Dying AM5 motherboard?

Hardware Motherboards
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Hello. First, an obligatory “I’m not sure if this is the right place to post”, but more importanly, I apologize for immedately asking for help without contributing anything useful myself.

So, in what I now realize was an unwise move, I got an AM5 board. Namely, the Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX (just typing this name out kills my brain cells). And while It does kinda work, the noise it makes has me worried it’s not going to be the case for long. Basically, it does 2 things: the electrical buzzing sound, which is more or less constant, and an intermittent whistle/whine sound (which is, I guess, the infamous “coil whine”).

There are 2 things that seem to affect the buzzing noise in a tangible way: disabling C-States reduces the frequency by quite a lot, to the point where it’s almost gone (disabling power-saving doesn’t sound like a good idea, though, especially since it makes the CPU run about 10°C hotter), and, weirdly enough, playing some music through the USB DAC (using a null output doesn’t do anything, however, which probably means it has to do with the USB port/controller power delivery, although disconnecting devices or using other USB ports doesn’t seem to make a difference). On the other hand, running a compile job on all CPU cores makes it into almost a hiss, though fans running at 100% doesn’t make it easy to spot.

The whine/whistle, though, seems almost random. This one could be heard for a few seconds while watching a video, or typing some text, for example. Though, after doing another smart thing ™ and updating the BIOS from F1 to F3b (what could go wrong), it occurs much more often now. Trying to compile something, for example, causes constant (and extremely loud) whistling noise. The only theory I have here, is that’s it’s a side effect of enabling RAM’s XMP profile (didn’t work on F1, hence the update).

So, after all the incoherent rambling, I guess the question I have is this: how worried should I be that this thing explodes (and takes something plugged into it with it)? It did somehow survive a full Gentoo install, so it probably has some life left in it, but after that BIOS update I’m not quite sure I should be even turning it on.

Edit: couple of things I forgot to mention: I’m currently running off an iGPU (all PCIe slots are empty, so it can’t be a GPU coil whine), PSU is be quiet! dark power 12 pro 1200w (what’s with these names), which is overkill, I know, but it has a lot of power to spare and (should be) of pretty good quailty.

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From what I’m aware of, almost all switchmode converters in electronics will produce some coil-whine, but since it seems to be quite loud in your case there’s a few things you can try.

Since you mentioned the noise varies with load, you can check if both the ATX supplemental cables are fully plugged in.

aurous_b650_elite_ax_aux_power
aurous_b650_elite_ax_aux_power1025×531 109 KB

They should say “ATX” on the plug, and have a latch that clicks when it’s fully inserted.
The idea is that if they’re not plugged in right, the MB may be working much harder to supply the CPU under heavy load.

But if that doesn’t work, I would try to open an RMA with the store you bought the MB from (or with Gigabyte directly), and complain that the unit appears to be faulty and making a hissing sound.

As far as it failing, I’m fairly certain that coil-whine in general shouldn’t lead to a failure on its own, but it could be a side-effect of something else going bad.

I hope this helps. I remember hating the coil-whine from my GPU, but noticed it went away after optimizing my code.

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Yes, the power connections is the first thing I’ve checked. Both 8+4-pin on the top and 24-pin connections are secure (both did click in place, and, after watching the whole 12VHPWR disaster, i’ve also visually rechecked that they’re both in tight).

As far as the actual whine goes, the whine part does sound like the typical coil while (only MUCH louder, although, I only have my “old” 1080ti to compare, which does whine under heavy load, but it’s nowhere near what I’m hearing on this board). And the buzzing/hissing is nothing like i’ve ever heard from a PC component before. Probably the closest I can compare it to is a transformer box (the noise level is much different, of course, but the way it sounds is pretty similar).

I was almost prepared to just live with it, but the constant whine under load after BIOS update makes me think it’s some sort of problem with electrical “routing” (I’m no expert on the hardware part, so pardon the probably incorrect use of terminology). I don’t think it was the update itself, but rather increasing RAM voltage which goes with functioning XMP. Now, the difference is “only” 0.25V, but it makes me think that when I plug in a “real” GPU, things might get even more “interesting”.

I’ll try to RMA the thing, but I’m not holding my breath to be honest. Currently looking at an ASRock X670E Steel Legend (or possibly the B version) as a replacement. Seems like ASRock has better (or any, for that matter) Linux support, and I’m guessing the electrical noise from a motherboard isn’t something common (at least I hope so), so it’ll probably be fine™.

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Alright, sorry the plugs weren’t the problem. I’ve had stability issues in the past from that.

As far as ASRock motherboards go, I can highly vouch for their mid-to-high end models. They seem to be fairly well designed and built. The only problem I’ve really had with the two I’ve used is with the power button randomly restarting the PC after shutdown.
Other than that, they seem to preform well, if you can get around the confusing UEFI.

