What is Coil Whine?

Why is your computer whining?

Learn what the whining sound is in your computer.

Episode #11-26 released on February 23, 2021

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If you want to be technical, coil whine is any annoying noise emitted by electronics when powered on. The powered-on portion is important to remember because most coil whine occurs due to the excitement of electrons passing through things like transformers, inductors, etc.

Coil whine is typically normal and the harder the device works, like a gaming computer with a game launched, the louder the coil whine will get. The reason the coil whine would be louder as a device works harder is because of increase of electrons in the circuits containing transformers, inductors, etc. The more electrons circulate through these, the louder it will get.

Now, you may be wondering if there are ways of eliminating the coil whine. The problem with eliminating it, is understanding the source. Since the source is typically transformers, inductors, etc. and removing these is almost always out of the question. Besides clever and expensive engineering which will not always work is out of the question usually, you have to reduce coil whine by other means, like insulting the computer, changing fan speeds, undervolting, underclocking, overclocking, even possibly securing the inductor coils. The thing is none of these methods may actually work.

Now, it does happen that coil whine is abnormal, extremely loud, or a sign of a problem, but to fix coil whine in those cases, you have to return the defective product back to the manufacture, hoping it is still covered under warranty. Which it should be since, coil whine, occurs when the device is powered.

Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net

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