PS5 has coil whine

angelgs90

angelgs90

Member
I've seen people talking about this on other threads, and I have experience it myself on my PS5.

I made this thread to share my experience on this problem, and I hope you can tell yours to the rest of us.

I didn't know coil whine existed until I booted up Astro's Playroom for the first time. I didn't know what that irritating noise was, I thought it was the fan at first, but then I realised that the noise was changing depending on what was showing on screen, and stopped inmediately when I returned to the home screen.

Searching on the internet, lots of people say that this is totally normal. PS4 Pros and high end graphics cards can have it too, but I have never experience it in all my years of gaming, and I think that if something is preventing you to properly enjoy your game time, it's in fact, a real problem. I can hear it even with headphones on.

Here are some examples I found on YouTube:



 
I had a bad case a few years back on a GPU. Consoles ive been lucky but quite a gew complaints about this in the reddit subs
 
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It's only "totally normal" because of fanboys.

My one friends PS5 has audible and loud coil whine from 10+ feet away... Sucks Sony cheaped out on things like this.
 
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Normal. Posted in another thread but every single PS5 I've seen has coil whine. If someone claims theirs is silent, I need some receipts. I just think some just aren't as sensitive (or care) as others are.

I can't hear the buzz/coil whine unless I'm right next to the system. I can't hear it from my couch and definitely not over a game so it's not a huge deal. I think the whisper quiet fan is part of the problem since you're going to hear everything else now.
 
dcx4610 said:
Normal. Posted in another thread but every single PS5 I've seen has coil whine. If someone claims theirs is silent, I need some receipts. I just think some just aren't as sensitive (or care) as others are.

I can't hear the buzz/coil whine unless I'm right next to the system. I can't hear it from my couch and definitely not over a game so it's not a huge deal. I think the whisper quiet fan is part of the problem since you're going to hear everything else now.
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I can hear the noise in that video, and I've heard coil whine before from my PC, but my PS5 doesn't do anything like that.
 
sony cheaps out on the capacitors then. 🤷‍♀️
I remember my old radeon 4890 would wheeze like crazy on load.
Tbh the internals of ps5 do look big and cheap this round.
 
COVID-45 said:
It's only "totally normal" because of fanboys.

My one friends PS5 has audible and loud coil whine from 10+ feet away... Sucks Sony cheaped out on things like this.
Click to expand...

The question is under what conditions? e.g. when I have no other sound sources I can hear the hard drive in my V6 Virgin Media PVR from 6+ foot away but conversely when I'm gaming at my usual volume even my relatively loud PS4 slim is drowned out at 3 feet. I've been informed today my nephew snagged a PS5 on launch day (lucky git) so when lockdown ends I'm going to check his out to see what it is like.

I ain't getting a console until next year so any coil/fan issue should hopefully be resolved.
 
Sucks for people experiencing it. We have two PS5s in the house and have zero noise unless there is a disc in the console. Even that is quieter than previous consoles. WE have one XBSX and it is just as quiet but the disc drive is grindy/nosier.
 
Most electronics have coil whine if you pay close enough attention. Listen to any laptop power brick while it's plugged in.

Usually it's secondary in noise to fans, this time it's not. Some more premium electronics like Apple's pay more attention to making sure there's no whiny coils, but most do not. Common problem on laptops other than theirs. Also partly luck of the draw. Do I wish they paid more attention to it, sure, always, but from what I've seen impressions that it's nearly dead silent are the majority, and a few people got whiny coils.
 
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JonkyDonk said:
I can hear the noise in that video, and I've heard coil whine before from my PC, but my PS5 doesn't do anything like that.
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It should only happen during gameplay. It's quiet outside of the subtle fan breeze/hum on the dashboard and when you aren't playing games. If you are playing a game with heavy CPU/GPU usage, that's when you should hear the buzz/whine. The level of buzz will depend on power draw. I've seen 6 PS5s in the wild so far and every single one of them had whine.
 
dcx4610 said:
It should only happen during gameplay. It's quiet outside of the subtle fan breeze/hum on the dashboard and when you aren't playing games. If you are playing a game with heavy CPU/GPU usage, that's when you should hear the buzz/whine. The level of buzz will depend on power draw. I've seen 6 PS5s in the wild so far and every single one of them had whine.
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I tested it during a game with the TV sound off and I still couldn't hear any whine. Maybe I haven't tested enough games, but so far nothing approaching that level of noise. I have to literally have my ear touching the console vents to be able to hear the internal sounds.
 