For clarity, I had a system with an ASRock Z97 Extreme4 and a 4790K running 24/7 for 6 years without any issues.
Now I’m running an ASRock X570 Taichi with a 3900X without any major issues.

P.S. The OOTB experience running linux has been great on my Taichi, but I still have USB devices drop when waking from suspend.

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you can change the switching frequency of the VRMs
I forget what Gigabyte calls it, it might be Digi VRM or DigitALL power

looked it up, its Digi+ VRM
try setting the CPU and NB switching freq to the highest they’ll go, I wouldn’t touch any other setting in those menus

note that increasing switching freq means VRMs will be less efficient which means higher power draw from the wall and hotter vrms, this does not increase the power usage within the CPU so it won’t make it hotter, higher switching freq means it can clock higher since it has better power

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No worries, and I really appreciate you trying to help. I myself was hoping it was just a case of PEBKAC, but no such luck, unfortunately.

Good to know ASRock makes solid stuff, though. I myself run my system 24/7, so reliabilty is something I’d really appreciate (my last system was a 6700k on an ASUS Z170-WS, still runs after 5+ years of heavy use, though somewhere along the way the USB controller and one of the NICs stared to act up).

Confusing UEFI is a bit of a theme, I guess, as this Gigabyte board isn’t particularly good in that department (as well as spewing numerous warnings in dmesg), and also lacking documentation, which is always nice. I don’t really mind, as long as it actually does what it’s supposed to. Mainly, the boot VGA option, IOMMU (for VFIO), and the usual suspects, like disabling useless on-board stuff, like TPM and SecureBoot.

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Been scouring the UEFI trying to find anything resembling VRM frequency switching control, but it’s either not there, or I need better glasses. The closest thing I see is something called a “Loadline Calibration”, which seeems to be adjacent to what I’m looking for, but not quite it. Numerous voltage controls, but I gotta be honest, I don’t know enough about this stuff to go around messing with it. No mentions of DIGI+ either (and seems more like an ASUS thing, rather than Gigabyte, according to Google, anyways).

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Generally, IMO, and I imagine in the opinion of many, asking a good question is a valuable contribution. Stack overflow has awards for good questions.

2 Likes
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A little update. With kernel 6.0.11 and AMD P-State that comes with it, GB board got even noisier with idle frequency being 400MHz (down from 3GHz). Got an ASRock X670E board today (because I hate myself), and so far it’s much quieter. Still some faint noise unfortunately, but no high pitched whine (even with XMP’d RAM), and the quiet buzz can be heard if I get to around 50cm near the backplate (for reference, GB is so loud, I could hear it a few meters away in a closed Meshify 2 no problem). Now, at this point even I annoy myself, but a new source of buzz on this new board is a built-in NIC, particularly during network activity. The source is distinctly different too, somewhere around the area near the port (can’t be the port itself, or the chip, obviously, so I’m guessing it’s a cap around the area). Don’t quite know what to make of this, other than “just ignore it”.

Oh, and in an ironic twist of fate, the 24-pin power cable doesn’t want to go in all the way into the motherboard socket, missing somewhere around 0.5mm, which I’m sure is not going to bite me in the future. Trying to force it down all the way in (yes, I know, not funny) creates so much pressure on the board, I fear I might actually break it, so there’s that. Come to think of it, getting RAM sticks in wasn’t particularty pleasant either.

I guess, the takeaway is “I should pick my hardware better next time”.

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if you got it off amazon or from a reputable seller.
you could just return it to the seller for a replacement. (uk you get a 1 year return to seller on most electronics, elsewhere in the world i cant say.)
rma would be my advice. the other parts in the system are to high value to risk on what could be a defective board.
why?
as the board connects to everything, has the potential to damage everything. :frowning:

1 Like
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Yeah, unfortunately I happen to live in a… less civilized part of the world. I’ll try to RMA the Gigabyte board, of course, but it “technically works”, so It’s going to be even less pleasant than it usually is. As for ASRock. Well, my thinking is roughly as follows: the chances of getting two bad boards in a row isn’t particularly high (no stats to back it up, of course, but if false, I might just give up on PCs at this rate), it works without screaming my ear off, and the slight cable misalignment is something I can probably live with (which I probably shouldn’t, I admit).

