NUC8i7HVK coil whine problem

[FSHI]

Owned two NUC8i7HVK and both of them are suffered from coil whine problem. The one I am currently using is getting louder and louder.

Have tried set cpu to max performance and disabled turbo boost. But didnot work at all.

[idata]

Hello mikekp,

Thank you for posting on the Intel ® communities.What fan profile are you using with the system? This can be checked in the BIOS, you can access the BIOS generally by pressing "F2" during the POST process, this will let you access it and check the different settings, including the fan profile, over there you can check to see which profile is selected and you can change it to "Quiet" to see if the fan stops making those noises.Also, in this case, I would like to know the BIOS version you have with that system, this can be checked in the BIOS main page, normally at the top-left you will find information of the NUC which includes the BIOS version.I hope this helps.Regards,David V Intel Customer Support TechnicianUnder Contract to Intel Corporation

[FSHI]

Hi David,

Thank you for your reply. Following your instructions, I changed fan mode to quite mode but the noise still exist. I believe the noise has nothing to do with fans. My noise is the same as in the attached video.

The bios version on my nuc is HNKBLi70.86A.0050.2018.0927.1020.

Again thank for your help and please forgive my English as it is not my first language.

Mike

[idata]

Hello mikekp,

Thank you for your response.I was now able to see what you mean with the noise, in this case what we can try to do is to update the BIOS version of the unit. Please refer to the link below in order to download the latest BIOS version: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28287/BIOS-Update-HNKBLi70-86A-?product=126143 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28287/BIOS-Update-HNKBLi70-86A-?product=126143From there, after downloading the version, please refer to the link below for instructions on how to do a BIOS update:https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005532/mini-pcs.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005532/mini-pcs.htmlOnce done, please check to see if the noise persists.Regards,David V Intel Customer Support TechnicianUnder Contract to Intel Corporation

[FSHI]

Hi David,

Thank you for your help. I updated bios to the latest version but the noise still persist. The Chinese costumer service said the problem was due to the limitions in manufacturing processes and was unable to resolve totally at this stage.

Still thank you for your help and it is indeed a good machine except for the noise.

Mike

[RBoer1]

Hey mikekp,

Sad to hear you also have the issue, but good to know I'm not the only one experiencing it ( the video you linked to was uploaded by me).

The first unit I purchased made that noise and the replacement unit also did ( and still does ).

The unit itself it great (especially the gpu is beyond what I expected), but the noise is the one flaw it has and - coming from absolute quiet macbooks

- it is very noticeable and annoying ( and apparently I'm very sensitive to this).

Tried anything I could think of ( look at some other earlier post ) but couldn't get it to be silent, so watching curiously to see what turns up here.

[FSHI]

Hi roberdijk,

Glad to meet the guy upload the video on Youtube. I checked this problem on several Chinese fourms. It seems this problem is common but not 100% and unfortunately there is no solutions up to now.

I also tried several methods, including installing all drivers, limit cpu voltage and ect. Some people suggest this problem is from a pwm unit used to control CPU power supply. But I cannot fix it.

The Chinese Intel costumer service also recommend me to replace the unit so I returned one of my units to the reseller. Hope I can get a good one.

[SGord4]

Try to set back CPU to "default settings" (4.2 x1 / 4.1 x2 / 4.0 x3 / 3.9 GHz x4 cores) - after doing that "Coil Whine" almost gone for me (was previously clocked to 4.5 GHz x 4 cores by me)

Tried different ways to solve it previously - including "Quiet Fan Mode" (BIOS), BIOS updates and software tweaks / latest drivers - nothing seems to work, only going to to "default settings" does (at some degree).

I guess "Overclocking" to anything beyond default settings is out of question, if you're sensitive to that noise...

P.S. Another benefit of going to "default settings" for CPU clock speed - "Adobe Creative Cloud" apps are no longer randomly crashing, as they were on 4.3-4.5 GHz x 4 cores

Well, you cannot have everything - overclocking and stable / quiet operations at the same time...

[RBoer1]

Not behind the machine right now, so can't check how/where to do that.

Did you do that in the bios, or with that Intel overclocking tool ( maybe you have a screenshot for reference? )

Really curious if this works for me and would definitely like to try that.

