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PSU coil whines then shuts down when under heavy gpu load

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  • Power Supplies
  • Graphics Cards
Last response: in Components
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June 15, 2013 7:34:16 PM

Hi, long time reader first time poster here, so I built my rig about half a year ago, now, when my gpu is under heavy load, my psu will make an annoying buzzing noise ( i believe this is called coil whine?) then my computer will shutdown after some time, then it will boot up automatically again. i tried the occt software to stress test it, the higher my fps is, the the louder the coil whine is and the faster it will shut down.

Specs -

i7 3770k
asrock z77 extreme4
evga gtx 570 sc
thermaltake smart m 850w

thanks in advance !

More about : psu coil whines shuts heavy gpu load

a b ) Power supply
a b U Graphics card
June 15, 2013 7:40:03 PM

its sounds like (and acts like) a bad coil in your PSU. It should still be under warranty if its just 6 months old.
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a c 2488 ) Power supply
a c 929 U Graphics card
June 15, 2013 8:04:52 PM

Look into a Seasonic , XFX . Corsair , or Antec.
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June 15, 2013 8:08:12 PM

thanks for the responses, it is possible that it's the gpu that's at fault here? cause i tried swapping it with my older gtx 460 and it seemed fine after i ran the stress test, altho the psu still made coil noises but it didn't shut down as the gtx 570 would have
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a c 2488 ) Power supply
a c 929 U Graphics card
June 15, 2013 8:09:30 PM

I'd still bet it's the Psu.
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a b ) Power supply
a b U Graphics card
June 16, 2013 8:17:20 AM

airth said:
thanks for the responses, it is possible that it's the gpu that's at fault here? cause i tried swapping it with my older gtx 460 and it seemed fine after i ran the stress test, altho the psu still made coil noises but it didn't shut down as the gtx 570 would have


the GTX 460 does not draw the power of the GTX 570, in fact the latter draws 70w more in a stress test.
i would contact thermaltake customer service and have them replace the unit. I would not spend more money on a new unit at this point since the thermaltake smart M series uses a well reviewed platform (same one as the corsair TX-M series). Bad coils do happen, ive even had seasonic units with a bad coil.




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a c 1218 ) Power supply
a c 578 U Graphics card
June 16, 2013 9:53:40 AM

@dirtyferret's graph is power consumption during gaming.

This is the Furmark Stability Test power consumption:
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