new 8rda3i makes my cpu's noisy!

[Chuki]

Just recently got me an 8rda3i rev 3.3 to replace my 8rda+ 1.0

All seems to be well other then the fact that whatever I set my vCore to in the bios is not what it really is... I.e. 1.75 shows up as 1.70 in bios, and is directly relative to how I overclocked my cpu before...

Enough of that, I got this board cuz my other didn't like 197+ FSB at all, and I staying with epox I got this one...

1 problem, its ANNOYING!

I'm water cooled, but I when I run CPU intensive programs my CPU makes alot of frigging noise!!!! High pitch squealing noise... Its the worse when I run the benchmark portion in Prime95, my wife says it sounds like a lawn sprinkler!

I've tested it with an XP1900, XP2000, XP2400 Mobile Barton. All do it, all are annoying, I've updated bios... Anyone have any suggestions?

Seems to be a good bored, and when I bump the voltage according feels much more solid, and my voltages are alot more stable.

Any clues?

[Gizmo]

Errr..........uh...........that's..........interes ting.

You say you are water cooling? Hmmm..........

Have you tried placing your hand on any of the toroid inductors in your VCore section and seeing if that changes the sound any?

[Chuki]

No I haven't... If I'm scrolling through a website, when I scrool I can lightly hear it.

Think it may have something to do with ACPI.

Where exactly do I wanna do a little touching?

[Gizmo]

Anywhere on the toroid. Don't worry, there are no hazardous voltages anywhere so you won't be hurt, and you won't hurt the board unless you are wearing something metalic.

However, based on this other description, I doubt it will have any effect.

Listen real carefully. The noise is coming from your speakers, isn't it?

[Chuki]

Touched moved, done caressed that entire board, still makes noise... Not coming through speakers at all... Definently sounds like its coming from my cpu, I moved my memory around... The higher my FSB the louder the noise.

[Gizmo]

If you don't mind, humor me and unplug your speakers (or turn them down real low).

I've got a sneaking suspicion that you are getting audio feedback from the VCore regulator. If that is the case, you may be able to get rid of it by selectively disabling certain audio inputs (like microphone) until it goes away.

[Chuki]

Speakers are unplugged from my system and turned off... PC speaker is unplugged also.

Lemme change a earlier statement, higher the mhz the louder the noise. I thought maybe my watercooling mounts might have been causing something by sandwhiching the 2 nuts down on the mobo to hold the screw still. So I backed em off, and when I booted it was clocked at 600Mhz, it was silent, thought maybe it was solved bumped it up 2400mhz noise is still there...

I'm calling it a night now, but tommarow I'll see if I can some how capture the noise its making, cause it is loud enough for mic or something to pick it up.

[Chuki]

Still does it... it sounds like its coming from the area between the cpu and the I/O connectors. Where the caps are, no matter what cpu, or anything I do it does it... I think i'm gonna RMA it, cuz when that noise is really loud, system stability is poor. I can run on my 8rda+ at 12.5 x 197 w/ 1.725 vCore all day long, and it takes about 1.825 vCore and its not as stable...

Should I just stick with my 8rda+? Or should I give another one of these boards a shot? I just wanna run 210-220 catagory. My 8rda+ rev 1 wont do it at all no matter what. Or should I go for an Abit NF7?

[Gizmo]

Hmmm...............I HAVE seen this, exactly ONE time, many years ago.

To make a long story short, it was a freak failure in one capacitor. The electrolyte had dried out, causing the cardboard separator to shrink, and allowing the two plates (which are actually layers of foil on opposite sides of the cardboard) to move when voltage was applied. Those kinds of failures are extraordinarily rare.

[Chuki]

Go for another 8rda3i? Or do you think I would like a NF7 Better?

What kind of options does the NF7 have as far as voltages, I like the Epox ones, just wish vDimm went up to 3.2 or so.

[danrok]

All I could say is both are good boards, but we're not allowed to make these comparisons in the Epox area. You'll need to start a new thread in the AMD section.

[MiL]

I just switched from 8RDA+ to 8RDA3I rev. 3.3 (dont ask, I love to change MB every month ) and I'm noticing the same thing.

Same thing you experienced, sort of like "hissing" sound. When it hapens on some video cards, it called "scroll noise" or something. I had a Albatron GeForce 4 card that used to "hiss". 'till I hit it with a stick few times, hehe

Anyway, this mainboard has a different power "input" from 8RDA+. It now uses that 12V 4-pin wire as P4 boards. Maybe its related to that?

But the interested thing is after my mainboard heats up (20 min. or so) the noise is much weaker. So I'm not gonna worry about it..

Should I?

I blame that little vertical copper coil that I see on it


Oh, I am not watercooling I just have a quiet cooler and good ear for high freq.

[quickkk]

I had the exact same problem with an 8kda3j+ board. It was driving me crazy, and nothing that I could do would fix the problem. Also, my system was really unstable, getting random BSOD in win2k. I ended up sending the board back and bought something completely different. I couldn't be happier since everything is now stable and silent.

[GeneralLee]

I have an 8kda3j board and notice on occasion the high-pitch screech/whine/chirp/beep or whatever you want to call it. I havent noticed any unstable-ness when it does it, yet, on XP pro.
I have been pre-occupied with other items that may have turned out to be my RAM. Next item on my list is that sound, I have read posts about hot glueing things and bios releases but havent tried any yet. The Sticky at the top of the Epox section has a thread about the sound.

[Nfountou]

I used to have the SAME problem with an 8rda3+ rev. 3.2.

[MiL]

So, Im not the only one! 8RDA+ boards that I used lot never had these problems. So far all 8RDA3I rev. 3.3 had the noise issue. Wonderfull! I pulled it out of my PC a switched to other brand. I couldnt stand a high pitch noise. Some people never notice it in a loud closed case..

Epox needs to seriously think about using different "toroid chokes" on some mainboards or something. You have to keep us perfectionists happy!

Any comments on this EPoX Tech ??

[Nfountou]

So... Does that mean that the 3rd replacement board could also be as noisy as the first one was? You see I have already payed about 50% up the price of the board for the courier services and especially I do not have the luxury to spend that much time just in order to build a computer system.

[MiL]

Yes, its possible that your replacement will also make same noise.

I think the board is just designed that way. So far I have seen quite a few mainboards and video cards that made same noise. It has lot to do with design of PCB and the choice of elements you use on mb/video cards. Toroid chokes usually make most noise if they are not tight.

These mainboards are not faulty or should have shorter lifespan! They just make thisk kind of noise while working.

I wish I could RMA stuff like you people... In Croatia, where I live, unless the board is on fire youre not getting a new one

So, stop worrying and get a big and loud CPU coller (someting like old Vulcano7, that should do it) and you wont hear a thing!

Since a changed a brand of my mainboard now I can hear some "squealing" from my Nvidia card. Especially when it auto increases core clock.

nuff said

[ShadoWWarrioR]

I have noticed same on 8rda3+.
When i remove one memory sound is gone!
Perhaps a weak PSU?

[Nfountou]

Probably a weak psu could make the sound louder. In my case I was using an Enermax 470W. Well as these boards are great I ll give them another try...