B650E-I Coil Whine

[ECC_4_ALL]

It seems the final thing I'm trying to solve with this new rig - composed of the top ITX gear on the market - is coil whine! Typically people assume this is only from GPUs, but I've deduced the source. I've ruled out the PSU and have measured the exact same whine without the GPU as well. It is definitely coming from some coils under the B650E-I heatsink - between the CPU and the I/O panel. I saw some reddit posts of other's having the same issue, and several people noticed that the whine is affected by moving their mouse! Many of us have tried various types of mouses in order to rule out ulterior issues - but this is basically evidence that the motherboard/BIOS sleep states are the cause (or at least complicating factor). One poster claimed that disabling "c states" in the BIOS stopped or reduced his coil whine. I've tried this and it is not the case for me. I notice the coil whine reduce instantly as soon as the mouse is moved - and also instantly return as soon as it stops moving. I've tried an older and latest BIOS version and that did not affect the issue.

Unfortunately, we've been stopped from collaborating on this further here "due to inactivity" - but there may be relevant data, so I'll leave this here: https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/amd-600-series/rog-strix-b650e-i-coil-whine/td-p/895136/page/5
I believe the thread should be re-opened because it has not been solved, and people are wondering up until the end of the thread whether ASUS even acknowledges this is an issue.

It should not be that power hungry GPUs, CPUs and PSUs are completely silent while a high end motherboard is hissing and whining due to some kind of power management issue. I would appreciate any suggestions to try because the system is completely silent except for this hissing / whining noise! I would be willing to buy another motherboard, so long as the manufacturer can guarantee this problem will not exist on it.

Thanks!

[Silent_Scone]

Hi @ECC_4_ALL

Piezoelectric noises can come from several sources, this isn't a revelation. It's a result of the components interacting and can vary based on the combination of components. My TUF 4090 has always had some reasonable piezoelectric "whine" at high loads, but since changing out my PSU this has quietened down quite a bit. I'm not sure what you want anyone to do about a natural phenomenon. The sound or resonance that occurs is a result of rapid changes in current. In my case, is this the PSU vendor's or ASUS's fault? It's nobody's, because the number of combinations of components out there and the variation in current demand depending on what else is connected to the system is huge.

[ECC_4_ALL]

You're welcome to do damage control across threads for this issue, but it sticks out like a sore thumb after basic analysis. Is this ASUS's official response? "It is not an actual issue"? No other competitors in this top end AM5 boards have this issue so far as I've seen. If this is indeed ASUS's official response, then I'm gonna go buy an ASROCK or something. You have threads full of customers giving you great clues - like that it doesn't happen when the computer is doing its work! Some users claiming a lot less noise with c states disabled. Claiming some complicated mixture of components makes it impossible to avoid is just smoke & mirrors.

P.S. I just had to do 12 CAPTAS despite being logged in... Lame

[Silent_Scone]

This is a community forum, I'm a moderator here but service staff do oversee this subsection.

If the reality of these things is considered damage control to you, then it sounds like you're looking for the answer you'd like rather than one that's based on the truth. All motherboards and other components with onboard power delivery produce forms of piezoelectric noise. I just gave you one experience I had recently where the afflicted component wasn't the root cause because it's a combination of factors and how the PSU and certain VRM components interact. Say I changed the GPU instead of the PSU, I'd have come back and said "it was the GPU". So which is it, and why? Does that make sense? These great clues you allude to are just examples of how different swings in current produce different levels of piezoelectric noise.

There are permutations to these things that aren't easily controlled - posturing doesn't change this. You're welcome to change whatever components you like, it's your system 😄

[Jiaszzz_ROG]

Hello, @ECC_4_ALL 

To avoid confusion, please refrain from providing examples involving other forums when describing scenarios.
Based on your description, is there any difference when testing other ports or mouse if the issue is related to the mouse?
Regarding Coil Whine, could you specify the usage scenario in which it occurs, such as whether it happens immediately after playing games?
Kindly refer to the explanation in [Graphic card] Sometimes there is a slight high-frequency noise.

Thank you.

[ECC_4_ALL]

The coin while / hissing has gotten louder at the exact same time I started experiencing system freezes / kernel panics:
[69735.771214] pcieport 0000:05:00.0: Unable to change power state from D3hot to D0, device inaccessible
2024-05-13T13:52:32.81355 kern.err: [69736.622013] mt7921e 0000:0a:00.0: driver own failed

After the system is totally hung, I can hear a slightly louder version of this coil whine / hiss with 4 short and 1 long repeating forever until I kill the power. So it turns out the board has some deeper issue. And yes, I've tried it with:
1) different memory
2) different (highest end on the market) PSU
3) No GPU (iGPU only)

If there is some way to totally disable the wifi in the BIOS, then perhaps I can test it like that to see if it still crashes / hangs. Usually all of the USB input is hung and the WiFi disconnects and I see this in the kernel logs:

pcieport 0000:05:00.0: Unable to change power state from D3hot to D0, device inaccessible
kern.err: mt7921e 0000:0a:00.0: driver own failed
kern.err: igc 0000:09:00.0 eno1: PCIe link lost, device now detached

That does coincide with the whine / hissing noise change from under the motherboard's I/O area (seemingly from under the heatsink on the motherboard). Yes, I've tried different kernels, but that is unrelated (no software changes were made when this started happening). Also the computer was never run without a power conditioner so it cannot possibly be some power damage.

So I suppose I need to RMA it - what is the easiest way to do that? I was not able to get through on the phone last time I tried.

[Jiaszzz_ROG]

Hello, @ECC_4_ALL 

Thank you for your response and confirmation. 
If you still have concerns and plan to send it in for repair, we suggest contacting customer service in your area or initiating the RMA process.
ASUS Official Service
ASUS-RAM
If you encounter any difficulties or concerns, please feel free to DM me with the serial number and detailed context at any time.

Thank you.

[saiklo]

I had the same issue with a B650E-I board manufactured April 2024. I found out my PC wasn't properly grounded (live in Japan, they don't care about grounding there) and then ran a grounding cable to properly ground my PC.

That seemed to solve the issue or at least heavily mitigate the noise. Maybe you can try that or getting a thicker power cable. Maybe 125v 15a