ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming - Coil whine issues - different PSUs tested

[MrDartay]

Hello,

I realize I'm not currently in the right forum, but I have been trying to find a solution to these issues and haven't been able to do so over the past three weeks.

Three weeks ago I purchased an Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. I noticed an electrical buzzing noise was coming from the CPU socket area. I removed the GPU and tested with three different PSUs (Corsair RM550x, Corsair RM650x and OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w). The coil whine starts as soon as the CPU receives the slightest amount of load. The sound gets progressively louder as more components are connected to the motherboard.

Asus support stated never to have heard of this problem in relation to this model board and instructed me to contact my reseller. After the technical staff confirmed the symptoms mentioned above, the reseller replaced my board.

I received the replacement board today and it has the same symptoms. The reseller then told me that replacing the board again will not make a difference, as the problem is apparently inherent to the Z170 Pro Gaming, due to bad manufacturing. They advised me to try a different mainbord from a different manufacturer.

Is this really the only solution left to me? I have been made to understand that the buzzing noise (coil whine) is a defect. But now my reseller is telling me that it's probably inherent to all these Z170 Pro Gaming boards. So is it a defect or not? If not, then do any of you know an Asus board that does not have these issues? Do any of you have experience with the issue on this specific model board? What are my best options?

Thanks in advance.

[Chino]

How certain are you that the noise is coming from the motherboard? Have you pinpointed the exact location of the noise on the motherboard?

[MrDartay]

Chino wrote:
How certain are you that the noise is coming from the motherboard? Have you pinpointed the exact location of the noise on the motherboard?

Thank you for your response. By testing different PSUs and listening through a rolled up piece of paper, I have ruled out the PSU as the source of the noise. I have also removed the graphics card and ran the system on the i5 iGPU. I also disconnected the HDD. Lastly, I disconnected or briefly stopped all fans during inspection. The noise seems to be coming from the left side of the CPU socket.

The sound occurs when the CPU starts receiving load. Be it for a short while during boot or while running the Windows Assessment, gaming or stress testing.

The reseller's technical staff confirmed the same noise coming from the same area. Adding further that the sound gets progressively louder when more components are connected to the board. They then replaced the board. The replacement is presenting me with the same issues.

EDIT:
I was thinking about replacing the board with a Asus Republic Of Gamers Z170 MAXIMUS VIII RANGER. Might this help?

[Chino]

I haven't seen any reports about any of the Maximus VIII motherboards emitting any coil whine. 🙂

[MrDartay]

Chino wrote:
I haven't seen any reports about any of the Maximus VIII motherboards emitting any coil whine. 🙂

Thanks! I will have a go with that one then. The only thing is that I can't find any other cases of this specific issue on the Z170 Pro Gaming board either. Even Asus tells me it's an unknown issue.

I'll leave any future updates here. Thanks again for your advice.

[GotKevlar]

thats a first for me. Never heard of that or experienced that before. Maybe a bad capacitor next to the cpu socket ? How weird.

[rickytuk]

MrDartay wrote:
Thanks! I will have a go with that one then. The only thing is that I can't find any other cases of this specific issue on the Z170 Pro Gaming board either. Even Asus tells me it's an unknown issue.

I'll leave any future updates here. Thanks again for your advice.

The ROG Z170 boards don't seem be without problems. I'm having the same kind of issue that you are and can't find anyone else seeing the same kind of problems. I had to get a replacement for my Hero VIII as it had a whole load of issues. Broken front USB and general instability. The thing that really bugged me was that CPU-Z or hardware monitor would not display the Vcore so I had no way of accurately seeing voltage under load. At least with the new board the USB ports work but front panel audio is dead and monitoring tools stil won't show me the Vcore of my 6700K. Like you I have the same issue with 2 separate boards but no one else seems to be having the issue. It seems unlikely I've received 2 bad Hero VIII boards but that's the way its looking at the moment.

[manlee06]

MrDartay wrote:
Thanks! I will have a go with that one then. The only thing is that I can't find any other cases of this specific issue on the Z170 Pro Gaming board either. Even Asus tells me it's an unknown issue.

I'll leave any future updates here. Thanks again for your advice.

I purchased a Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard a while ago and after doing some testing with it found that running any 'heavy' load applications causes a loud buzzing sound to come from the cpu/gpu area.

I found that with a GeForce GT 545 connected it made the sound, but not as audible. With a Gigabyte GTX 980 connected it made the same buzzing sound, but a lot louder than the GT 545.

Note that I have run both of these GPUs on a default build Dell XPS i630 and never heard any buzzing sounds.

[Raja]

Listen from 32:07~40:40 - Inductor noise aka coil whine from GPUs, PSUs, and MBs

http://traffic.libsyn.com/asuspodcast/Podcast_Episode_002.mp3

[Strife21]

I have a Asus Maximus VIII Hero, I get coil whine in certain situations while running Prime95. Seams when certain tests are running it happens on a few. Its not super loud. I have 3 separate Maximus boards all on different machines with high quality PSU's different brands too. All the boards do this. It never happens during normal use though so I don't really mind.