Removing capacitor/choke Squeal

[crazy pyro]

Any guys know any ways to get rid of this? My phone's charger's doing it and it's REALLY pissing me off, thought I was going mad yesterday as my friend said she couldn't hear it when she was right next to it, on the other side of the room I could hear it over music...
I'm fully prepared to whip out a soldering iron and get some replacement capacitors for it if needed, if it'd be easier to get a replacement I'll reluctantly do that too.

 

[Kreij]

Yup ... replace the caps or the unit. Not many options here.

 

[newtekie1]

If it is a coil, you can put super-glue on it to get it to stop. I'd open up the unit and see what is actually causing the noise first.

 

[angelkiller]

Yeah... I thought coils whined, not caps.

 

[Corduroy_Jr]

ive heard a whined sound to cpu when its at full load not sure if that's normal or not, as long as temps are good i dont see a problem

 

[crazy pyro]

What exactly do you guys mean by coils? You mean a transformer right?
Corduroy, I don't give a hoot about the temperature of the charger as long as it doesn't set my room on fire, having a high pitched noise that is just on the limit of my hearing though, that is driving me nuts hence wanting this fixed.
So if it's a cap how would I go about identifying which one has the issue?

 

[Completely Bonkers]

Yeah... I thought coils whined, not caps.

Coils whine, but bad/poor/underspecced caps and diodes cause the whine by not taking the ripple out of the circuit... or by creating harmonics. The coil then whines.

By putting some kind of strong rubber, super, or hot glue over the coil, you can stop or dampen physical vibration, thereby, in some cases, reducing or removing the whine. The electronic ripples are still there however. To get rid of that properly, new caps and diodes.

ive heard a whined sound to cpu when its at full load not sure if that's normal or not, as long as temps are good i dont see a problem

There is a potential problem with whining CPUs: the harmonic ripple making the noise might cause extra stress on the voltage regulation circuitry... thereby shortening its life... or the voltage spikes might make it through into the CPU... equivalent to running your CPU at higher volts... and thereby shortening its life.

 

[hat]

GPU whining is a pretty common thing during stress tests and F@H... so you're saying that gpu manufacturers use shitty caps?

 

[Phxprovost]

would silicone caulk not work?

 

[p_o_s_pc]

would silicone caulk not work?

I think i have read about someone using it before in a PSU so i'm sure it would be ok

 

[beyond_amusia]

My Gateway LCD whines once in a while when the signal to it is cut - not helpful at all, but just sayin I know what your talkin about and how annoying it is when others say 'what whine? I don't hear anything' because they are lookin at you like you've lost it while they say it, lmao

 

[DrPepper]

The reason your friend couldn't hear it is because many people hear different frequencies. That's why it doesn't bother some people because they simply can't hear it.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

my X1800XT used to whine - dumped it for a 8800GTS 512 then months later when i plugged it in again it didnt work

 

[hat]

My Gateway LCD whines once in a while when the signal to it is cut - not helpful at all, but just sayin I know what your talkin about and how annoying it is when others say 'what whine? I don't hear anything' because they are lookin at you like you've lost it while they say it, lmao

The reason your friend couldn't hear it is because many people hear different frequencies. That's why it doesn't bother some people because they simply can't hear it.

I know the feeling... I used to have an Antec Smartpower 2.0... 'nuff said. Anyways, my father didn't believe me, nor did my uncle, or my mother... none of them could hear it. It was obviously a high frequency sound, and as it turns out people lose thier high frequency hearing as they get older... I tried to explain this to my dad and he got pissed cause he thought I was calling him old.

My mother has an Antec Smartpower now... not the same one, but I swear I can hear it through the wall and it drives me nuts from time to time cause it gets me thinking that the sound is coming from something of mine... she mentioned wanting to upgrade her computer... if she ever goes through with it, she's getting another power supply... not only for my own sanity, but a psu making that kind of noise can't be good for the parts either, heh

 

[DrPepper]

Well the noise isn't really a sign of damage. Note how power line's squeal at times as well as transformers. I'd change it though if it was annoying me though simply because it is annoying.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

The reason your friend couldn't hear it is because many people hear different frequencies. That's why it doesn't bother some people because they simply can't hear it.

I agree,i had a fridge a few years ago that used to hum and i could hear it from miles away.I had to put it in another room far far away or i would have ended up destroying it.

 

[tacgnol]

It's generally not a fault unless it's a very loud noise, it can be really annoying though I agree. I have also always been able to hear CRT televisions too (very high pitched sound). With coils/caps part of it is due to tolerances etc. of components, the manufacturer will choose components that are sufficent for the job, not those that are the absolute best choice. Unless they cost the same

I have heard of people painting caps and coils with nail varnish to stop the squeal and saying that it worked, something to do with nail varnish as a dielectric. I have never done it myself so I'm not sure if it really works or not. Or desolder the caps and replace, coils are often proprietary so you might have trouble finding a match, however if it's a phone charger I really can't imagine it being very easy to open and muck around with anyway... buy a new one and ask to listen to it in the shop

 

[Perra]

I have the same problem with 2 of my monitors in standby... Havent bothered to fix them though. Had a motherboard that whined whenever i moved the mouse and the whine could be heard in the headphones too (crappy onboard sound). I covered the coils on the motherboard in epoxy and it was all good after that

 

[crazy pyro]

Nail varnish as a dielectric, right I'm finding some from somewhere, wish I'd read that before I went into town with my girlfriend who would have had some! It's gradually becoming less and less of an issue, if I leave the amp on overnight that sub audible hum from that drowns it out.