Power Supply HDPLEX PSU Grounding, Coil Whine, and Crackling Questions

[ricochet]

Besides hearing an extremely low coil whine coming from the top of my HDPLEX 160W DC-ATX unit (carefully pinpointed and indicated in the below pic by placing a straw to the ear) I am also hearing a faint crackling sound emanating from the center of the HDPLEX 80W AC-DC adapter (also pinpointed with the use of a straw and indicated in the second pic below).

Coil Whine Emanation Point

Crackling Sound Emanation Point


A third sound, a faint buzzing, could be heard through my headphones wither they were plugged into the rear m/b headphone jack or via a usb dac connected to any of the rear m/b usb ports or via my usb hub. Plugging into any other outlet in my house results in the same buzzing sound on my headphones. Even though I live in Thailand which is predominately single-phase (220V @ 50 hz) my home is actually three-phase grounded (380v phase to phase + 220v phase to neutral @ 50hz). However, when I placed my hands on the case the buzzing sound in my headphones completely disappeared and I swear that the coil whine lessened slightly in volume/intensity.


Final Solution
I removed the grounding wire from the Standard IEC C14 AC Input (see pic below) and taped it up with black electrical tape which has resulted in absolute dead silence on my headphones and I do believe the coil whine is ever so slightly quieter. The crackling sound emanating from the AC-DC adapter however is unchanged.

Removed C14 AC input ground wire.


Questions

Maybe I had a bad ground as my case (Silverstone ML06B-E) is sitting on rubber feet?

Do I have a grounding and/or other electrical issue that I should be concerned with?

Is there any other possible solution that I can try to lessen the coil whine and crackling?

Should I buy a line/power conditioner?


EDIT

FYI: The peak power usage for my system when stressed is 69 watts; normal daily use it is averaging ~41 Watts; and at idle it is using no more than 25 watts.

 

[Thehack]

Did you completely remove the grounding plug from the circuit? Usually proper grounding helps audio issues, not make it worse.

Coil whine comes from harmonic inductions. It could be that your set up just doesn't jive with the HD Plex at all. It could be that the way HD Plex designed their circuits make it more susceptible to coil whine.

Try swapping some components or changing up the power usage of your build. You want the power out of the harmonic range of the coil whine.

 

[ricochet]

Did you completely remove the grounding plug from the circuit? Usually proper grounding helps audio issues, not make it worse.

Coil whine comes from harmonic inductions. It could be that your set up just doesn't jive with the HD Plex at all. It could be that the way HD Plex designed their circuits make it more susceptible to coil whine.

Try swapping some components or changing up the power usage of your build. You want the power out of the harmonic range of the coil whine.

I know, strange... still there just simply detached the ground wire from the SSD box screw down point and covered the end with black electrical tape.

Maybe so regarding not jiving.

Gotta think on this regarding component swap/change... everything working fine except for this minor whine and soft crackling sound.

 

[Thehack]

I know, strange... still there just simply detached the ground wire from the SSD box screw down point and covered the end with black electrical tape.

Maybe so regarding not jiving.

Gotta think on this regarding component swap/change... everything working fine except for this minor whine and soft crackling sound.

That said, the HDPLEX AC-Input already uses a line conditioner.

 

[ricochet]

Coil whine comes from harmonic inductions. It could be that your set up just doesn't jive with the HD Plex at all. It could be that the way HD Plex designed their circuits make it more susceptible to coil whine.

Try swapping some components or changing up the power usage of your build. You want the power out of the harmonic range of the coil whine.

Would my playing around with Platform Power Management in Gigabyte's App Center help change my system's power usage and maybe correct this harmonic induction?

 

[Thehack]

Would my playing around with Platform Power Management in Gigabyte's App Center help change my system's power usage and maybe correct this harmonic induction?

I'm not sure what that entails. Most people attempt to rectify it by changing power stays like changing clock speeds, setting to vsync, changing voltage.

The issue is that it is some vodoo electrical signal is vibrating the physical components. If you can change how it consumes electricity you may be able to fix it which includes changing components. You may be never able to fix it if your DC board is prone to it due to the way it is designed.

It's quite the luck of the draw. Try it on a different motherboard to see if it still whine.

 

[ricochet]

I'm not sure what that entails. Most people attempt to rectify it by changing power stays like changing clock speeds, setting to vsync, changing voltage.

The issue is that it is some vodoo electrical signal is vibrating the physical components. If you can change how it consumes electricity you may be able to fix it which includes changing components. You may be never able to fix it if your DC board is prone to it due to the way it is designed.

It's quite the luck of the draw. Try it on a different motherboard to see if it still whine.

;-) Gotcha. Well it isn't that loud nor at an annoying level yet, at least I was able to rectify the buzzing I was hearing in my headphones! Thank you for the input. Cheers,

 

[ricochet]

I wonder if adding a load to my system via a usb port would help with this coil whine?

 

[Thehack]

I wonder if adding a load to my system via a usb port would help with this coil whine?

More than likely not.

 

[ricochet]

UPDATE: Coil Whine has completely disappeared for more than 24 hours? I did absolutely nothing... strange. Headphones clear as a whistle. Do still have the faint crackling sound emanating from the center of the HDPLEX 80W AC-DC adapter but that is well under the three (3) case fans and cpu cooler noise signatures.

 

[Thehack]

UPDATE: Coil Whine has completely disappeared for more than 24 hours? I did absolutely nothing... strange. Headphones clear as a whistle. Do still have the faint crackling sound emanating from the center of the HDPLEX 80W AC-DC adapter but that is well under the three (3) case fans and cpu cooler noise signatures.

The electro god has listened to your prayers. You have been graced by his voltages. May your coil whines be none, and your efficiency high...

 

[ricochet]

The electro god has listened to your prayers. You have been graced by his voltages. May your coil whines be none, and your efficiency high...

Still quiet; no coil whine or headphone hum... just that tiny little bit of very faint crackling emitting from the HDPLEX 80W AC-DC adapter.

 

[ricochet]

Well it has been more than a year and my HDPLEX combo ( HDPLEX 160W DC-ATX + HDPLEX 80W AC-DC) is still performing well. The faint crackling sound slowly disappeared over a period of a few months until I no longer hear anything now. Very pleased.