So I built a new PC a couple weeks ago. My old one broke one day (I think I helped it, but that’s another story). I was happy to move from a stock Prism Wraith cooler that was LOUD and ANNOYING. I put a new AMD Ryzen 9 7900X in this box with a couple of new nvme drives (Samsung 9100 PRO and 990 PRO). The thing is silent under Windows 11. Silence at last!

Then I installed openSUSE Tumbleweed (from which I’m typing this) and as the post title says, something is making a high-pitched noise, like coil whine, when the system is mostly idle. I searched the web and the first suggestion is that Linux handles CPU power states (C-state) differently than Windows. Or, it could be the new disk(s), too. It’s a fly in the ointment, I am very happy with the new PC, with how powerful and fast it is, I’m so far happy with openSUSE, but there HAD TO be SOMETHING to spoil the experience.

Has anybody had a similar problem? Any tips on how to troubleshoot it and not BREAK my computer?

EDIT: more info from the comments

I just use the Ryzen iGPU, don’t have a dedicated GPU. I set the fan curves in BIOS, so it’s the same across all OSes. I’m pretty sure it’s not the fans. My main suspect is the CPU because the noise is there in openSUSE’s installer, so even before anything touched the disks (they were straight from factory with no partitions). As soon as I launched the Tumbleweed installer I heard it. Not hearing it in Windows 11. I can hear it when the CPU is idle, if I start some program, run a compiler or even scroll fast in the web browser, there is no noise.

I had the same monitor for several years. I hear the noise from the PC case and I’m 100% sure about that. I used the same monitor with my previous PC and there was no noise, including in Fedora Workstation. This is a new PC.

The noise is audible in openSUSE’s installer, that’s the first time I heard it. So even before there was anything on either of those nvme disks, at that time they were straight from factory with no partitions.

I dual boot on this PC and the whine is not there in Windows 11, neither in BIOS. I have fan curves set in BIOS, so it’s the same across OSes.

  • just_another_person
    1·
    1 day ago
    1. What desktop are you using?
    2. Have you enabled any power management tools other than the defaults?
    3. Have you tried manually adjusting the amd-pstate settings profiles with cpupower?
    4. Have you confirmed the BIOS settings for CPU and Memory frequency settings? Sometimes they are mismatched while auto detecting.
  • EisFrei
    10·
    3 days ago

    Grab a paper towel tube, press one side against your ear and use the other side to locate the source of the sound.

      • teft@piefed.socialEnglish
        21·
        3 days ago

        A messed up bearing can make a whining sound even with limits set on your fan speeds. I’d open the case and unplug them one at a time (while powered up) just to be sure.

  • OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish
    71·
    3 days ago

    Maybe try a live USB of a different distro? If this ends up being a distro-specific issue, the easiest and simplest way to solve it may be to just use a different distro.

    • steel_for_humans@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Could be… Worth a try, I guess. Btw the issue occurs in the openSUSE installer, so even before anything runs from either of the nvme disks. That was the first time I heard it and then it persisted on my install.

  • tracelr402@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    6·
    3 days ago

    I get coil whine too but only when playing with local llms and it’s actually producing output. Games that also use lots of gpu, no whine. I haven’t really looked into fixing it but I’m not sure how one would even go about it

    • Supercrunchy@programming.dev
      5·
      3 days ago

      Same for me. Nvidia GPU has some coil whine that is dependent on the framerate in some games (I can “hear” the framerate…)

      • arinEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        It’s the power draw, i set 94% power limit and coil whine disappears, 95-100% gets increasingly louder

  • phanto@lemmy.ca
    1·
    3 days ago

    I had a Dell laptop that made a whiny noise in Debian because of something with the sound card/driver/?, but if I plugged in headphones it immediately stopped. I fixed it with alsamixer. I forget the specifics, it was a while back. Shot in the dark, but if it isn’t happening due to load, maybe it’s a sound issue?

  • Supercrunchy@programming.dev
    31·
    3 days ago

    In my case, the GPU was responsible for some coil whine, but only when playing games or running LLMs. Try booting from a live USB with a different desktop environment (kde or gnome) or one that doesn’t use GPU acceleration (like xfce, lxde or mate).

    If the issue disappears in another environment, it’s likely related to the GPU and how the DE uses it.

    It might also be other components, so it would be very helpful if you can run the pc while it’s open and hear where it’s coming from.

    • steel_for_humans@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      I didn’t list it, but I don’t have a dedicated GPU. I just use the Ryzen iGPU. This is a work machine, it’s all I need.

  • tiramichu@sh.itjust.works
    2·
    3 days ago

    One thing to try may be switching your CPU power profile from power saving to performance (or visa-versa) as this may have an effect on your CPU frequency and therefore the whine.

    (I don’t know exactly what the power profile is called on openSUSE or how it’s managed so I offer it only as a general suggestion to try)

  • entwine@programming.dev
    1·
    3 days ago

    Coil whine can come from your power supply, and it’s a fairly common phenomenon with low quality ones. I don’t think it has anything to do with your OS, unless maybe some background process is increasing power consumption and triggering the issue.

    Use top or some other process monitoring tool to see if there’s anything running in the background while you hear it making the noise.

    The solution would be to replace the part making the noise, whether that’s the PSU or something else. It’s ultimately a hardware defect.

    Or, it could be the new disk(s), too.

    I’ve never heard of an NVME with coil whine, but maybe they increase power consumption enough to trigger the issue? Or having extra disks in the system triggers some periodic background tasks that increase power usage. If you’re on Suse, that likely means you’re using Btrfs, which tends to do that.

      • entwine@programming.dev
        1·
        3 days ago

        What do you mean by “IDLE”? That it’s sleeping or hibernating, or that you’re just not actively using it? Just because you’re not using it doesn’t mean it isn’t doing anything. Even if you have no apps running, modern operating systems tend to have plenty of background tasks that run periodically.

        Open a terminal window, type “top” and press enter. That will show a live view of the processes running in the background (press Q to quit).