It is normal, when you not properly isolate coils, I think Xbox uses some cheap goop on it and it works. This was a think on PC, maybe still is with cheaper AIB GPU does that.
 
angelgs90 said:
I've seen people talking about this on other threads, and I have experience it myself on my PS5.

I made this thread to share my experience on this problem, and I hope you can tell yours to the rest of us.

I didn't know coil whine existed until I booted up Astro's Playroom for the first time. I didn't know what that irritating noise was, I thought it was the fan at first, but then I realised that the noise was changing depending on what was showing on screen, and stopped inmediately when I returned to the home screen.

Searching on the internet, lots of people say that this is totally normal. PS4 Pros and high end graphics cards can have it too, but I have never experience it in all my years of gaming, and I think that if something is preventing you to properly enjoy your game time, it's in fact, a real problem. I can hear it even with headphones on.

Here are some examples I found on YouTube:



Click to expand...


With all the issues on PS 5... iam not going to buy one until mid next year lol
 
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I wear a headset so I dont really care what my pc or console sounds like.

I can understand the annoyance for home theater users though.
 
My PS5 has coil whine and I can hear it 10 feet away. It varies in pitch when I move the camera around in Demon Souls. If it was flat buzz I wouldn't really notice it.

Still, it's important to note that I play late in the evening after everyone is asleep. I play with headphones and the only reason I noticed it is because I got a pair of open back headphones. Even if I may try to exchange this model in a few months, this is not nearly so bad that I would tell someone not to buy a PS5.
 
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giphy.gif
 
I think if you can hear it from 10 feet away and its very high-pitched then its actually coil whine. Like some people in this thread are mentioning.

What I heard in those videoes is not coil whine imo, I had it on my GTX 1080 a couple of times when it the framerate was uncapped in a benchmark and it didnt sound anything like that.

Coil whine sounds like a radiator with a loose valve imo, but not as loud and horrible as that.
 
JonkyDonk said:
I tested it during a game with the TV sound off and I still couldn't hear any whine. Maybe I haven't tested enough games, but so far nothing approaching that level of noise. I have to literally have my ear touching the console vents to be able to hear the internal sounds.
Click to expand...

Well, I think the videos are a little deceiving. They make it sound like a refrigerator just to highlight the sound. It's not super loud on all of the ones I've seen but you can hear a distinctive buzz coming from the system when under load. I have super sensitive ears so I can hear it from a foot or two away.

It was a little concerning when I first turned my system on because I think the fan was broken or needed ball bearing grease. Once I saw that it changed under load and others had the same issue, I realized it was coil whine. Perhaps it really is a lottery and some people lucked out with A stock components on their PSU but I'm still convinced all systems have it and some people just don't notice it.
 
dcx4610 said:
Well, I think the videos are a little deceiving. They make it sound like a refrigerator just to highlight the sound. It's not super loud on all of the ones I've seen but you can hear a distinctive buzz coming from the system when under load. I have super sensitive ears so I can hear it from a foot or two away.

It was a little concerning when I first turned my system on because I think the fan was broken or needed ball bearing grease. Once I saw that it changed under load and others had the same issue, I realized it was coil whine. Perhaps it really is a lottery and some people lucked out with A stock components on their PSU but I'm still convinced all systems have it and some people just don't notice it.
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Every console or PC has a little buzzing to it if you are close enough, but how bad it gets under load is a lottery for sure. So far I've been lucky with my PS5, in terms of most of the faults that people are having, knock on wood!
 
COVID-45 said:
Coil whine can manifest from a low buzz to a high pitch sound.
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If you get within 15cm of my PS5 it sounds like my subwoofer does when its wired in instead of wireless, which is like a low buzz so that makes sense if all of them have it. I thought it was called a coil whine because its high-pitched.
 
coil whine is a perfectly normal thing. all electronics have it. if it's too loud and bothers you then return it.

my GPU has it but it's only really noticeable if there are like 200+ fps being rendered.
 
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