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did you work for the money you spent on the motherboard?
have any of your other motherboards made buzzing when they were under load?..
even coil whine is unacceptable on a motherboard in this day and age.
sure if your buying ultra cheap $40-$50 motherboards you can expect that the components will be of so so quality.
but on a 200+ motherboard… nope unacceptable. like i said your gonna attach other components to the build all of comparable value or more?.. then no mate not something you should roll over and accept.

in this case.
hi, i bought your product. it appears to have 2 faults. one is coil whine the other a buzzing…
i would like to return it for a replacement as soon as possible please…

the reply should be can we have your order details, or can we send you an rma form.

no need to feel guilty parts fail between the factory and the front door. 3 in every 100 or so typically…
so getting a dud is expected and gigabyte while they may ask you to contact the seller and get them to handle the rma.
will also offer rma themselves if you have no other way of getting a replacement. but as i said they may tell you to contact your seller first…
this is normal and nothing to get flustered over.
just again repeat the simple request without being overly verbose with careful attention to please and thankyou will see you right…

if the retailer is arsey. just say ok, thank them for there time and contact gigabyte to tell them the retailer refused to accept the return… they will then if they havent already start your rma.

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Probably should’ve started out with this, but I wasn’t quite sure my phone mic would pick it up. Barely audible on the recording, but it’s there. This is the sound during network activity. Not as loud as what GB did pretty much constantly (minus the whine), but pretty close, frequency is lower though. The variance is me moving the mic around the backplate area. Hopefully I didn’t fumble posting a link, of all things, or this will turn from embarassing to downright shameful.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/2FGKVMH2F0#U3urPNAGsMy7

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Oh, at this point I went all the way from pissed off to just tired. I’m just trying to get stuff working before mucking around with GB’s RMA. “Yay, now i can stop wasting 2 hours compiling code and actually get something useful done”. Didn’t turn out quite the way I hoped, oh well.

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Welp, one BIOS update later (from 1.07 to 1.11) I hear this now when idle. So either it’s a software issue (nah), 2 Nat 1 rolls in a row (nope), or I’ve somehow murdered 2 pieces of hardware in a very short succession (managed to avoid it until now, somehow, but there’s a first time for everything).

I’ve also checked and re-checked all the obvious things: all the plastic is off, motherboard is placed on standoffs, so it’s not directly touching the case, thermal paste is (allegedly) non electrically conductive, and, if my first attempt is any indication, the IHS is covered, and it didn’t get on the PCB itself (not that it should matter), and there are no loose pieces of metal (or pieces of anything, for that matter) rattling around. Also checked if this UEFI has VRM frequency settings, and it appears it doesn’t.

I promise, I’ll stop annoying everyone soon. Please help :frowning:

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It’s possible you purchased a gray market motherboard. Usually these are boards headed for disposal because of discovered electrical problems/flaws, mboards that an employee has scarfed and sold unofficially for pennies on the dollar. Years ago I bought two Abit mboards for some project I was doing at home–and both of them had the most severe electrical problems I’d ever seen–before or since–just terrible. I wasn’t surprised that when I tried to find the fella’ that sold 'em to me, he was gone with the wind…:wink: Gray market mboards. A lesson I’ve never forgotten. That could explain why you can’t return it to where you bought it. If that’s the case then I doubt you will be able to do an RMA on it–but you could try, anyway!

I’m into my fourth year on an GB x570 Aorus Master–never had any problems with it–no whine, etc. Thing about bios arrangement is that people somehow think there’s a certain way a bios is supposed to be presented–which usually amounts to what they’ve been used to in their previous motherboard…:wink: I like the GB bios–advanced mode–and have no trouble with it at all.

GB really screwed the x670E Aorus Master, imo. I’d have to spend $800 to get essentially the same features on the AM5 Xtreme that I got on the AM4 x570 Master for $360. I’ll likely be looking for a good buy when go to AM5 X3D when those become available next year!

1 Like
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Hey OP, just created an account here to reply to you as I was having the exact same issue with my AM5 board - or so I thought.

I also have a B650 Gigabyte board (although a B650 Gaming X AX, not an AORUS) and I was having the EXACT SAME annoying, rattling sound as in the audio file you shared.

I thought I built my computer 2 days ago and thought I was going crazy because my build clearly didn’t make this much sound yesterday. Just woke up to this.

Do you, by chance, have a Radeon card? You might not believe this but that has to be the most insane thing I’ve encountered yet. I randomly decided to see if it was instant replay, and right after turning it off - the rattle is COMPLETELY GONE. I could not believe this so I had to record a video: imgur[dot]com/36IXmYH (can’t include links in my post for some reason)

It’s probably way too late for you since there’s a really small chance that 1) you had a Radeon card (mine is an RX 6800XT) with instant replay enabled, and 2) that you’re still bearing this sound, but if you are, I sincerely hope for you that this could help. I love instant replay even on desktop so I’ll just have to live with it only in games (way less hearable since fans ramp up etc.), but at least I’m not damaging my ears anymore. This makes no sense to me.

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