it's caused on a power supply with a bad ground, but that is just one case

 

it's creating a pizo electic type effect and vibrating really fast to make that squeal

[Seketh]

My laptop had the same whine.

 

It's CPU whine. More specifically, Intel Speedstep and the diferent CPU power states.

 

Disabling the power saving states solved it for me (including C1E).

 

Whine with the Intel Core series is pretty common, do a web search. You can probably disable the power states in bios. I had to disable them in Windows:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975530/en-us (just add the reg key)

 

Might even make your PC marginally faster, just more power consumption and heat. I was pretty lucky with my laptop, marginal battery loss, no heat difference and moar speed!

[Krome]

SSD don't make sound.  You may be hearing sound coming from some other component and blame it on the SSD.

[Brian M. Veteran]

  On 13/08/2014 at 21:41, Krome said:

SSD don't make sound.  You may be hearing sound coming from some other component and blame it on the SSD.

SSDs can make sound. They have capacitors and electrical components in them that can whine.

[Neu B]

I can hear tiny buzzes when my CPU is working. I'm thinking it's the transistors switching on and off. Is it possible to hear those tiny things switch on and off? That's all they do on/off, right? 

[Aergan]

It will likely be EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) - something in your setup is poorly shielded or you're pushing a component beyond it's shielded capabilities. Typically this is either your PSU, motherboard or GFX card whilst warming up to beyond room temperature or when under heavy load.

[Arkos Reed]

I had that kind of issue when transferring files over my LAN, every time I used the motherboard's onboard NIC, I heard a high pitched whine. It was a badly shielded PSU (an old Enermax Infiniti 720W). Got rid of it, no more electrical noises.

[Krome]

  On 13/08/2014 at 21:51, Brian M. said:

SSDs can make sound. They have capacitors and electrical components in them that can whine.

If you can show me the picture of the board that contains such component, then yes I believe you.  But most of the picture I saw that belongs to SSD does not have any component that make sound.  I don't think those old caps are used on any of the known SSD.

 

 

[Astra.Xtreme]

  On 14/08/2014 at 20:17, Krome said:

If you can show me the picture of the board that contains such component, then yes I believe you.  But most of the picture I saw that belongs to SSD does not have any component that make sound.  I don't think those old caps are used on any of the known SSD.

There are all sorts of capacitors on there (this is a Samsung 840 Evo board).  The buzzing is caused by the component resonating at something around 20 kHz.

 

[Krome]

Those caps do not resonate.  But I see one crystal that may resonate.

[Rigby]

Simple way to rule out the SSD would be to just unplug it and boot up to a Linux Live CD, see if the whine goes away. I have an older Dell desktop that makes this high pitched squealing sound all the time, seems to come from the power supply. I'm guessing it is a capacitor.