Thanks in advance!

[SGord4]

Here what I did:

STEP 1 in "Intel XTU" tool - reset everything to "default settings" / Apply & Save it and then exit this tool and UNINSTALL "Intel XTU" from your PC (it is great tool for play around with CPU overclocking with proper cooling and power supply, but NOT for NUC's)

STEP 2 - Shut Down your NUC (not just reboot) - give it few minutes and power it up, go to your BIOS - again reset whole thing to "Default Settings" (not from BIOS) - SAVE it and reboot

So, bottom line - keep all your settings as "Factory Defaults" and you should be OK - no more noises and all apps suddenly start working just fine - no more crashes or weird error codes...

This is one great machine, in such small case (I love it) - we just need to avoid temptation of playing in "overclocking games" - unless we somehow can transfer i7-8809G CPU into proper case / cooling and decent power supply.

That it

[FSHI]

Hi Steve_FVG

I tried to follow your instructions to fix it.

First, I rest everything in XTU to default and then uninstall XTU. Here is the result:

Second. I shut down my PC and wait for 10 mins. Here is what confuses me. What do you mean by rest BIOS to default but not from BIOS? Anyway, I rest my BIOS using F9 and reboot.

However the noise still persist after above procedures and I guess it is because the noise comes from a different unit of my NUC compare to yours.

I would try more combination of settings in XTU to see if it works tomorrow.

Thanks you for your kind help.

[SGord4]

Hi Mike,

Yeap, what you did - it's what I did, rolled back everything to "defaults" TWICE - at software level (Intel XTU) and BIOS (F9 "Factory Settings" reset) - just to be on the "safe side"

(Since I played with so many variables during my overclocking attempts thru Intel XTU tool - no way to trace back all those settings manually).

You're on latest BIOS (v51) and all latest software/driver updates, right?

In my case it did the trick with that annoying noise and all apps like Adobe Cloud and games are no longer crashing randomly.

Steve

[Lzeng6]

Hi all,

I've have been using NUC8 for about 3 months now. The noise when under load from gaming (Starcraft2, overwatch) is like a buzzer, i'm thinking that it is from the fans as coil whine, but the BUZZER sound tells me something else. RBoer1 mentioned a video on the noise but I can't find it, and at this point I just hope that it is the coil whine that NUC8 makes.

The buzzer sound i'm talking about is like a Uxcell a15091400ux0103 9mm makes when set it to 6ms-frequency.

The buzzing only came up when gaming, otherwise it doesn't sound, even when video editing - 1080p.

If anyone can describe the noise or give a link to the video would be very helpful. Thanks.

[jboer3]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk5yXoE64nM

[Lzeng6]

Thanks for the link, and yea, mine's definitely so much of the buzzing sound when under gaming load,. but compared to the load in the video mine's actually doing much better, quieter.

I think i should make a video of this and see if it is a defect.

Thanks again

[jboer3]

Seeing that more products are entering the market with coil whine, I think it more of an "as long as customers aren't complaining (too loud), we can ignore it".

I personally would classify it as a defect (the noise is *really* annoying) - but a manufacturer probably would say "all is fine, within tolerances, can't change it". Also, in the meanwhile getting a vibrating noise from the fans if the device stands straight (which can be mitigated by placing it vertically).

I ended up purchasing a new machine from a different manufacturer last week and besides an (actually pleasant) soft ocean-like buzzing of the one 140mm fan (watercooled cpu and gpu) it's absolutely silent when idle and close-to silent when under load (gaming on 4k - or compiling)... Meaning the Hades Canyon will sadly be early-retiring (maybe demote to living-room PC or experimental linux-machine for the off occasion I need that). At least experienced that NUC's aren't in my street and will avoid these products in the future.

[Hollywood-Eng]

Hello, I have a NUC8i7 with noise issues that follow the power supply.  The noise I hear is from the powered speakers picking up noise from the power supply.  I swapped it with one from a NUC7i7 and noise was gone.  This power supply in under-powered for the NUC8i7, so I ordered a more powerful supply from FSP. Not sure if your problem is the same, but I ordered the following:

https://www.fspgroupusa.com/ecommerce/fsp230-ajan3.html

I will test when I receive, but most likely will resolve the issue.  

Good luck.