Identifying coil whine and power switching problems while rendering?
Identifying coil whine and power switching problems while rendering?
Hi everyone,
I’m reaching out to see if anyone has experienced a similar issue or has any suggestions.
Custom-built laptop with
Windows 11
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
Power mode set to
dGPU only
in BIOS (
mobile RTX 3080 16gb 150+15w
)
Inference workloads via Python-based AI rendering
(e.g. ComfyUI/Stable Diffusion/Framepack)
Rndering through
Premiere Pro
I'm dealing with a couple of issues on my laptop that I can't seem to fully figure out, and I'm hoping someone here might have some insights or similar experience.
Over the past few days, I've noticed that the coil whine coming from the laptop has become noticeably louder, especially when launching heavy GPU tasks like AI rendering (sometimes it makes noise even when moving the mouse while doing notihng. When I stop the mouse, it gets completely silent). It used to be a soft, barely audible noise, but now it's more like a sharp buzzing or whistling, and it's much more frequent.
At the same time, something more concerning has started happening: during these rendering tasks, the system randomly seems to switch from AC power to battery for just a brief moment, then switches back. I can tell because the keyboard backlight dims momentarily (as it normally does when unplugging the charger), and I’ve confirmed it through the Windows Event Viewer (there are entries saying “Power source changed” even though the charger is firmly connected and hasn’t moved (of course I can see that aswell on the icontray and I've tested it with HWInfo aswell. It doesn't happen when I'm just browsing or in idle.
I’ve done quite a bit of testing already. I reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers with a clean install, switched the BIOS setting from dGPU only to hybrid graphics and then back to dGPU because nothing changed, and even adjusted my Windows power plan to limit the CPU performance to 85%. That last step helped reduce CPU temps from 95°C (while rendering) to about 83°C during rendering, but the power-switching issue still happens, albeit maybe a little less frequently.
So far, the AC adapter seems to work fine under light load, and I don’t notice any looseness in the power jack. But during inference and rendering, especially when the GPU is working hard, something triggers these quick drops (I'm not sure about what I'm about to say, but that seems to happen especially when I START the rendering. For example, if I'm in Premier Pro and I press to "Export", the power supply problem happens and then it goes back to normal. When I do inference with, for example Framepack, it takes 25 steps for every second of video generated...well, everytime it finished those 25 steps and it gets ready for the next 25 steps, this happens...I repeat I'm not really sure about this, I will have to test some more)
The laptop is 4 years old and 2 years ago It started having problems on performance so I sentit back and they said that the 3080 "couldn't stay active" because a MOSFET was broken. So they changed the MOSFET with a new one and they tested it for days and changed some more things to make it like new. Indeed everything was perfect and the performances were great. Now they are great aswell, but these problems+the heating of the CPU make me think something is about to die.
I’d really appreciate any ideas, especially if someone has experienced something similar.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Spoiler:
Event Viewer
Unfortunately I don't have another option right now. I'm in the middle of nowhere in Australia, so I might not be able to try a different one for about six months. But wouldn't it be strange if it was the adapter and it only happens when rendering or during inference?
What do you mean by "only battery"?
I checked the connection and everything seems okay. In fact, while using the laptop normally (no rendering), everything looks fine except for the coil whine being worse than before.
Yes, the GPU had issues, but it seems the problem wasn't with the GPU itself, but with a MOSFET that failed and was replaced. Maybe even the new one is going to fail again?
Ps: I noticed via HWInfo that while rendering the CPU starts throttling up to 95/96°. I tried reducing its maximum usage to 80% and the temperature during rendering is now at 73/75°. I'll have to see if the battery issue still exists. The coil whine hasn't changed, it's still loud.
If you do that, how can I ensure the power switching comes only from the AC battery? If I disconnect the AC, will I just have the battery alone and nothing more? What other possibilities exist?
Regarding the coil whine, the noise remains consistent even when using the battery only. It's a custom-built laptop; the barebone and motherboard are manufactured by TongFang.
The warranty lasted for 3 years, it ended one year ago...damn...
It seems like a serious issue? It might fail at any time?
Edit:
Updated: I attempted to disconnect the AC and run the PC on battery only, then rebooted it. The laptop is completely silent. Once I connected the AC, it became very noisy again.
The issue was resolved, it was the power supply. With the new one, everything works perfectly.
Thanks for your assistance. Goodbye.