SSD whines when under load


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

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You've never heard a capacitor squeal?.... gawd I've heard failing caps squeal a lot and yes it can do it! it's not just resonating devices that can make noise, when caps start to fail they can make a all kinds of noise....... technically a transformer can hum too and it doesn't have a resonator in it, it's the electrical fields passing through it causing the hum.... caps have a similar issue just on a much smaller scale

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Caps and crystals do not resonate/squeal; inductors (or 'coils') do. When they're pulsed at audio frequencies, they act like speakers.

 

Crystals work above the audio range (normally in the MHz, although watch crystals operate at 32.768kHz [pretty much the only crystal in mass production that operate under 1MHz; but still not in the audible range]).

 

Coil around ferrite ring is inductor:

 

voltage_measurements-part2%5B1%5D_html_7

 

'Blocks' next to capacitors are also inductors:

 

20100310090012202.jpg

 

Unplug/replace the SSD with another hard drive and check it there's still a whine.

 

It could also be your display's inverter.

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probably a cap on the HDDs controller starting to go. I have heard them buzz/squeal when they are failing under certain circumstances. You'll know because it'll eventually stop, and the device probably will probably stop working too. It could be accompanied with a loud pop or smell of cat pee if it decides to take out other caps when it goes.

 

If it continues on and don't stop working its likely the glue/epoxy hardened on an inductor and certain power levels will cause different frequency sounds to be heard. This is pretty harmless.

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Caps and crystals do not resonate/squeal; inductors (or 'coils') do. When they're pulsed at audio frequencies, they act like speakers.

 

Crystals work above the audio range (normally in the MHz, although watch crystals operate at 32.768kHz [pretty much the only crystal in mass production that operate under 1MHz; but still not in the audible range]).

 

Coil around ferrite ring is inductor:

 

voltage_measurements-part2%5B1%5D_html_7

 

'Blocks' next to capacitors are also inductors:

 

20100310090012202.jpg

 

Unplug/replace the SSD with another hard drive and check it there's still a whine.

 

It could also be your display's inverter.

 

Caps and crystals do not resonate/squeal; inductors (or 'coils') do. When they're pulsed at audio frequencies, they act like speakers.

 

Crystals work above the audio range (normally in the MHz, although watch crystals operate at 32.768kHz [pretty much the only crystal in mass production that operate under 1MHz; but still not in the audible range]).

 

Coil around ferrite ring is inductor:

 

voltage_measurements-part2%5B1%5D_html_7

 

'Blocks' next to capacitors are also inductors:

 

20100310090012202.jpg

 

Unplug/replace the SSD with another hard drive and check it there's still a whine.

 

It could also be your display's inverter.

you can make a cap squeal when it's physically starting to fail internally, the spacers start to oscillate while it charges in the kHz range, the leads inside can also oscillate under this condition, it is possible it's not by design but because it's not working correctly

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Caps and crystals do not resonate/squeal; inductors (or 'coils') do. When they're pulsed at audio frequencies, they act like speakers.

 

Uh what?  Capacitors absolutely can resonate and that's common knowledge to anybody that's familiar with basic electricity principles.  The piezoelectric effect is one of the many causes of this.  There are also Johnson Noise and the possibility of loose conductors vibrating due to the frequency being passed through it.  A simple Google search will provide plenty of information on this.

 

Inductors can buzz too, but there aren't coils on a SSD board, so obviously that isn't the problem.

 

FYI, crystals resonate/buzz (the exact principle of a crystal).  It's just not at a frequency audible to humans.

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Uh what?  Capacitors absolutely can resonate and that's common knowledge to anybody that's familiar with basic electricity principles.  The piezoelectric effect is one of the many causes of this.  There are also Johnson Noise and the possibility of loose conductors vibrating due to the frequency being passed through it.  A simple Google search will provide plenty of information on this.

 

FYI, crystals resonate/buzz (the exact principle of a crystal).  It's just not at a frequency audible to humans.

Wouldn't a high frequency crystal vibration be stepped down to an audible range, as it passes thru metal casings, and vibrate the circuit boards ?

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The 2 computers I built have both had whines, not when idle but under load, even light load like load the next page of this thread.

Cpu's were a Core i7 920 and the new one is an i7 2600K, as boot drives I've used OCZ Vertex 2's, a Vertex 4 and now using a Samsung 840 pro.

I used to think it was the SSD's whining too, but now I'm pretty sure at least in my case it's whining when the processor is switching power states, when it's idle there is no sound, but during load (which is never very constant) the cpu is switching power states constantly to be as efficient as possible.

When I disable the a bunch of the C power states in bios/uefi the whining is gone, but I prefer to have them on, the whining is only audible for me when I have no other sound playing, which is rare anyway :)

Hope this helps.

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I guess I usually have so many damn fans in my cases that I can't hear my components squeal, let alone hear my own thoughts.

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I remember the whine too when I got the 840 EVO but after few days it stopped. Have no idea what made it stop. Maybe I got used to it or the environment around me became noiser. [:P]   I always run on High Performance power plan and all the optimizations are enabled (overprovisioning, RAPID etc).

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